Naomi Allen’s Post

The number of new family behavioral health benefits in California spanning critical periods of potential trauma transmission are staggering! 1) Low-income women and birthing individuals with high-risk pregnancies - disproportionately Black, indigenous, or with mental health challenges - can now get enhanced (intensive) care management like through Mahmee to ensure access to primary, behavioral, nutrition, lactation and other vital care. 2) Add these to new doula offerings, and you have justly accessible, sensitive, community-based care models that can reduce bias and inequitable outcomes like higher Black maternal and infant mortality rates. Expect these to plummet toward the end of 2024! 3) Once a baby is born, ALL families can also access FREE, multi-lingual behavioral health coaching and supports through the new BrightLife Kids tech platform below. This one is regardless of risk or income and should help young kids stay in child care and school, advancing family job stability, and reduce ACEs overall. Hopefully our State will make educational access and ACEs metrics of accountability for these investments as they will be for managed care plans’ Populafion Health Management. 4) Add BrightLife to new Medi-Cal behavioral health well-child visits offering parenting guidance, dyadic psychoeducation, and care coordination for SDOH concurrent with will-child visits, and you have the ultimate, in-person meets virtual care whole-family models available for those wise enough to partner with Naomi Allen and Brightline. 5) For teens there will be another coaching platform known as Kooth coming out now. 6) For all ages of kids and parents with low income, there’s unlimited family therapy if ACEs and other adversities of occurred. 7) Add these to newly paid-for school-linked behavioral health services, and newly funded freestanding facilities, both rolling out across the state, and you begin to see one of the most robust, preventive systems of BH care coming together in the history of the US! Kudos Palav Babaria, the California Department of Health Care Services, Melissa Stafford Jones, and California Health & Human Services Agency for all these building blocks of foundational growth for our future! #mentalhealthishealth #innovate4kids #healthequity

BrightLife Kids has been live in California for three weeks now. 🎉 I'm overwhelmed in the best way possible by this mission because it's deeply personal. I'm equally proud and hopeful for the generation of youth we're collectively raising. We've all navigated mental health journeys dealing with concerns about stigma and consequences. I vividly recall being 10, urging myself to "keep it together" when my parents split. I had to maintain my grades, face the embarrassment of a broken home, endure bullying for being socially awkward, and provide emotional support for my mom. It was too much for any child to handle. I'm incredibly proud of the strides we've made in mental health, especially in making mental and behavioral health services more accessible for youth and their parents/caregivers. With no access to this type of service, it took me TWO decades to reach a point of forgiveness, acceptance, and living a life that is authentic to who I am and who I want to become. Just think about all the pain and strained relationships we could've spared by accessing empathy, psychoeducation, early intervention, and behavior change. Closing the gap on youth mental health goes beyond just addressing the problematic behaviors we observe in our child/teen. These behaviors serve a purpose. Quality access to mental and behavioral health services means everyone in the home feels supported and capable of handling both individual and interpersonal challenges so that it's possible to make positive changes together early on... well before reaching a crisis. Picture a future where the next generation is thriving because we focused on prevention and early intervention. Luckily, we're starting to see that happen now!

March 1: Free Webinar for county and state behavioral health administrators, program developers, educators, and wellness leaders. The webinar will focus on providing a brief overview of research related to student cannabis use and its impact, as well as review top considerations for evidence-based prevention and intervention practices at school. Registation Open: https://lnkd.in/gDMdVp6g #educators #wellness #behavioralhealth #schooladministration #schoolcounselor #mentalhealth #prevention

Join us if you can for our last webinar focused on cannabis prevention before summer! We promise to share some helpful strategies & actionable steps for effective prevention. Hope to see you there and please feel free to share with colleagues who may have interest. #educators #prevention #studentsuccess #communityhealth

February 6: Free Webinar for county and state behavioral health administrators, program developers, educators, and wellness leaders. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gA8b9zJm The webinar will focus on providing a brief overview of research related to student cannabis use and its impact, as well as review top considerations for evidence-based prevention and intervention practices at school. #educators #wellness #behavioralhealth #schooladministration #schoolcounselor #mentalhealth #prevention

Are you a family member of an #ActuallyAutistic adult? Do you want to support them in a neuro-affirming way that honors them? Come join my webinar + Q&A on December 16 to learn about supporting autistic humans thru meltdowns, shutdowns, and burnout. https://lnkd.in/eyUd7zeZ

Are you a family member of an #ActuallyAutistic adult? Do you want to support them in a neuro-affirming way that honors them? Come join my webinar + Q&A on December 16 to learn about supporting autistic humans thru meltdowns, shutdowns, and burnout. https://lnkd.in/eyUd7zeZ

Are you a family member of an #ActuallyAutistic adult? Do you want to support them in a neuro-affirming way that honors them? Come join my webinar + Q&A on December 16 to learn about supporting autistic humans thru meltdowns, shutdowns, and burnout. https://lnkd.in/eyUd7zeZ

Are you a family member of an #ActuallyAutistic adult? Do you want to support them in a neuro-affirming way that honors them? Come join my webinar + Q&A on December 16 to learn about supporting autistic humans thru meltdowns, shutdowns, and burnout. https://lnkd.in/eyUd7zeZ