Khatera Aslami-Tamplen BHCS Consumer Empowerment Manager

Rosa Warder BHCS Family Empowerment Manager

Gigi CrowderBHCS Ethnic Services Manager

W e l l n e s s • R e c o v e R y • R e s i l i e n c e

Alameda County MHSA

2

Breaking Barriers, Transforming the Mental Health System

The stories included in this supplement come from people who in different ways have been touched by pro-grams provided by Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (BHCS) and funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). These are tales of strength through adversity, determination, and resilience. One of such sto-ries, “The Golden Gift,” was created as part of Alameda County BHCS Stigma Reduc-tion Campaign, in collabora-tion with the consumer-run organization PEERS.

According to the National Institute for Mental Health, one in four adults in the U.S. live with a mental health di-agnosis; however, discrimi-nation prevents many from leading meaningful lives. To break down barriers, change attitudes, and transform cur-rent mental health programs, California voters approved Prop 63 in 2004.

The resulting Mental Health Services Act mandat-ed a tax of 1 percent on per-sonal incomes exceeding $1

million to serve people who are at risk of having serious mental health challenges, as well as those who already experience them.

In Alameda County, the re-sponse to this mandate was particularly enthusiastic.

“MHSA has radically reshaped how we provide services. It has enabled us to fund programs and positions we knew were important but for which there was no budg-et. MHSA has allowed us to reinforce the County safety net by broadening access to mental health services in new and creative ways,” says Aaron Chapman, M.D., BHCS Medical Director. “MHSA gave us the opportunity to engage in an extensive com-munity-based planning proc-ess, which set priorities and service models for new pro-grams,” Chapman added.

MHSA is a comprehen-sive law that funds innovative programs, from prevention and early intervention to clini-cal mental health services in a variety of settings in the com-munity. MHSA also recognizes

the importance of addressing the housing, employment, and self-advocacy needs of indi-viduals and their families who have historically faced sig-nificant barriers to appropriate treatment in their communi-ties, and makes investments in workforce development and in technology and facilities.

The programs funded through MHSA are designed to raise the general level of health

and well-being of individuals, families and the community. They emphasize education and support for consumers of mental health services and their families; they promote a workforce “pipeline” filled with capable and diverse profes-sionals; and they provide com-prehensive services that focus on each person’s strengths and needs. In turn, these im-portant advances reduce con-sumers’ hospitalization and involvement with the criminal justice system and improve consumers’, family and com-munity well-being.

“As a result,” says Chap-man, “our programs are able to address consumers holis-

tically. That means offering a variety of services in a single site making it easier for con-sumers.”

As part of this holistic ap-proach, BHCS has devel-oped an initiative to identify community needs. Through the Innovations Grants Pro-gram, BHCS has been so-liciting ideas from the com-munity on how to enhance services. This collaborative

learning model awards funds for short-term projects fo-cusing on specific issues within the mental health sphere. “We see it as our local Research & Develop-ment,” explains Chapman.

MHSA is not only a fund-ing stream — it’s a new perspective on the mental health system. MHSA pro-motes a philosophy of well-ness, recovery, and resil-ience for people of all ages and all cultural backgrounds.

It reinforces the BHCS belief that the experiences and participation of consumers of mental health services and their family members are not only fundamental, but should also help to shape the system.

To this end, a trio of com-mitted BHCS managers are called upon to make this approach a reality. Khatera Aslami-Tamplen, Consumer Empowerment Manager; Rosa Warder, Family Em-powerment Manager; and Gigi Crowder, Ethnic Servic-es Manager are tasked with overseeing programs and strategies that are culturally responsive, honor the ex-perience of consumers and family members, and reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues.

The following stories il-lustrate how inner strength coupled with the support of a loving relative or a deter-mined clinician can change people’s lives, even when at their most vulnerable.

Cover: Photograph by Paul Takayanagi, Design by Lory Poulson.

