Bernards Voices

The Somerset Hills YMCA will be offering a 3 session Mental Health First Aid Training class to the community on Thursdays, February 23rd, March 1st & March 8th 2012 from 5:00pm-9:00pm. Participants must be able to attend all three sessions.  The cost is $75 which includes a light dinner, handbook and materials.

Mental Health First Aid is a groundbreaking, evidence based public education program that helps participants identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

Mental Health First Aid is offered in the form of an interactive 12-hour course that presents an overview of mental illness and substance use disorders in the U.S. and introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact, and overviews common treatments.

Those who take the 12-hour certification course will learn a 5-step action plan to help an individual in crisis connect with appropriate professional, peer, social, and self-help care.

This course has benefited a variety of audiences and key professions, including: primary care professionals, employers and business leaders, faith communities, school personnel and educators, state police and corrections officers, nursing home staff, mental health authorities, state policymakers, volunteers, families and the general public.

For more information on this upcoming training contact Susan Visser, Healthy Outcomes Partnership Coordinator at the Somerset Hills YMCA at svisser@somersethillsymca.org or 908-766-7898 x553

The Somerset Hills YMCA will be offering Mental Health First Aid Training to the community on October 18 & 25, 2011.

Mental Health First Aid is a groundbreaking, evidence based public education program that helps participants identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

Mental Health First Aid is offered in the form of an interactive 12-hour course that presents an overview of mental illness and substance use disorders in the U.S. and introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact, and overviews common treatments.

Those who take the 12-hour certification course will learn a 5-step action plan to help an individual in crisis connect with appropriate professional, peer, social, and self-help care.

This course has benefited a variety of audiences and key professions, including: primary care professionals, employers and business leaders, faith communities, school personnel and educators, state police and corrections officers, nursing home staff, mental health authorities, state policymakers, volunteers, families and the general public.

For more information on this upcoming training contact Susan Visser, Healthy Outcomes Partnership Coordinator at the Somerset Hills YMCA at svisser@somersethillsymca.org or 908-766-7898 x553

Pictured above, from left; Sue Diebold, Bill Kimzey, Peter Vogel, Frank Howlett, Nick Kleinert, Bridget Bauer, Mike Gilmore. Not pictured: Julia Verbrugge

On Friday, June 3rd, members of the Ridge High School National Honor Society presented a check in the amount of $1,332 to Bill Kimzey, a member of the Healthy Outcomes Partnership (HOP) of the Somerset Hills YMCA. The money raised will support funding for Mental Health First Aid Training for staff at the Y.

The RHS National Honors Society organized and participated in a fundraiser at the Y in honor of Jack Kimzey, a local youth who was tragically killed at his home in 2006. Next year’s class, the class of 2012, would have been Jack’s graduating class. Jack’s father, Bill Kimzey, an advocate for mental health awareness in Bernards Township, wants Mental Health First Aid Training added to students’ curricula. “Mental Health First Aid Training is imperative for our community; HOP, in partnership with the Y, has certified two instructors at the Y and plans to roll out training to Y staff and the community in the coming months to recognize the warning signs of mental illness before it’s too late. Listening alone is not enough – people need to know how to take action and get help for someone in need.”

Mike Gilmore, an Advanced Placement Physics teacher for 11th and 12th graders at Ridge High School, said, “I would like to see the members of the National Honors Society continue to work with the Y to further develop deep roots and, in particular, to continue fundraising for Mental Health First Aid training. The goal is to support the Y and its initiative to bring awareness of and training for mental health.”

The Ridge National Honor Society welcomes donations, which are tax deductible. Checks can be made payable to the Healthy Outcomes Partnership at the YMCA and mailed to the Somerset Hills YMCA, 140 Mount Airy Road, Basking Ridge, N.J., 07920.

Other ways to donate are listed here.

