2021 May Newsletter

Coalition Partner Spotlight: Korean Community Services

Korean Community Services is an essential part of the Korean American community in Orange County. Charged with assisting and empowering Korean American individuals, families, and the greater immigrant community, they promote programs and provide culturally and professionally competent human services to unserved and underserved Korean Americans. Korean Community Services is committed to ending disparity in behavioral health care for Korean Americans and strives to foster the growth of mental health and substance abuse services that are culturally and linguistically sensitive, for the Asian Pacific communities of Orange County. For more information, visit their website.

Moment of Zen

We all get stressed. A little bit of stress can be beneficial, but when stress overwhelms you, it can have serious health implications including anxiety, depression and cardiovascular disease.

Help to find your sense of calm with this mini meditation from Headspace.

Begin meditating.

Free Mental Health Toolkit from Each Mind Matters – Promise to Talk Campaign

As we gear up for May Mental Health Month in Orange County, we are excited to share with you a free mental health toolkit developed by the local Each Mind Matters – Promise to Talk! Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) has developed some turnkey resources in a toolkit that we encourage you to share with your community to spread the importance of talking about mental health.

Click here to visit the FREE toolkit and help create a supportive community for mental health wellness in Orange County.

This PSJH toolkit has content in Spanish, English, and Vietnamese, and provides social media posts, links, photos, videos, graphics, along with a sample article to use on social media and websites to promote broader awareness about the importance of talking about mental health.  Feel free to use any/all of these messages in your organization’s social media outlets!

PSJH will be updating the toolkit with more images throughout the month, so be sure to check back mid-way.

@PromiseToTalk will be hosting giveaways on social media, and activating many favorite OC influencers throughout the month. Where to find #PromiseToTalk: Website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Christy Cornwall, backbone agency co-facilitator for Result Area 1: Stigma Reduction at christy.cornwall@stjoe.org.

Community Suicide Prevention Initiative Meeting Featured “StanD” – A Play to Help Break the Stigma of Mental Illness

On Saturday, May 8, the Orange County Community Suicide Prevention Initiative featured a special performance of the play “StanD.” Written and performed by Christopher Aguilar, a member of the Community Forum, the piece hopes to break the stigma of mental illness.

The group aims to prevent suicide by promoting hope and purposeful life in the community – especially among survivors, those at risk and their loved ones. On the second Saturday of each month, the CSPI Community Forum gathers from 9am to discuss important issues, share stories and partner together to advance the initiative’s mission.

Watch here.
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Youth Opioid Response Grant Award

The Be Well Orange County Alliance for Youth (BE OCAY) has been awarded a second grant in its work on Youth Opioid Response (YOR). This grant will be used to build and expand on our strategy and accomplishments from the first grant to create a more integrated system of care and recovery to support youth (ages 12-24) with substance use disorders.

Specifically, the work will expand provider capacity, refine treatment, incorporate evidence-based practices for Stimulant Use Disorders, and enhance screening for ACEs and social determinants of health to provide wraparound supports (within the clinic or through referrals to community-based partners) to ensure youth and families have the support needed for long-term success. There are three main areas of focus:

• Clinical Focus: YOR-2 work will expand provider capacity, refine treatment, and incorporate evidence-based practices for Stimulant Use Disorders and enhance screening for ACEs and social determinants of health to provide wraparound supports (within the clinic or through referrals to community-based partners) to ensure youth and families have supports needed for long-term success.
• Community Outreach & Education Focus: The work focuses on community outreach to three core sectors — schools, hospitals, and correctional facilities — to increase referrals to clinical care. The Mind OC YoPros (Youth and Young Professionals) will support this work by providing voice, strategic guidance and resource dissemination support through multiple networks.
• Systems Change Focus: As a cross-sector coalition of SUD partners, we are committed to continue developing and expanding MAT/SUD services in OC and address the major system level issues identified during YOR-1 to improve access and provision of needed services. We will continue to work on the alignment of and linkage between community-based outreach and clinical services through monthly convenings for communication and coordination, provision of technical assistance and training, identification of referral tracking platform, quality improvement activities and program evaluation.

The work under this grant will be a collaboration among Mind OC (the nonprofit “backbone” of Be Well), KCS Health Center, the Multi-Ethnic Collaborative of Community Agencies (MECCA) and the cross-sector organizational members of the Be Well SUD Leadership Coalition, including the Medi-Cal managed care plan (CalOptima), major health systems and the OC Health Care Agency Department of Behavioral Health.