Ivan Becerra

formerly homeless people with mental health issues received housing350

law enforcement officers received Crisis Intervention Training (CIT)429

Family members of people with mental health issues served by

the Family Education and Resource Centers.8,448

3

Romeo’s Ups and DownsBy Ivan Becerra

Sitting on a black chair that has seen better days, Romeo consid-ers for a moment the question at hand. He fixes his gaze on the wall across the small living room and a smile plays on his young face. “I’m an actor, I’m a funny guy; I’ve been acting since second grade.” Antic-ipating the next question, he adds, “When I’m acting I feel I just can be anything I want to be; I can do any-thing. I love the feeling of being in a character and acting with passion. I can let out all my pain.”

Romeo’s life has seen some “ups and downs,” as he puts it. Among his “ups” he counts the love of his family; among his “downs” are his struggles with mental health as a teenager. Thinking of high school brings painful memories of hopeless-ness and loss. He has suffered from hallucinations on and off since he was seven, but when he was fourteen his symptoms be-came more serious.

Hit by the intensity of emo-tions he couldn’t understand, his feeling of isolation increased and his social life collapsed. Cast as an outsider, he became the target of bullying. “I used to be this guy who wanted to fit in. I just wanted to be like everyone else. But in high school everything started to go wrong. Everything flipped.”

When he was a sophomore his father died. “At that moment teen-age life was over. All of a sudden it was ‘welcome to all these mental problems’. Welcome to hospitals, welcome to therapy, and welcome to case managers.”

The situation profoundly af-fected Romeo’s mother. He re-members how she took care of him in a time of uncontrollable sadness. “My mom is a happy person, but she cried a lot be-cause she didn’t want to see me like that. She tried to cheer me up; she pushed me to dress nicely, to hang with friends, and date. She’s one of those cool moms.”

After a year of adjusting her work schedule to attend to the needs of her son, his mother re-

alized that Romeo needed more help than she could provide on her own. Searching the internet for answers, she found Fred Finch Youth Center.

Fred Finch Youth Center is an organization that provides mental health and social services to chil-dren, young adults, and their fami-lies. One of the programs offered by Fred Finch is called Supportive Housing for Transition Age Youth (STAY), an MHSA-funded program of Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (BHCS).

“My mom got an interview for me with a guy named Roger” Romeo recalls. “I was all dressed in black, with long messy hair and I was kind of gloomy. Even though I looked like that, it was as if Roger saw I was really a good person, that I was something special.”

In the words of Roger Daniels, STAY Program Director, “STAY is a multidisciplinary program made up of mental health clinicians, medication management profes-sionals, and other support staff. It addresses the individual needs of each person as well as creating a sense of hope for future success among participants.” The STAY program includes crisis support and mental health services for youth ages eighteen to twenty-four. The program also assists par-ticipants with accomplishing goals in other life domains such as com-petitive employment specifically designed for people with mental health issues, housing, strength-ening relationships, substance us-age, independent living skills, and obtaining clothing. “Whatever they bring, we try to meet them there and start providing the support they need,” says Daniels.

Once he was in the program, Romeo was assigned a clinician who teamed up with him to de-velop an individualized treatment plan. “Some people don’t want the help. For me, I knew I needed the help, and I knew I needed to help myself,” Romeo stressed.

“We took it day by day. In the beginning, we weren’t getting any-where; I guess I just had to deal with trying to get rid of all the pain.

He [the clinician] said: ‘before you get a job, and before you do all your super schooling, you need to work on the pain you are feeling.’”

During a couple of years of work, Romeo’s condition became increasingly stable, and one morn-ing he had one of those moments of clarity that come just a few times in life. He described it like this.

“One morning I woke up and felt different. I said to myself, ‘This is your life; this is your family that loves you.’ The sun was shining and my mom was cooking break-fast. I took a step out the door, and for the first time in a long time I looked up at the sky.” Romeo spoke with the clinician later that day and expressed his desire to “do something different.” It was clear to Romeo that although life was not what he had expected, he now had a sense of purpose and direction. The next step for him was to get a job.

