Call to Action — Long Beach Needs a Showing of Support

Posted on May 16, 2017 by southbaynami

Long Beach City Council Meeting
Tuesday, May 23rd at 5:00 PM
333 W. Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach 90802
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Address of Proposed Site:
3200 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach

Please come and support the Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center. These services are urgently needed to assist people with mental health disorders and reduce the long waiting times in emergency rooms. If this site is denied there is not a backup plan and this essential service for those in a mental health crisis will be lost to Long Beach. Your support at the Planning Commission Meeting was wonderful. It is now time to finish this process and get started with helping the community.

Parking will be validated and FREE inside the parking structure at 332 W. Broadway. The parking structure entrance is located off W. Broadway (one-way street). Take parking ticket inside the Council Chambers with you. (Follow the blue arrows to get to the City Hall building) the “validation” stamp machine is located at the front of the Council Chambers on the first floor (in front of Minute Clerk’s desk).

There is a clear need for this center, and the location has been carefully selected. Not everyone understands the need for this facility, and some actually oppose it. However, the practices and procedures of this facility will not negatively affect the neighborhood. (CLICK HERE to see answers to commonly asked questions.) Your help is needed.

Because of the shortage of psychiatric mobile response teams, police and sheriff departments in Long Beach and surrounding cities have the difficult task of responding to mental health-related calls. The Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center is a facility that will save law enforcement time in the field, will decrease the burden on hospital emergency rooms, and will help prevent unnecessary incarceration by providing medical treatment instead.

BHUCC will be a place where people with mental illness can go to be stabilized (instead of going to the hospital ER). It can be compared to an Urgent Care Center (where people often go for a medical emergency instead of going to the hospital ER).

The BHUCC provides:

Crisis stabilization service
Up to 12 adults and 6 adolescents (estimate about 30 clients a day)
Doctors, nurses, therapists, peer counselors
24/7 Outpatient Program
Patients may stay up to 24 hours
Average stay is 4 to 6 hours
Round the clock security staff
Discharged patients leave the area and return to their home and community services

Learn more at http://www.starsinc.com/bhucc

Support NAMI South Bay at NAMI Walks this Saturday Morning

Posted on September 30, 2016 by southbaynami

The excitement and funds are growing as we approach our grand event in just 10 days! Thank you for your efforts so far and keep it going so that we can reach our goal and thereby, help more people impacted by mental illness! See below for how to register and NAMI South Bay Walk team information. When you register be sure to indicate you are supporting NAMI South Bay.

PROGRAM -Starts at 9:15 AM. Actress Carly Chaikin, actress on USA’s hit show, Mr. Robot, will be Master of Ceremonies!

LOCATION – Walk Registration, Walk Stage, Vendors and Affiliate Booths will be at Grand Park between Broadway and Spring Streets closest to City Hall. This location is the far eastern part of the park away from the Music Center on the western end. See map for more information.

PARKING -For those of you who are driving, you can park right underneath Grand Park, or across the street at the Music Center (on Grand), down the block at Disney Concert Hall (Grand also), or at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral on Temple St. On the weekends, parking is $10 for the day.

TAKING THE METRO is quick and easy with these simple directions: Metro Red or Purple Line to Civic Center/Grand Park Station or the Gold Line to Union Station or Little Tokyo/Arts District Station.

FOOD TRUCKS -Here’s some other great news–we will have four fantastic food trucks on the Park, too! They are also donating to our cause–so please support them, too!

T-SHIRT CONTEST – You can enter the T-shirt contest just by being at the Walk. Upon return from the 5K, have one team member dressed in the Team t-shirt head up to the Stage area, where the contest will take place about 11:30 am. The NAMI Walks logo can be anywhere on the shirt.

WALK ROUTE – Walk past our Lady of Angels Cathedral, Music Center, Disney Concert Hall, Pershing Square and many other historic sites on Walk Route. For complete walk route and sites along the way see 2016 Walk Route.

Please join one of the following teams as a Walker, be a Virtual Walker or support a Walker inputting the name of team or walker in the Fundraiser button at the link.

