Aligning Resources Across Georgia To Support Resiliency |
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To Our Resilient Georgia Partners and Stakeholders: |
Happy Mental Health Awareness Month! To help celebrate, we hope you can join the Georgia Parent Support Network and Voices for Georgia's Children, in partnership with DBHDD, for a special, virtual edition of Children's Mental Health Awareness Day at the Capitol on May 6th (R egister here). DECAL is celebrating children’s mental health by designating May 3 rd–7 th as Children’s Mental Health Week! The early years in a child’s life provide a key opportunity to establish safe and secure relationships and support healthy social and emotional development. For childcare provider resources, please visit DECAL's Children's Mental Health Week webpage and if interested in learning more about Infant and Early Child Mental Health, please visit DECAL's IECMH webpage. We hope you will join us for our next General Meeting on June 10th from 11 am to 12:30 pm that will focus on Teen Mental Health. We will have several experts share leading practices & exciting efforts underway to bolster teen mental health across the state. Use this link to register today. Last month, we launched a Lunch and Learn series for our regional coalition partners, peers, and stakeholders to share opportunities for partnership across the state. HealthMPowers presented information about the Girls Empowerment Movement (GEM) at our inaugural session, and we look forward to NAMI Georgia's presentation this month. If you would like to attend or present at one of our upcoming Lunch and Learns, please contact us at info@Resilientga.org. Team Up Mentoring is a case management & mentoring nonprofit serving young people who have endured a significant amount of trauma in Monroe, GA. Read more about their unique, holistic, trauma-informed service model in our spotlight section this week! We would also like to highlight several resources and news updates: - We are so proud of the work our partners at the Front Porch in Savannah have been doing. Savannah’s Police Department Behavioral Health Unit was recently highlighted on ABC Nightline News after participating in Trauma Drama training. Watch here to learn more.
- We would like to highlight this engaging and informative study published by Dr. Kim Loomer, one of our Resilient Georgia Regional Grantee Coalition leads. The research examines the importance of reflecting upon and addressing our unconscious biases.
- This uplifting article highlights some of the successes of the Gainesville Police Department has achieved by collaborating with a mental health clinician for a year and providing a specialized response to mental health calls in Hall county.
- Learn more about ways to promote equity, inclusion, and diversity in the healthcare system from the Medical Association of Georgia on this episode of the Top Docs Show. This edition features LaKesha Davison, M.D., a pediatrician with Kaiser Permanente (KP) of Georgia.
- Front-line workers are in need of self-care programs to support their mental health. This brief report assesses the impact of a simple mental well-being and emotional regulation training, the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). After training, front-line workers reported improved mental well-being and decreased secondary traumatic stress and somatic symptoms. To learn more about the CRM model and training opportunities, please visit CRM Georgia.
- The city of Atlanta is well on its way to providing permanent housing for 800 people experiencing homelessness, and moving another 1,200 recently homeless residents into homes through two new housing programs overseen by Partners for Home.
Lastly, we would like to share a video of food distribution by volunteers at Rabun Gap Presbyterian Church, an agency of the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. As the video depicts, the need is great and we wanted to take a moment to recognize and thank all of you, our partners and stakeholders, for all of the work you are doing to provide important resources and information to rural Georgia. Your time and effort make a difference in the quality of life for so many people! |
Sincerely, Brenda Fitzgerald, MD Executive Board Chair & Emily Anne Vall, PhD Executive Director |
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Innovative Community Organization Spotlight |
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Can you give us a brief description of Team Up Mentoring (TUM)? From caregivers to preschoolers to everyone in between, TUM partners with families affected by trauma and walks with them throughout the developmental journey with mentoring, case management, health services, and most importantly, a sense of family. |
| What are some of the innovative partnerships that have helped address the behavioral health needs of the region? TUM partners with Walton County Public Schools, All Access LAX, + Bojangles to offer a Learning Pod for students with medically fragile family members who cannot safely return to in-person school at this time. |
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What are some accomplishments you would like to highlight? We have a permanent address! Opened our first dedicated program space to grow the number of families we can serve and our impact on the community! Click here to read more about the inspiring work TEAM UP is doing. |
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We would like to introduce Georgia State University's Resilient Youth (ResY) initiative which seeks to build interdisciplinary scholarship among GSU’s Psychology, Public Health, and Sociology research programs. This program uses the concept of resilience as a framework for addressing health disparities among urban youth in Atlanta, and other major urban centers in the US and across the globe. To learn more about ResY’s active interdisciplinary research projects, please click here. “As pediatricians, we’ve seen less and less illness as people are socially distanced and isolated and more and more mental health issues,” said Dr. Jane Wilkov, founder of DeKalb Pediatric Center. “We’ve probably talked about and prescribed more things for anxiety and depression than we did for antibiotics in the last year." Listen to Dr. Wilkov discuss the emotional impact of the pandemic on teens on NPR's Morning Edition. |
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Positive & Adverse Childhood Experiences (PACEs) |
Pediatrician Dr. Sege discusses Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) as he reflects on his Healthy Outcomes From Positive Experiences (HOPE) framework and its importance in preventing and mitigating the "effects of toxic stress" in a recent publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He also encourages a mindset shift for pediatrician colleagues to incorporate PCEs as they develop trainings and screen patients for risks associated with adverse childhood experiences. Similarly, policymakers, service providers, and civic leaders looking to improve outcomes for children and families should ensure that the resulting policies and services abide by these three principles: support responsive relationships for children and adults; strengthen core skills for planning, adapting, and achieving goals; and reduce sources of stress in the lives of children and families. Read more about these principles and the science behind them in this report from Harvard University's center on the developing child. |
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- Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning recently released a new family resource page that has covid-19 specific resources, navigating digital learning, social-emotional wellness, self-care, and promoting child development resources.
- Matt Biel, a child psychiatrist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, weighs in on how schools can help children recover from the stress and trauma of the pandemic on NPR's Morning Edition.
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- Southern Poverty Law Center has many resources available on how to avoid being a bystander. One resource is their published booklet “Ten Ways to Fight Hate”.
- The handbook, “Speak Up”, is an excellent resource for adults on how to be an ally, as well as how to talk with your children about bias and race.
- Parents and guardians can consult this article from the Child Mind Institute on talking to children about racism and violence.
- CBS News 60 minutes reports on the negative impacts of racism on the health of Black Americans including lower life expectancy.
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Be sure to read additional resources on the topics above, and more, here. |
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 | “We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.” - Eleanor Roosevelt |
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