The road to recovery is not a straight line, and Romeo lived that reality in a painful way. At a certain point he began to experi-ence a shift in his mood that led to difficulties with his family. Strong arguments with his sister be-came common, and his mother “started to get a little itchy and kind of ticked off.” Anger as well

as an unpredictable and often ex-plosive mood took over Romeo’s usually friendly disposition. For a four-month period he was put on several involuntary psychiatric placements known as “5150s” at John George, Alameda County’s psychiatric hospital.

Back at home, after an es-pecially strong fight, his mom couldn’t take it anymore — she asked him to move out of the house. “At first I thought she was being unreasonable for kick-ing me out of the house,” Romeo said, and after a pause he added, “I didn’t realize at the time that she knew it was time for me to go out on my own.”

Always with his STAY clinician by his side, Romeo embarked on a journey he describes as hor-rible and amazing at the same time; a journey that, in less than a year, would transform his life. He went from living at home with his mother to a shelter for home-less youth, and then to a group home that supports individuals coming from psychiatric cri-

sis, and finally to the Fred Finch campus housing.

“They [the STAY program] wanted to know if I could handle living on my own,” he said. Just a few months after that Romeo got an apartment through STAY and he now lives there by himself.

Within three years, Romeo has learned to manage his symptoms, and his condition is now stable. At twenty-one, he has found a new sense of empowerment, fuelled by his independence. “My life has completely changed, from hope-less to strong and unafraid of the future,” he says. He volunteers for a teen program at a nonprofit; he has a job at a restaurant, and has got a part in a play put on by a local theater company.

“I know it’s not going to be easy, but now I feel that I have control, and I cannot let myself down,” he reflects, and then adds, “Look-ing back at everything I’ve been through and seeing where I am now, it motivates me to say, ‘Im-agine where you’re going to be ten years from now.’”

“I know it’s not going to be easy, but now I feel that I have control, and I cannot let myself down”

Ivan Becerra

4

Crisis Intervention Training Arms Police with Tools for Crisis Calls

By Elizabeth Hanes

Police are often called upon to help people in crisis. When they receive a call, police aren’t always sure what they will be walking into and this heightens their alert for potential safety concerns. The sense of foreboding provoked by these unknowns might cause any officer to arrive on the scene in a suspicious, confrontational mind-set. This had been the experience of Officer Alicea Ledbetter of the Alameda Police Department when responding to crisis calls. After all, police officers primarily are trained at the academy to deal with crimi-nal threats, not people in a mental health crisis.

“I think there’s a gap in training regarding how to handle crisis calls at the academy level,” says Officer Ledbetter. “We get very good train-ing at the academy, but we don’t necessarily leave with enough understanding and tools to be as effective as we can be on mental health calls.”

Today, Officer Ledbetter ap-proaches mental health crisis calls more confidently with greater un-derstanding and awareness of the experiences people in crisis are dealing with. She is also bet-ter equipped to link individuals to mental health resources in the community.

“CIT helped change the way I respond to mental health crisis calls,” said Officer Ledbetter, who graduated from the program in 2011. “I now approach these situ-ations with a partnership attitude when possible. I’m geared more toward problem-solving and pre-vention than I was in the past.”

The “CIT” Officer Ledbetter refers to is the Crisis Intervention Training program sponsored by Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (BHCS) in partner-ship with the Oakland Police De-partment as a service to the com-munity. It’s based on the nationally known “Memphis” model that has shown great promise in improving

the police role in mental health in-terventions. The 40-hour, weeklong training delves deeply into tactics and tools for responding to various types of crisis calls. De-escalation is among the many techniques practiced in the classroom. A two-day version of the training has also been implemented for dispatchers.

In addition to teaching ap-proaches to crisis intervention, CIT puts officers and dispatchers face-to-face with family members and individuals who have lived experi-ence with mental health issues. These individuals and families help humanize the experience for law enforcement personnel, which in turn helps foster a sense of trust that sometimes has been lacking between police officers and the mental health community.

Officer Ledbetter feels listening to family stories at CIT has made a difference in her approach to mental health crisis calls. “It is a great opportunity to have a con-versation and positive interaction outside of crisis mode situations and goes a long way in building partnerships for problem-solving and prevention,” Officer Ledbet-ter said. “Police officers are geared toward responding to threats. CIT has helped me learn to differenti-ate between a criminal threat and a person in crisis. Once I know what I’m dealing with, I can use de-escalation techniques to hopefully resolve the situation peacefully.”