The Somerset Hills YMCA is a charitable community service organization, rooted in Christian values and dedicated to helping all people grow in spirit, mind and body. We are guided by our core principles of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

For more information, please visit www.somersethillsymca.org or call 908-766-7898:

“We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities”

The Healthy Outcomes Partnership, an initiative of the Somerset Hills YMCA and coalition of agencies, organizations and concerned individuals, is joining with the Mental Health Association in New Jersey to present the second annual Mental Health Week, May 9 – 13. Five days full of talks and workshops on a broad range of topics related to achieving mental and emotional health and well-being. It’s free and open to the entire community. More than 20 national and local experts in behavioral health, family/couple dynamics, child and teen development and elder care will provide current information and resources on timely topics at various times throughout the week at the Somerset Hills Y, 140 Mt. Airy Road, Basking Ridge.

Here is the schedule for the year’s Mental Health awareness week:

Mental Health Week Schedule at a Glance!.

I’d like to highlight Bryan Gibb’s talk on Mental Health First Aid, Wednesday, May 11, 2pm.

If you’ve been following my blog posts, you will know that I’m very personally and passionately committed to the topic. We want to make MHFA as common as CPR first aid. We have 2 of the 10 certified instructors in New Jersey who can provide 12 hour training to members of the general public. I want members of the general public, people like you and I, to know how and when to pick the phone and make that first phone call for help. It is only people very close to the distressed person (a family member, a close friend, a colleague / supervisor at the office) that is in a position to notice the change over time and conclude something like—“my husband/girl friend/employee is not the same person that they were six months ago.”

Learning to Listen to Distressed Classmates – NYTimes.com. Abigail Sullivan Moore reports Friday, April 15th.

“I can tell the difference between someone tired who has a lot of work and someone who is dreading the next 24 hours, the next week,” observes Mr. Sullivan. “It’s kind of like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for them. It’s not like ‘I’m going to take this test and it’s going to be over’ and there’s a sense of relief.”

Mr. Sullivan has learned to listen for whispers of despair and to reach out to such students before things get worse. He is one of about 250 students in the Student Support Network, a program that teaches them how to get help for troubled friends and acquaintances.

The training from Student Support Network sounds a lot like the Mental Health First Aid training that the SHYMCA is going to roll out.  We now has 2 of the 10 certified MFHA instructors in New Jersey.

And they practice, practice, practice how to gently persuade another student in distress to go for professional help, even if it means walking them to the counseling center.

Both MHFA and this Student Support program are not just about education and awareness, the teach a member of the general public how to act. At the risk of being incredibly repetitive in this blog, it is only those close to the distressed person (family, friends, colleagues) whot can see the change over time, and can conclude, hey, this is not the same person I know. That’s why, like CPR, we want to reach everyone in the community with this first aid training.

There will be a presentation on this during our Mental Health week upcoming May 9th though 12th, 2011 at the Somerset Hills YMCA.

Outreach follows Bernardsville tragedy – Recorder Community Newspapers: Bernardsville News.

Jacob Perry does a good job interviewing myself and Lauren Luik about our activities in the Healthy Outcomes Partnership to raise awareness in our community. The article made the front page of the March 10, 2011 edition, and has a been recently uploaded to the paper’s website.

HOP will be hosting its second annual Mental Health Week, a week-long information event focusing on mental health, from May 9 to 13 at the YMCA at 140 Mount Airy Road. The event will include numerous talks, workshop and exhibits.

“A tragedy like this is shocking to all of us,” said Lauren Luik, HOP’s Steering Committee chair and a member of the YMCA Board of Directors. “It shakes our core, especially in a community like ours where there is a general appearance of well-being and happiness.

“Asking for help in times of distress can be very difficult, and that’s why the HOP coalition is rolling out programs to support the community by making that first call for help as easy as possible,” she said.

HOP is also launching a mental health first aid program in which two Y employees will receive 40 hours of training. The two employees, in turn, will offer a 12-hour training course to the general public.