CLICK HERE to Register for NAMI Los Angeles 2016 Walk

NAMI SOUTH BAY WALK TEAMS:

NAMI South Bay Walkers (Captain: Paul Stansbury)
NAMI Espanol Bay Blues 2016 (Captain: Modesta Pulido)
Chester Hope (Captain: Anna London)
Eve’s Family-to-Family and Friends (Captain: Eve Somers)
DBSA South Bay (Captain: Dawn Biegel)
NAMI South Bay Japanese (Captain: Chiaki Ueki)
Madelyn’s First Year (Captain: Madelynn Sanchez)
Coastangs! (Captain: Linda Lee)
TIES for Families (Captain: Lara Litvinov)
Del Amo Hospital (Captain: Howard Mationg)

If interested or any questions, please contact Paul Stansbury at pstans5@aol.com or 310-892-8046

What is #StigmaFree?

Posted on February 18, 2016 by southbaynami

NAMI offers the understanding that only those with the lived experience of mental illness can provide. Together with its grassroots volunteers, NAMI works every day to provide help and hope to millions of Americans. When we take care of mental health, we can all see the benefits. Individuals, companies, organizations and others can all take the #StigmaFree pledge to (1) learn more about mental illness, (2) to see a person for who they are and (3) take action on mental health issues. Take the pledge and raise awareness.

Remember these three steps:

Step 1: Educate Yourself and Others

Everyone knows a little about mental health issues but knowing the facts about mental illness can help you educate others and reject stigmatizing stereotypes. They are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Understanding mental health isn’t only about being able to identify symptoms and having a name for these conditions but dispelling many false ideas about mental health conditions as well.

Step 2: See the Person and Not the Illness

1 in 5 Americans live with a mental health condition and each of them has their own story, path and journey that says more about them than their diagnoses. Whether you live with mental illness or are a friend, family member, care giver or medical professional getting to know a person and treating them with kindness and empathy means far more than just knowing what they are going through.

Step 3: Take Action on Mental Health Issues

Our mental health care systems have been in crisis for far too long and often keep treatment and recovery out of the hands of many who need it. We can take action now as we push for better legislation and policies to improve lives for everyone. By lending your support you can show that this cause important to you and desperately needed for millions of Americans.

Learn More at https://www.nami.org/stigma#whatisstigmafree

NAMI Programs Shown to Reduce Stigma

Posted on December 5, 2015 by southbaynami

From NAMI California: A new RAND report shows that three NAMI programs significantly reduce the stigma of mental illness. The RAND evaluation, conducted through the CalMHSA grant, measured the stigma reduction of:

In Our Own Voice
Parents & Teachers as Allies, and
Provider Education

Over the past two years, evaluations using RAND’s materials have been administered in 150 presentations, reaching 2,700 individuals. NAMI California is very proud of these programs and its affiliates for their tireless efforts in the evaluation process.

Click here, or the web-view picture on the right, to view the report on the RAND website.

Free Open Mind Lecture October 6 About The Stigma of Mental Illness

Posted on September 28, 2015 by southbaynami

U.C. Berkeley Professor of Psychology Dr. Stephen Hinshaw, will return to the Open Mind event coordinated by the Friends of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior at UCLA. Professor Hinshaw will speak about the stigma of mental illness: personal, family and policy perspectives. Professor Hinshaw is the author of seven books, including The Mark of Shame, The ADHD Explosion and The Triple Bind: Saving Our Teenage Girls from Today’s Pressures.

Admission is free, but reservations required. RVSP HERE.

Professor Hinshaw is a leader in the field of developmental psychopathology and one of the foremost experts on ADHD in the country. He serves as the Vice-Chair for Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco and is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A former president of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Professor Hinshaw is currently the editor of the highly regarded Psychological Bulletin.

The Friends of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior is a volunteer organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing state-of-the-art research and treatment for illnesses of the mind and brain.

Each Mind Matters 7th International “Together Against Stigma” Conference Feb. 17-20 in San Francisco

Posted on December 20, 2014 by southbaynami

The 7th International “Together Against Stigma” Conference will be held February 17-20, 2015 in San Francisco. This conference will be the first to be hosted in the United States and underscores the fact that stigma of mental health challenges is not exclusive to any one country or culture: it is pervasive, encountered at all levels of society, institutions, among families and within the healthcare profession itself.

Follow this LINK for more information:

NAMIWALKS Los Angeles Success at New Location Downtown

Posted on October 13, 2014 by southbaynami

NAMIWalks Los Angeles was a gathering of thousands this past weekend at Grand Park in downtown L.A. Local NAMI Affiliates, County and City officials, clients, family members and mental health providers and supporters all converged for a powerful and positive experience, walking 5K through the streets of L.A. Saturday morning.

Thank you to everyone that participated and/or supported the event. The final results of the fundraising will be forthcoming. But from the crowd and the enthusiasm, it is clear the event was a huge success.