Thanks to the sponsorship of BHCS and their partnership with the Oakland Police Department, CIT training is available to any po-lice officer or dispatcher in Alame-da County who wants to take it. “Communities can encourage their local police department to send more officers and dispatch-ers to CIT,” Officer Ledbetter says. She wholeheartedly recommends the training to her peers. “It defi-nitely has changed the way I view mental health,” she said. “I think CIT benefits not just law enforce-ment, but the entire community.”

Find this article online at www.acmhsa.org

Kerry H Paul

5

Crisis Intervention Training: Reducing One Family’s FearsBy Elizabeth Hanes

One evening several years ago, Mark Rahman’s adolescent child left home — to “follow the moon,” it was later explained. This was not a metaphor. Experi-encing mental health symptoms, Mark’s child walked continu-ously for 48 hours in a straight line toward the moon, scram-bling over fences and wandering across busy streets in an effort to reach it. Sick with worry over his missing child, Mark contacted the police for help finding and detaining his child on an involun-tary mental health hold (known as a ‘5150’ order). Eventually, the adolescent was found and returned home unharmed, but it wasn’t Mark’s only encounter with law enforcement regarding his now-adult child.

“Over the years, I’ve called the police at least 30 times to help me deal with my child,” Mark said, “and it used to be very scary. Today I feel much less anxious making that call, thanks to CIT.” However, the experience of having to go through a 5150 can be extremely traumatic for both the families and their loved ones. It is often a last resort for families to call the police for help.

The “CIT” Mark refers to is Crisis Intervention Training. This 40-hour continuing edu-cation program for police offic-ers teaches them how to better respond to mental health crisis calls. Sponsored by Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services in partnership with the Oakland Police Department, the training program fosters co-operation and partnership be-tween law enforcement and the community. In fact, Mark tells his story as part of a CIT panel com-prised of family members and in-dividuals with lived experienced of mental illness and mental health challenges. These panel members put a human face on mental health for police officers.

In humanizing the subject for po-lice personnel, Mark helps not only his family and his child, but any family that finds themselves needing to call 911 for assist-ance with a loved one.

“Early on, before CIT, it was difficult to have a 5150 call work out well,” Mark says candidly. “But the last time I had to call po-lice for help with my child, they were able to get [the child] to go voluntarily, which is a huge dif-ference from how things may have been handled before. This time, the responding officers used de-escalation techniques and maintained a calm demean-or in their negotiations. It’s a very positive change over the way things used to go.”

Sharing his story as part of the CIT curriculum has not only given police officers insight into the human side of mental health, it has helped Mark himself. “I now understand the officers’ point of view, and I’ve learned how to better initiate a phone call to the police department, start-ing with the dispatcher,” he said. “By conveying accurate infor-mation to describe the situation, I’ve noticed the officers arrive less stressed and more calm. I have a higher level of confidence the situation will work out now when I have to call.”

The program benefits even officers who haven’t gone through it, as trained CIT of-ficers pass along strategies to their colleagues. This sharing of knowledge has had a positive effect on the community.

“I certainly believe the po-lice are taking a partnership ap-proach toward mental health crisis calls,” Mark said, “and that’s huge. By working together as a team, we can help these in-dividuals get the treatment they need.” That’s certainly a benefit to any community.

Find this article online at www.acmhsa.org Kerry H Paul

6

Texting to Reach Alameda County TeensBy Karen Oberdorfer

Teens often text with each other about difficult life experi-ences, but this time the teen was texting with someone uniquely equipped to handle the situation: a counselor at Crisis Support Services of Alameda County (CSS) through a an MH-SA-funded program of Alameda County BHCS.

CSS has been offering crisis support and suicide prevention services for almost 50 years. En-gaging teens has always been challenging, so counselors re-cently started texting. Below is an example of a typical text ses-sion of a teen reaching out to a counselor for help. To protect privacy all identifying informa-tion was removed. This conver-sation is based on a composite of many sessions.