Kimzey expressed hope that many people will pursue the training. He said that when an individual slips into a depression, the only ones in a position to see the change are those in day-to-day contact with the individual, such as co-workers, close friends or family members.

The paper editorialized, as well, on the tragedy, and mentioned our efforts at HOP.

Related: Susan Visser and Sue Diebold have just completed the Mental Health First Aid instructor training. “The MHFA movement is so much bigger than I even thought it was,” Susan said in an email today, “and I am excited to be one almost 1,000 instructors nationwide.”

HOP Members,

In addition to posting this article on bernardsvoices.org, this is an article that I wanted to send to all of you directly both because it has a distinctly “Y” focus and points so clearly to the kind of impact we can have through our HOP initiatives, including Mental Health Week, the NJ MentalHealthCares Help Line and soon, Mental Health First Aid, throughout the community.

Amy Gardner, in the January 11th The Washington Post, profiles the Pima, Arizona YMCA, where three of the most noted victims of the recent Tucson shootings were members.   Their lives probably intersected many, many times during the course of their visits to the Y — one was a swimmer, one a dancer, and one a volunteer board member.   But here’s the kicker — Jared Loughner, the shooting suspect, also spent time at that Y.  Stop for a moment and think about that….what if….

• … there had been greater awareness in that community of the signs and symptoms of mental illness?
• … people knew enough about mental illness through training and education not to be afraid to offer assistance?
• … there had been a number posted — at the Y, in schools, in churches, restaurants and in other public places — for a Help Line that could have provided counsel and guidance to someone who observed concerning behavior?
• … there were people trained in Mental Health First Aid who could have identified a potential problem and directed the distressed individual or a family member to help?

Yes, I know these are a lot of very big “what ifs”, but these statements reflect what we are trying to achieve through our work with HOP. I also know that it’s very likely that the young man who committed this awful attack would have done it no matter how much kindness had been shown him or what intervention had been put before him. But I firmly believe, and I know that you share this belief, that greater awareness, understanding, compassion, access to services and one-on-one interaction can make a difference in peoples’ lives, especially those who are suffering from mental illness. I am proud to be working with each of you to make this a reality in our community.

This is a very powerful article (and there’s a video that goes with it). Would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Special thanks to the Y’s VP of Human Resources, Kerra French, for bringing this to my attention.

Thank you for all you do and best wishes,
Lauren

In January 18, 2011, The New York Times’ A. G. SULZBERGER and BENEDICT CAREY report again from Tuscon: on the challenge of getting someone to treatment.

Dr. Jack McClellan, an adult and child psychiatrist at the University of Washington, said he advises people who are worried that someone is struggling with a mental disorder to watch for three things — a sudden change in personality, in thought processes, or in daily living. “This is not about whether someone is acting bizarrely; many people, especially young people, experiment with all sorts of strange beliefs and counterculture ideas,” Dr. McLellan said. “We’re talking about a real change. Is this the same person you knew three months ago?”

Those who have watched the mental unraveling of a loved one say that recognizing the signs is only the first step in an emotional, often confusing, process. About half of people with mental illnesses do not receive treatment, experts estimate, in part because many of them do not recognize that they even have an illness.

But the reason we’re launching Mental Health First Aid in our community, is described precisely by the words above I’ve quoted:

• “Is this the same person you knew three months ago”
• “those that have watched the mental unraveling of a loved one”
• “an emotional, often confusing, process”

Only friends, colleagues, family members are even in a position to recognize these changes. That’s why they (people like you an me) have to be trained on what it looks like.   And the range of consequences, some severe, of inaction.

Linda Rosenberg, president of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, said, “The failure here is that we ignored someone for a long time who was clearly in tremendous distress.”

“There is so much fear and mystery around mental illness that people are not even aware of how to recognize it and what to do about it,” Ms. Goldman said. “But we get a feeling when something is not right. And what we teach is to follow your gut and take some action.”

