Holiday Art Contest Winners

We are excited to reveal our holiday card and 2017 Recovery Calendar!

We would like to give a big THANK YOU to all the programs and artists who took the time to create such lovely works of art and poetry–we wish the year was longer so everyone's art could be displayed.

Links We Love

Anxy Magazine Seeks to Smash the Stigma

There aren’t many print mediums outside of scientific journals seeking to open up conversations around mental health-related topics. Anxy, a peer-led print magazine currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, aims to do just that—normalize the conversation about mental illness and “smash those stigmas”.

“We intend to cut through the clutter and open up conversations about those transformative moments in powerful personal narratives.” said Anxy’s Founder and Creative Director, Indhira Rojas. “Anxy exists to demonstrate that sometimes the darkest and most paralyzing experiences can have empowering ripple effects in our lives.” 

Anxy will be a bi-annual print magazine with different themes—personal struggles, loneliness, or fears, for example—paired with stunning visuals, photo essays, and personal narratives by and for people with lived experience. 

The Kickstarter campaign for Anxy ends on October 19—and they still have some little ways to go. If you feel this project is necessary, consider supporting it in a way that works for you: make a contribution, share the news within your networks, or spread the word on Facebook or Twitter.

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September's Spotlight on Mental Health

September is a busy month for generating awareness on mental health issues. Every year, SAMHSA sponsors it as National Recovery Month as a way to increase awareness and understanding of mental health issues and to celebrate those in recovery. This year, the theme is “Join the Voices for Recovery: Our Families, Our Stories, Our Recovery!” People in recovery are encouraged to share their personal journeys and connect with others on SAMHSA’s forum. 

The second week of September is recognized as Suicide Prevention Week to help promote resources and awareness around the issues of suicide, the third leading cause of death among young people. On September 10, 2016, we observe World Suicide Prevention Day to connect individuals affected by suicide and to raise awareness on suicidal ideation and the treatment services available.

There are a variety of events and awareness campaigns taking place around the country that you can be a part of. Below are some ideas to get you started:

Court-Ordered Care: One Man's Journey from Program Member to Staff Member

Thurman Williams (left) is handed a graduation certificate for completing the Assisted Intervention program from Judge Joe T. Perez (right).

Thurman Williams (left) is handed a graduation certificate for completing the Assisted Intervention program from Judge Joe T. Perez (right).

Graduation is a time for celebration and new beginnings. What better new beginning can come from a graduation than a slate wiped clean, a criminal record expunged? That’s what happened when Judge Joe T. Perez of the Superior Court of Orange County handed a graduation certificate to Thurman Williams. He had just completed one of the first court-ordered Assisted Intervention (AI) programs in California, which operates out of Telecare STEPS in Santa Ana.

“For me, graduation was emotional because you accomplish something that's very difficult,” said Thurman. “It’s also kind of bittersweet because you are part of a family. You go to the program every day or once a week for twenty-five months, and now I don’t have to. It was kind of strange to just go, ‘I can do whatever I want.’”

The “whatever I want” part was going back to his place of employment—Telecare TAO and TAO South. Thurman was offered a job at Telecare during Phase III of the AI program after his peer mentoring skills were recognized while going through program. He was asked to give a speech at Telecare’s 50th Anniversary party in Orange County, and was offered a job as a Wellness Center Coordinator shortly after.

“The fact that I worked for Telecare while going through an assisted intervention program—that has never, ever been done before. I didn’t even really think about becoming involved in mental health at that time,” said Thurman, who had a successful baseball career both playing for the San Francisco Giants and then continued as a coach for future major league players. “I knew I was going to always advocate for mental health afterword. I was always going to do something, but I didn’t know it would turn into this.”

Now, Thurman is a PSC I and runs groups for other members in court-ordered treatment.

