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Breaking Down Proposition 1: Shaping the Future of Mental Health Care in California 🌟💡 Discover how Proposition 1 aims to revolutionize mental health, tackle homelessness, and address addiction with a bold $6.4 billion plan. From veterans' support to critical public health implications, dive deep into what this means for Californians. 💪🏽🏠🧠 #Proposition1 #CaliforniaMentalHealth #VoteForChange https://zurl.co/09jT

📣 Community Call for Action: Addressing #Homelessness and the #MindBody #Connection Dear Community, It's time to rethink our understanding of homelessness and its underlying causes. Contrary to common misconceptions, homelessness is not solely a result of addiction or personal failures. Rather, it is deeply rooted in the disconnection between our minds, brains, and bodies during our crucial early years of development. In babyhood and childhood, our caregivers play a vital role in somatically attuning to us, connecting our minds, brains, and bodies. However, due to a lack of awareness and resources, many caregivers were never equipped with the knowledge or support to foster this essential connection. Consequently, countless individuals have grown up with a fragmented sense of self, leading to profound challenges in various aspects of life, including housing stability. When our minds are disconnected from our bodies and brains, it hinders our ability to regulate emotions, navigate stress, and make healthy choices. This disconnection often manifests as chronic illnesses, mental health issues, and a compromised capacity to maintain stable housing. To address the homelessness crisis in our community, we must prioritize healing and reconnection. We need to invest in comprehensive, trauma-informed interventions that bridge the gap between our minds, brains, and bodies. By focusing on early childhood development, supporting caregivers, and providing accessible mental health resources, we can lay the foundation for resilient individuals and a thriving community. Here's how we can take action together: 1️⃣ Education and Awareness: Spread knowledge about the mind-body connection and its impact on homelessness. Advocate for incorporating this vital understanding into educational curricula, healthcare systems, and community programs. 2️⃣ Trauma-Informed Care: Advocate for trauma-informed approaches across various sectors, including healthcare, social services, and housing programs. Encourage professionals to recognize and address the underlying traumas that contribute to homelessness. 3️⃣ Supportive Services: Increase access to culturally, inclusive, responsive, trauma-informed care, nutritionally-based mental health services, addiction treatment, and supportive housing programs that prioritize holistic healing and the reconnection of the mind, brain, and body. 4️⃣ Collaboration and Partnerships: Foster collaboration among community organizations, healthcare providers, social workers, and policymakers to create comprehensive solutions that address the multifaceted challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness. 5️⃣ Advocacy for Affordable Housing: Advocate for affordable housing initiatives and policies that prioritize stable, safe, and supportive environments conducive to healing and reconnection. Together, we can create a community where every individual has the opportunity to heal, thrive, and maintain stable housing. #homelessness

National Recovery Month is a national observance held every September to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life. Recovery Month celebrates the gains made by those in recovery, just as we celebrate health improvements made by those who are managing other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. This observance reinforces the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, prevention works, treatment is effective, and people can and do recover.   There are millions of Americans whose lives have been transformed through recovery. Since these successes often go unnoticed by the broader population, Recovery Month provides a vehicle for everyone to celebrate these accomplishments. Each September, tens of thousands of prevention, treatment, and recovery programs and facilities around the country celebrate Recovery Month. They speak about strides made by those in recovery and share their success stories with their neighbors, friends, and colleagues. In doing so, everyone helps to increase awareness and foster a greater understanding about mental and substance use disorders.   https://lnkd.in/g4vknnkh

Reflecting on the profound significance of community for those in recovery from substance use disorder. In the journey towards healing, community becomes a cornerstone, offering understanding, support, and a shared sense of purpose. Connection combats isolation, creates resilience, and provides a safe space for growth. Together, we strengthen the foundation of recovery, acknowledging that community is not just valuable—it's indispensable. The reading "Paving Pathways to Recovery for All" by Terrence Walton sheds light on crucial inclusive recovery issues. Walton emphasizes the necessity of dismantling stigma and fostering genuine support for individuals on the recovery journey. It is a powerful call to action for societal transformation, urging us to champion principles that break down barriers and ensure accessible recovery for everyone. Read it at the link below, and let me know what you think. https://lnkd.in/eBK9Bc6v

This is an incredible concept, a personal dream of sorts, and one I hope to see replicated in communities in Virginia. Specifically in rural areas, where many of the wheels are already in motion. A few thoughts of my own as a “small-town girl” living and working in a recovery world… When setting out to cultivate recovery outside city limits, I adopted the phrase “building to scale” as a personal mantra. This usually meant building a program in a rural area that could easily be customized to meet the needs of a larger, more populated area. Building up, but only after laying a foundation and unearthing or implementing resources previously not available (housing, harm reduction, civil partnerships, and shifting the paradigm through using progressive recovery language). This concept of an inclusive recovery city has me thinking in reverse. I’ve had the joy of being involved in several rural communities in recent years and have witnessed huge shifts toward recovery inclusion. Communities which previously held one or two traditional avenues for healing now hold many more opportunities to recover. Recovery in all its forms has become a topic of conversation in all homes as rural areas are seeing they are not exempt. Substance use, mental wellness, and trauma are no longer big city concepts. Because of this shift, I can see the value in a model like this being scaled in a way that creates close-knit “recovery towns” throughout the highways and byways, and far beyond city limits. If you’re watching recovery and wellness trends, keep an eye on rural Virginia. Many of the criteria for inclusive recovery cities are being actively implemented already, and there are many passionate, dedicated recovery professionals leading the way by scaling supports needed in their own backyards. Finally, I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t offer a suggestion to the model, especially for more rural communities. To be considered truly “inclusive”, we must prioritize harm reduction as a viable part of the solution. Reducing harm on multiple levels such as access to MOUD, education on safer practices and impact of trauma, eradicating stigma and judgment of those who live/relieve pain/recover in various ways, and supporting the wellbeing of first responders and peer specialists are a few ways that are working well in rural areas. To be truly inclusive is a lofty goal regardless of geography, but levying harm reduction with treatment and recovery is possible and could lead to even better outcomes. Particularly outside metropolitan areas. Wondering where the first “recovery small town” will be? For all my friends and peers out there putting in work, “don’t stop believing” that it could happen right where you are. Let’s make it happen!