The teen initiates the con-versation by texting “safe” to 839863

Counselor (C): Hi, I’m a counselor. How’re you today? You’re welcome to talk about anything here.

Texter (T): I’m ok. I’ve never done this before. I don’t know where to start...

C: Did something happen today?

T: Well, my sister and I had a fight and I guess I hate life right now.

C: Fights can be stressful, es-pecially when you have a fight with your sister :( Want to tell me more about hating life?

T: I just don’t want to wake up. I’ve been this way for a year, but af-ter the fight I feel worse.

C: Those are tough feelings to have. You’re brave to share them with us. Are you feeling so bad that you feel like killing yourself?

T: No, but I think about it constantly.

C: When you think about killing yourself, do you think about how you would do it?

T: Last year my friend jumped in front of a train and died. I think about her constantly but I don’t think I’d do it that way. I have a rope. But I don’t think I’d actu-ally do it.

C: Wow. Having a friend die is really traumatic. Also, I hear you think about using a rope. I won-der if you don’t really want to die, but you’re feeling a lot of pain and wish that would stop. This is always a safe place to talk about your feelings.

T: Sometimes I do actually want to die. And I feel bad be-cause I saw how sad my friend’s family was. I thought about her today. Then my sister told me to stop crying. My parents don’t understand either, they tell me to get over it.

C: You were thinking about her and you wished your family understood how you’re feeling. What would you want your family to understand?

T: It feels like kind of.. my fault.. It’s hard to talk about.. We used to say to each other how good it would be to die and forget this life. I want my family to know I’m sad.. And it’s my fault she died.

C: It would be so good to have your family understand what a hard time you’re having. Feeling like it’s your fault is so painful. It makes sense this is really difficult. It’s great you’re sharing this with me.

T: Thanks. C: I also want to talk about

the guilt feeling. It’s common for people who are left alive to feel guilty. Even responsible. I don’t want to tell you that your feelings are wrong, but as responsible as you feel, you’re not responsible for her jumping in front of the train. Sometimes it takes a while to understand it’s not your fault.

BTW my name’s Sarita. What’s your name?

T: Hi Sarita. Thanks for talking with me — it helps to talk about even if you cant make her come back to life.. I’m Chloe.

C: Nice to meet you, Chloe :) What do you usually do when you’re feeling such tough feelings?

T: I usually talk to my sister, but today, that wasn’t very helpful. I also listen to music... Music makes me feel better.

C: It’s hard not being able to talk with your sister. Sometimes mu-sic helps so you don’t think all the sad thoughts. Are you able to tell when you’re about to think the sad thoughts?

T: Ya usually. Unfortunately it happens a lot.

C: You’ve been through a big loss and makes sense you’re hurt-

ing. Maybe we could come up with a plan together to help you be pre-pared for those hard times.

T: Sometimes I kind of want to feel bad too. It keeps my friends memory with me..

C: I can understand that. It’s hard to let go. Earlier you said you feel suicidal sometimes. Will you consider us a place you can text (or call if the text line is closed) if you feel like killing yourself or hurting yourself in any way? Are you feeling sui-cidal now?

T: I feel better — it helps to talk to someone who understands and doesn’t say to just get over it :/

C: I’m glad you’re feeling better :) Anytime you feel sui-cidal or just want to talk about anything that’s bothering you please reach out again! We’re here for you.

T: Thank you for your help to-night! I have to go to dinner. G’night Sarita :-)

C: Goodnight Chloe! Text back any time between 4 – 11 pm or you can call us 24/7 at 800-309-2131! I’m glad we texted :)

To learn more about Crisis Sup-port Services of Alameda County go to: www.crisissupport.org

Find an expanded version of this article at www.acmhsa.org

“Sometimes I kind of want to feel bad too. It keeps my friend’s memory with me.”