“It's just basically me, as somebody who's gone through the program, kind of giving advice on how I navigated through it, and how to avoid backtracking,” said Thurman. “I want to do this. I wasn’t sure, but it’s where I need to be. This is how I had to come full circle. This is where I’m supposed to end up, I think.”

Links We Love

News you can use — and a little fun and inspiration — from around the internet and our programs, too.

Orange County STEPS COEG Success!

Telecare's 105-member, Full Service Partnership (FSP), Orange County STEPS, recently celebrated their first completion of the Co-Occurring Education Group (COEG) program. The group had a total of 51 members who attend one or more of the classes, and 15 graduates!

The graduates were given certificates for completing the program and were treated to a lunch where pizza and cake were served.

To graduate, participants had to have attended all 16 weeks of the COEG program. Each session covers a different topic of discussion: from understanding addiction, to recognizing triggers, to reflecting on one's hopes and goals. The groups are open, so new participants can join a group at any time. The flexible drop-in format, and the resources and tools that are provided at the end of each group, are meant to encourage participants to take ownership over the decisions they make about their health choices.

Congratulations to STEPS' first successful group of participants, and the staff that worked so hard to make it happen! 

SOAR's Second Annual Telecare Games

A little cool weather didn't stop the staff at SOAR from heating up the competition during their second annual Telecare games on Wednesday, June 15.

The scavenger hunt took place in Old Town Sacramento, where program staff teamed up, worked together, and acted out, to get ahead in the race.

"It was amazing to see the teams work together as well as the help members of the community," said SOAR Clinical Director Kezzia Bullen. "As a judge, the best part was the stop where the teams had to sing a railroad themed song to an actual train and capture it on video—one team even had choreography. Another clue had teams searching for a locally renowned 'mini' treat from Danny's Mini Donuts, but it proved challenging and our judges ended up with extra erroneous goodies, which was dubbed the 'pile of wrong.'" A delicious error indeed!

"At the end of the hunt, we laughed, told stories of the afternoon, and gave out the prizes over pizza," Kezzia said. "We cannot wait to do this event next year and make it even better!"

La Casa Implements a Modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy Track

In Long Beach, California, Telecare operates a Mental Health Rehabilitation Center (MHRC), a Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF), and a Mental Health Urgent Care Center (MHUCC) on one campus known as "La Casa".

As a background, some of Telecare’s consumers with a history of trauma or abuse can have maladaptive behaviors that lead to legal, social, and health-related challenges in the community. These consumers exist at all levels of care in California, from Full Service Partnership (FSP) and Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) programs all the way up to high-level locked programs such as La Casa MHRC. These behaviors can include, but are not limited to, self-injurious behaviors such as cutting, head banging, striking out, and drug seeking. Some of the problematic behaviors seen in these consumers are not always fully correctable with standard supportive therapy and medications.

For this reason, La Casa created a multidisciplinary committee in 2015 to create a strategic plan to implement a Modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) track in the MHRC, and some of its surrounding sister programs (La Casa PHF, La Paz Geropsychiatric Center, and the MHUCC). The program uses the term "Modified DBT" as the training and curriculum does not necessarily follow the traditional DBT format given that consumers have a concurrent serious and persistent mental illness and are often in an inpatient environment.

There is continued work being done at all of these programs, but La Casa is pleased  to report the first phase of the implementation is complete at the MHRC and selected consumers have finished the first eight-week cycle of treatment. 

CAHF Music & Memory Project at La Paz

At La Paz Geropsychiatric Center, staff members, Erish McInnis and Kristen Crowe, project leads, show off their mobile Music & Memory cart!

La Paz Geropsychiatric Center in Paramount, CA was chosen to be a part of the pilot study of Music & Memory through CAHF and UC Davis; the program seeks to enliven and enrich the lives of those who have been diagnosed with dementia. La Paz received 15 iPod shuffles from the Music & Memory study program, and 15 residents with a diagnosis of dementia were chosen to participate in the program. Each resident was interviewed to find out more about their favorite music: what artists they enjoyed, what live concerts they’d seen in their youth, any musicals they enjoyed, or what genre was most appealing to them. Rehabilitation staff then worked to download the music on to each resident’s personal iPod.

