Posts Tagged ‘mental health’
How painting your life story can promote healing
Every Sunday for the last six weeks, Craig Morris has walked through Oakland streets populated by drug users to St. Mary’s Center, the shelter, soup kitchen and transitional housing provider that pulled him from the brink. There, Morris, who is 60 years old, painted a canvas as part of the Sacred Storytelling Art Project, a…
Read MoreOakland 911 now can dispatch mental health calls to MACRO team instead of police
Oakland’s community response pilot program, which launched last spring as an alternative to a police response, was connected this month to 911 dispatch services. Teams with the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland program now will be dispatched to calls about mental health crises, wellness checks and other issues that trained professionals may be better…
Read MoreNew mental health emergency response system provides alternative to 911
Mental Health First Oakland is a new alternative to calling 911 for mental health emergencies.
Read MoreCombining clinicians and cops, Oakland’s response program helps those in mental crisis
The Mobile Evaluation Team (MET), an expanding crisis response unit in Oakland, is one example of fledgling efforts to meet the city’s rising need for mental health crisis services.
Read MoreFormer inmates face delay in Medi-Cal benefits after release from jail
Activists and Alameda County representatives want people held in Santa Rita Jail to be able to get Medi-Cal coverage prior to their release.
Read MoreNew law boosts mental health support for Californian firefighters
When Oakland Fire Department (OFD) Captain Christopher Foley and his coworkers learned that one of them had been killed in a San Jose shooting, not long after 36 people died in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire, they needed help—and found it in the department’s peer support program.
Read MoreKaiser mental health clinicians and patients protest long wait times
On Sunday afternoon, over 100 therapists, patients, and their supporters from across Northern California gathered in downtown Oakland to stage a vigil in front of Kaiser Permanente’s corporate office—one they said they’d run indefinitely until the corporation’s leadership takes big steps to make their clinicians’ jobs more sustainable and improve access to mental health care.…
Read MoreComedians use humor to heal at Mental Health Comedy Hour
Oakland comedian Kelly Anneken says she identifies as a “triple A”— alcoholic, anorexic and anxious. “Stand-up comedy,” she said in a performance last week, “is everybody’s last resort before suicide or grad school.” Suicide, of course, isn’t everybody’s idea of comedy, but Anneken’s audience, there for the Mental Health Comedy Hour, laughed. Founded earlier this year…
Read MoreFacing shortages, Oakland school nurses concerned about meeting student health needs
In Oakland, a shortage of school nurses has led to difficult working conditions—heavy caseload, treating severe health conditions, and high stress—that nurses say make it challenging to meet the health needs of Oakland students.
Read MoreOakland support group hosts workshop for families struggling with mental health and substance abuse
The African American Family Support Group hosted the ‘Help for Family Caregivers Coping with Mental Illness or Substance Abuse’ workshop last Saturday
Read MoreYoung adults fill mental health services gap with peer mentoring
Organizations in Oakland empower Transitional Age Youth (TAY) to support each other, educate health care providers, and become community leaders.
Read MoreCalming anxiety through the therapeutic act of baking
Lia Freitas is a professional baker in Oakland who uses baking as a form of therapy.
Read MoreOaklanders deal with post-election stress
Mental health and relaxation professionals across Oakland say they are seeing heightened levels of election-related stress and anxiety among the city’s residents.
Read MorePop-up event raises money and awareness for mental illness issues
Bakers come together to raise money and awareness for mental health issues at the Depressed Cake Shop pop-up event at Creative Growth Art Center in Uptown Oakland on Saturday afternoon.
Read MoreEast Bay programs teach the public how to help during a mental health crisis
East Bay suicide prevention and social services programs are offering a new course that teaches the public how to recognize and respond to mental illness.
Read MoreFoster youth tell their stories through tattoos in the California Youth Connection’s new exhibit “Tribute”
Photographer Ray Bussolari harnesses the symbolic power of tattoos to represent the experiences of foster youth.
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