Kerry H Paul

7

By Jeneé Darden

Everyone at the table in the retirement community’s quaint library gazed in wonder at the vintage photo of Helen Parker. Rachel Love begged her moth-er to bring the photo down from her room and show the guests. It was worth her pleas. The black-and-white photo was of a 21-year-old Parker adorned in an evening gown. Her hands gliding across the grand piano keys, as the orchestra played on and thousands in the theater listened.

“I was the top player in my class,” said Parker.

Parker, who is over 65 years old, began playing piano at the age of five in her Asian country. There she studied music in high school and college. She performed in venues that seated thousands.

After finishing school, she moved to the United States and

became a professional piano instructor. She taught piano for more than 20 years. Today she resides in an assisted living facility for seniors.

Life for Parker hasn’t always been filled with high notes and smooth melodies. A few years ago, she spent 10 months in a mental facility.

“I attempted suicide,” said Parker, who was struggling with personal issues at the time.

During her hospitalization, Parker was assigned a GART

case manager to further help with her mental wellness and transition to independent living. GART or Geriatric Assessment Response Team is a program of Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (BHCS). GART assists older adults, age 60 and up, with serious mental health conditions. Their mobile team provides short-term case management, medica-tion services, family support and brief therapy.

“Suicidal assessment and intervention is very impor-tant,” said Yin Siu, a GART behavioral health clinician and Parker’s case manager. “Helen and I worked on stress management and relaxation techniques whenever negative feelings arose. And I helped her re-establish a sense of hopefulness.”

During Siu’s 60-day assign-ment, she also helped Parker tackle daunting SSI and Medicare forms.

“It was a very complicated process when I assisted her with

SSI because she was declined for benefits twice,” Siu said. “We were on the phone a lot with social security.”

“Without her I wouldn’t have known what to do,” Parker re-sponded with gratitude. “Yin re-viewed the letters and went to the Medicare office with me.”

“Yin was a lifesaver for me,” said Love.

Siu’s assistance didn’t stop there. Parker was no longer driv-ing so Siu gave her a public trans-portation lesson. “I never rode BART,” said Parker. She needed BART to travel to Oakland and utilize Asian Community Men-tal Health Services, another re-source under BHCS. Siu referred Parker to the clinic where she receives counseling from people who understand her culture and speak her native language.

Siu accompanied Parker on a few BART rides. She drew Parker a map with the street ad-dress to the clinic, and showed her how to catch the bus to the BART station. Parker rides

BART on her own, but doesn’t find it a big deal

“At my age I have no excite-ment for new things,” said Parker. “ I had to learn.”

Something else Parker had to do was leave the mental health fa-cility, but she wasn’t ready.

Siu soon discovered that family and hospital staff had been em-phasizing independence as a mo-tivation to leave the facility. Parker’s priorities were different, however. “Number one priority was safety and cleanliness. Number two was to live close to church.” Siu said.

Siu helped Parker find a place that fit her needs.

“Yin was an answer to a prayer,” said Love. “God knew what he was doing and sent you.”

While Siu’s help was a blessing to Parker and her daughter, Siu got something special in return.

“One of the best gifts I ever received was from Helen,” Siu re-counted as she placed her hand over her heart and looked at Park-er. “She played two songs for me. It was so touching.”

By Elizabeth Hanes

No one understood why Michele Wms-Smith’s younger sister acted out of character at times. Michele said their sib-lings chalked it up to her sister “being a spoiled brat.”

But when her sister received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and began having trouble car-ing for herself and her children, the family knew she was in an unfamiliar and scary place. Michele reached out to forge a new bond with her sister, one based on care and hope – striving to reach mutual trust and knowing that it would take time. “When she spoke to me about her struggles, I needed to just listen.”

“Just because you have a mental health challenge does not mean you’re not smart,” Michele says. “My sister was

very intelligent and one of the most creative people I knew. She would often help and give to others, before helping herself.”

Taking a supportive ap-proach while living out of state, Michele determined to work hand-in-hand with her sister to support her through the ups and downs of bipolar disorder. Michele started by providing emotional support through daily phone calls with her sis-ter. Michele delved deeply into educating herself about her sister’s diagnosis, the supports that she would need, and dis-covering potential side effects and evaluating her sister’s re-sponse to her medications. Through time, Michele took on a greater role in helping her sis-ter manage her medications.