Although the study is to last for three years, so far there have been some encouraging results:  

  • Residents who prefer to spend their time in their room have been more social with others.

  • Those who are sometimes loud and difficult to redirect, listen to their music quietly with big smiles on their faces and sway to the beat.

  • Others who can be rather disorganized and difficult to understand find their voices and sing full songs with proper lyrics.

We are looking forward to see what other changes may come about in the future to improve the overall well-being of these residents!

ATLAS/TABS/AOT/FOT Graduation Celebration

It was a red carpet affair for members who graduated from the ATLAS/TABS/AOT/FOT program on Thursday, May 26. Members and their families enjoyed a luncheon at the Centre in Lakewood, CA.

“The graduation luncheon signifies an end of an era and the beginning of a new one in the member's journey,” said Natalie Reinfeld, ATLAS/TABS/AOT/FOT Administrator. “We like to think of it as a celebration, but also as a ‘rite of passage’ for our members who, in their own lives, might not have had the opportunity to partake in such events.”

The 63 members who were honored at the ceremony got to walk the red carpet and add their own star to the walk of fame, and received awards for: "Power over Substance," "Making Choices,” "Exploring Identity," "Awakening Hope," "Making Connections," and "Wellecare."

Way to go 2016 grads!!!

 

 

Garfield Receives Quality and Accountability Supplemental Performance Award

Staff and leadership team at Garfield NBC.

A huge congratulations to the staff and leadership team at Garfield Neurobehavioral Center (NBC) for receiving a $180,000 Quality and Accountability Supplemental Performance (QASP) award by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).

The state-developed program evaluates skilled nursing facilities quality of care. One hundred points are divided among the measurements with point values distributed for each quality indicator. Facilities receive an overall quality of care score when points from each of the quality measures are totaled.

Quality Measures categories are as follows:

  • Staffing

    • Nursing Hours per Patient Day (NHPPD)

    • Direct Care Staffing Retention (optional)

  • Physical RestraintsLong Stay

  • “Facility Acquired” Pressure Ulcers— Long Stay and Short Stay

  • Immunizations

    • Influenza— Long Stay and Short Stay

    • Pneumococcal— Long Stay and Short Stay

  • Patient/Family Satisfaction

Garfield scored very well in the areas of (high) staffing, (low) physical restraint use, (few) pressure ulcers, and (high) rate of immunizations.

TAO and La Paz Celebrate National Nurses Week

TAO (top row) and La Paz (bottom row) celebrated National Nurses Week, which took place from May 6 to May 12. The nursing staff and mothers were celebrated at TAO, while non-nursing staff at La Paz showed their support and appreciation of the program nurses by dressing in scrubs.

California Residents, Be Sure To Register To Vote By May 23!

If you live in California, make sure you get a voice in this election. Register now!

The deadline to vote in the California’s June 7 Primary Election is Monday, May 23.

Californians who have not registered to vote can sign up by clicking here. The step-by-step process is available in a variety of languages and only takes a few minutes.

If you do not know if you are registered, or if you do not remember your party affiliation, click here. If you’ve moved or changed your last name since the last election, you need to update your voter registration.

California's Secretary of State Alex Padilla is calling all eligible voters to action. He said in a press release, “If the election were held today, over 7 million otherwise eligible Californians would be left on the sidelines. Fortunately, there is still time to register to vote in the June 7 Presidential Primary Election. Whether you’ve recently turned 18, become a new US citizen, or just want to vote for the first time—I urge Californians to register today."

In California, the American Independent, Democratic, and Libertarian parties will allow No Party Preference in the upcoming primary. This means that voters who do not affiliate themselves with any party may participate in the June 7 primary.
 
More voter information can be found here