The article goes on to talk about the difficultly of “pushing a person into treatment legally,” and you can read the article about that topic.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll post on this NYT article, the benefits of mental health screening for the military.

We also had a good two hour meeting this afternoon, the official first day of work for the SHYMCA’s HOP coordinator Susan Visser. But more on that later. Susan has posted on this site before.

From January 10, 2011, The New York times article, the reporter Benedict Carey quotes an expert:

“This guy wasn’t a missed case,” Randy Borum, an expert on threat assessment at the University of South Florida, said about Jared L. Loughner, the 22-year-old college dropout who is accused of trying to assassinate Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona on Saturday.

“It wasn’t a case of ‘Gee, no one saw this coming,’ ” Dr. Borum said. “People saw it. But the question then was what do you do about it? Who do you call? The whole thing speaks to the need for some coordinated way to detect such threats.”

I don’t want to say much about this case. This expert, for example, is making this statement from such a long distance away, reading the same reports we read.  (I assume this.  Maybe he is already on the ground–part of the investigation.)  But his questions are absolutely essential Who do you call? And obviously–make this phone call long before the situation becomes acute.

Who do you call? I know part of the answer. In New Jersey, you call, NJmentalhealthcares.

What do you do about it? How do you recognize the signs, and pay attention, and ask the right questions? You become a mental health first aider.

On December 19, 2010, Trip Gabriel reported in the The New York Times that:

Stony Brook is typical of American colleges and universities these days, where national surveys show that nearly half of the students who visit counseling centers are coping with serious mental illness, more than double the rate a decade ago. More students take psychiatric medication, and there are more emergencies requiring immediate action.

Experts say the trend is partly linked to effective psychotropic drugs (Wellbutrin for depression, Adderall for attention disorder, Abilify for bipolar disorder) that have allowed students to attend college who otherwise might not have functioned in a campus setting.

A recent survey by the American College Counseling Association found that a majority of students seek help for normal post-adolescent trouble like romantic heartbreak and identity crises. But 44 percent in counseling have severe psychological disorders, up from 16 percent in 2000, and 24 percent are on psychiatric medication, up from 17 percent a decade ago.

Stony Brook has seen a sharp increase in demand for counseling — 1,311 students began treatment during the past academic year, a rise of 21 percent from a year earlier. At the same time, budget pressures from New York State have forced a 15 percent cut in mental health services over three years.

The article then tells a good day-in-the-life story of the college counselor. The triage they do to make sure the serious cases get dealt with the right way. Many colleges have systems where the campus psych services give a few sessions to the students, but they are designed to refer the students out to a private practioner, just so that there will be enough hours left to deal with all the demand.

On recent day … two dozen volunteers in black T-shirts reading “Chill” stopped passers-by in the Student Activities Center during lunch hour.

“Would you like to take a depression screening?” they asked, offering a clipboard with a one-page form to all who unplugged their ear buds. Students checked boxes if they had difficulty sleeping, felt hopeless or “had feelings of worthlessness.” They were offered a chance to speak privately with a psychologist in a nearby office. Sixteen said yes.

The depression screenings are part of a program to enlist students to monitor the mental health of peers, which is run by the four-year-old Center for Outreach and Prevention.

Students monitoring the mental health of peers. This sounds similar to the Mental Health First Aid program that we’re starting with HOP.

“I don’t have motivation for things anymore,” the student said. “This place just depresses me the whole time.” [The student] had been unaware that students could walk in unannounced to the counseling center. “I thought you had to make an appointment,” she said. “Yes,” she said, “I’ll do that.”

We hear things like this all the time. Help is available. But people, like this student, are unaware just how easy it is to ask for help–if they are willing to ask. We recommend the NJmentalhealthcares helpline for that first call for help. It is staffed by professionals. They assess, and connect, the callers to the right services. And they offer a follow-up call in a week to make sure the connection is made. That is just the surface description of the job, but they become very personally engaged, like the counselors at Stony Brook who are discussed in this article, in making sure the callers get the help they need.