Recently, there have been discussions online regarding homelessness and drug use in Bedford. While these are important issues to address, it is crucial to approach them with compassion and understanding rather than judgment and shame. At IMPAKT we firmly believe that public shaming is counterproductive and does not lead to positive outcomes for our community or the individuals affected. Drug addiction and homelessness are often manifestations of deeper issues such as trauma and mental illness. Addressing these root causes is essential to finding lasting solutions. Our mission is to break the cycle of homelessness by acknowledging the trauma experienced by our residents and collaborating with them to provide the necessary support and skills for long-term independent living. We are dedicated to working with all individuals, regardless of their challenges, to achieve positive outcomes. We recognize that more needs to be done by governments and councils in areas such as housing, the cost of living, mental health, and addiction support. However, we believe that hate and stigma will not solve these problems. Only through increased support, acceptance, and love can we hope to create a better future for everyone in our community. Together, we can make a difference by fostering an environment of understanding and compassion.

An excellent article describing the problems and importance of a stronger system of care. Psychiatric/Psychosocial rehabilitation such as Clubhouses provide fill a void in our inadequate and crisis oriented disjointed system. We can provide people who live with mental illness, opportunities to recover and reintegrate into society, as in any other disabling condition, brain injury, physical disability, or cognitive disability. The model offers community, purpose and hope. We can easily do better if we realize along with more traditional treatment- medication, secure residential treatment, strong hospital treatment, help for every step of the way forward to health, is essential and humane. To do less is tragic and criminal. Human suffering and loss of life can be ended if we value treating mental illness just as we treat other serious medical conditions that any of us may have. As a society we owe care to each other. We can save lives, it is humane, and cost effective, to do better.

It is extremely heartening to finally see some nationally co-ordinated progress on care of the severely mentally ill, with a landmark health ministers meeting today including mental health ministers from all states. They're being presented with the longawaited Analysis of Unmet Need for Psychosocial Support report, which finds that the numbers of people receiving virtually zero community supports are now "well north" of the Productivity Commission's 2019 estimate of 154,000, which would take over $600m a year to address. The only state-based gap analysis of unmet need published publicly for psychosocial supports from SA found only a quarter of the severely mentally ill who needed support services were getting it - a truly shocking figure that Federal health minister Mark Butler says is likely to be replicated nationwide. Ironically the creation of the NDIS meant psychosocial support programs nationwide were rolled into the disability scheme, but many of those with severe mental illness are not eligible for the NDIS and were left out in the cold. The extent of supports previously available were woefully inadequate regardless. READ MORE

DID YOU KNOW? 🌟 Netcare Access has a remarkable program called Reach Out Worker (ROW) One. - Why is it important in the city of Columbus? • The ROW One program is a lifeline for those facing mental health challenges, homelessness, and addiction. It's a compassionate initiative that sends dedicated outreach workers into the heart of the city, reaching out to vulnerable individuals on the streets and in underserved communities. • ROW One staff provide vital support and resources to those who often feel forgotten or invisible, offering a listening ear, empathy, and understanding. They establish trust-based relationships, fostering hope and help people take crucial steps towards recovery. • By connecting individuals with essential services, ROW is making a significant impact on reducing homelessness and the strain on emergency services. It empowers individuals to seek help, leading to a healthier and safer community for everyone. 🌟 Let's celebrate the extraordinary efforts of our Reach Out Worker program and support our mission to create a community where everyone can access the care and compassion they need. #DidYouKnow #MentalHealthMatters #SupportNotStigma

The Veteran Mentor Project, Inc. is a proud supporter of Proposition 1 on the March 5, 2024 ballot because it will help veterans with mental health issues, will provide more mental health care workers across the state and will right decades of historic wrong. Sadly, more than 10,000 California veterans, many who are suffering from severe PTSD, are homeless and on the streets. Proposition 1 will provide $1billion to serve these veterans who are experiencing homelessness, mental health and substance abuse issues because it is what these heroes need and deserve. That’s why veteran advocacy organizations such as the California Association of Veteran Service Agencies and U.S. Vets have endorsed Prop. 1. In addition to funding Veteran programs, California needs to ensure that there are more mental health professionals available to treat those who need care. Currently, those with serious mental health issues are having to wait six months or longer for an introductory appointment - that’s before they can start treatment. Proposition 1 will alleviate these wait times by funding additional professionals so that people with mental health needs are getting care quickly. Proposition 1 gives California the chance to do right by the thousands of patients who were released from mental health hospitals over the last decades without a place to call home. In the late 1950s, California had the capacity to treat 37,000 patients in state mental health hospitals, but because of actions taken by politicians of bygone eras, those beds were closed and never replaced - leaving some of the most acute mental health patients on the streets and in tents, not in psychiatric beds where they could get the help they need. Proposition 1 brings new mental health treatment capacity and housing opportunities for those who have been forgotten for too long. In recent decades, California has been a leader of mental health reform, but the time has come to modernize our approach with Proposition 1. I hope you will join us in voting YES on March 5, 2024. To sign up or learn more about Treatment Not Tents, visit www.treatmentnottents.com