“One time, my sister was hospitalized and told me she wasn’t receiving adequate

care,” Michele said. She imme-diately made phone calls to the hospital advocating on behalf of her sister. For many families, this is the greatest obstacle — hospital staff often lacks em-pathy for the families who are terrified and concerned. Both the family voice and their loved one’s input are often muted. “It wasn’t easy, but I got her dis-charged from that hospital and transferred to another.”

The persistence and sup-port Michele showed her sister made a significant difference in her sister’s quality of life. But perhaps the biggest growth came to Michele, herself, who volunteers for the National Al-liance on Mental Illness and today works as a Family Ad-vocate with the Family Edu-cation and Resource Center (FERC), a MHSA-funded program of Alameda County

Behavioral Health Care Serv-ices. Michele’s main goal is to bring awareness, education and support to others who are facing mental illness in their families.

“After what our family went through, I made it my mission to help others so they would not have to experience what we and so many other fami-lies have been through. The endless search for available and appropriate resources and judgment-free support is a very traumatic experience.” Michele says, “Family mem-bers go through so much. They need resources, and also someone who can empathize with their feelings of shock, sadness, grief and the un-known. Unfortunately, the un-known for my family was los-ing my sister too early — she passed away eight years ago.”

Michele connects families with community resources across Alameda County. But perhaps her greatest contribu-tion is connecting with families on a personal level, by sharing her own experiences and pro-viding a listening ear.

“I really see the role of FERC as bringing hope to the commu-nity,” Michele said. “If a family member is feeling they have no-where to turn, I hope they realize we are here for their journey.”

Find this article online at www.acmhsa.org

The Golden Gift

Family Education and Resource Center: Caring for the Caregivers

Kerry H Paul

PEERS

510 832-7337www.peersnet.org

PEERS is a consumer run organi-zation that provides education, em-powerment and advocacy services for Alameda County mental health consumers.

FERC

1 888 869-3372 www.askferc.org

The Family Education and Re-source Center (FERC) provides lin-guistically appropriate information, education, advocacy and support services to family/caregivers of in-dividuals with serious mental health issues.

SAMHSA Substance Abuse Treatment Referral Helpline

1 800 662-HELP (4357)SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminis-tration) provides 24-hour toll-free information about substance abuse services.

John George Psychiatric Pavilion - Psychiatric Emergency Services

510 481-4141

Sausal Creek

510 437-2363 Outpatient stabilization program for adults who cannot wait for routine mental health outpatient care. Walk-ins accepted.

Willow Rock Center - Psychiatric Health Facility

510 895-5502Acute Inpatient Psychiatric care for teens ages 12 to 17.

Willow Rock Center - Crisis Response Service

510 483-3030Voluntary crisis services for teens ages 12 to 17 who do not meet criteria for inpatient hospitalization.

Cherry Hill

1 866 866-7496 24 hour, 7 day per week Detoxifica-tion Services Program.

Children’s Hospital - Behavioral Emergency

Response Team

510-428-3240Crisis services for children 0 to 11 years old.

Crisis Support Services Suicide Prevention

1 800 309-2131

Crisis Support Services Text Line

Text keyword “safe” to 839863

Berkeley Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team

510 981-5254 Berkeley and Albany only.

City of Berkeley Adult and Crisis Services

510 981-5290 Berkeley and Albany only.

City of Berkeley Family, Youth, and Children

510 981-5280 For minors under 18 years old. Berkeley and Albany only.

Nationwide Hotline

1 800 SUICIDE

This list includes services provided by BHCS and other organizations. Not all the services listed here receive MHSA funds.

ACCESS Line1 800 491-9099

BHCS multilingual call center that provides crisis response, information, and referral for anyone in

Alameda County.

Culturally responsive telephone information screening and on site crisis services

Asian Languages 510 869-7200

Spanish 510-535-6200 Oakland 510 300-3180 Hayward

Deaf and Hard 510 225-7013 of Hearing Video phone 510 984-1654