Archive for » September 7th, 2012«

07 Sep 2012

Center to improve mental health launched in India

The construction of a center for mental health services in New Dehli was announced Friday. The goal of the center is to address gaps in services and promote research to improve the lives of those with mental health disorders.

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) launched the center with a research grant from the United States National Institute of Mental Health.

“There is a huge gap between the burden and the availability of appropriate mental services in the country, I hope the newly launched Center for Mental Health will bridge this gap and will scale up mental health care,” said Syeda Hameed, a member of the planning commission.

The center is collaboration between institutions in South Asia and seeks to promote research and advocacy for those dealing with mental or neurological disorders and substance abuse.

“PHFI has already recognized mental health as one of the priority research areas and constructed a Mental Health Special Interest Group four years ago. The new Centre of Excellence will further bolster this initiative,” PHFI President K. Srinath Reddy said.



This article was distributed through the NewsCred Smartwire.

Original article © IANS / Daily News 2012


Similar news:
Category: Mental Health  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

Slain CHP officer’s organ donations save lives

MARTINEZ — The family of the California Highway Patrol officer killed during a traffic stop called him “our hero” Thursday while revealing that his a final act of public service in donating his organs and body tissue could save as many as eight people and help 50 more.

The news came Thursday morning as a memorial was being planned, donation accounts were set up for CHP Officer Kenyon Youngstrom’s widow and four children, and investigators updated details about the shooting Tuesday on Interstate 680 near Alamo.

“Our grief is overwhelming. But in his special way, Kenyon carries on in helping others,” the family said in a statement released through the Oakland-based nonprofit California Transplant Donor Network. “This was our Kenyon, he’s our hero and, in the midst of our grief, we are comforted to know he continues to help others.”

About 40 percent of California licensed drivers are registered organ donors and about 10,000 Northern California residents need an organ to save their lives, network spokesman Anthony Borders said.

“The officer’s life was about giving to people and caring for the public and with his wish to be an organ donor he’s continuing that legacy,” he said.

Meanwhile, accounts have been set up at Wells Fargo Bank and Mechanics Bank for donations to help the Youngstrom family.

The Kenyon Marc Youngstrom Children’s Benefit Memorial Fund has been set up at Wells Fargo and can be made at any branch.

Donations

at any Mechanics Bank branch can be made to the Officer Youngstrom Memorial Fund Account, CHP spokeswoman Jaime Coffee said. For wire transfers, the bank’s routing number is 121102036.

Mechanics Bank had already taken in more than 100 donations totaling more than $25,000 as of Thursday afternoon, according to Steve Buster, president and chief executive officer.

“It’s a great start and we’re hoping much more (will come in) for this family,” said Buster, who also serves as a captain for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Air Squadron. “This is a cause that’s very near and dear to my heart, and we’re very anxious to support this campaign.”

The 11-99 Foundation took well over 100 calls as well, according to Dave Helsel, a retired CHP assistant chief who serves as the foundation’s benefits coordinator.

“It’s been a tremendous outpouring among the community,” he said, but noted that staff were still shaken by Youngstrom’s death. “People in the office are very upset … they’re sitting there with tears in their eyes, fielding these phone calls.”

In honor of Youngstrom on Thursday, flags were flown at half-staff at the Martinez CHP station and across California as authorities continued to investigate Tuesday’s shooting.

A seven-year CHP veteran, Youngstrom died less than 36 hours after Christopher Boone Lacy, 36, shot him in the head during a traffic stop on the southbound shoulder of I-680 near Alamo.

Youngstrom, 37, had pulled to the side of the road to investigate a dead deer there shortly before 8:30 a.m. when his partner, who was in another car, pulled Lacy over, investigators said.

During the stop, Lacy pulled his Jeep up behind Youngstrom’s stopped patrol car and the other officer pulled up behind Lacy.

Youngstrom, who was already out of his own car, guided Lacy’s car to a stop and walked up to the Jeep’s driver’s side window to talk to Lacy, sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Lee said. The two exchanged words for just a few seconds — not 30-45 seconds, as authorities said Wednesday — before Lacy fired a semi-automatic handgun at Youngstrom, hitting him in the head, Lee said.

Youngstrom’s partner, whom officials have not named, then approached Lacy’s Jeep from behind on the passenger side and fired at Lacy, killing him, Lee said.

The incident, from the time Lacy was pulled over to the time he was shot by the second officer, took less than a minute, and closer to 30 seconds, Lee said.

No other details about the investigation were expected to be released Thursday, Lee said.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon Thursday, CHP organizers and Youngstrom’s family met to sort out details of a public memorial service for Youngstrom, CHP Sgt. Diana McDermott said.

A bell-ringing ceremony in his honor was planned for 5 p.m. at the CHP academy in West Sacramento, to be led by CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow, his office announced.

A Facebook page calling for that stretch of I-680 to be named after Youngstrom had gained the support of more than 3,800 users by 1:45 p.m.

Besides donations being made through the two bank accounts, the One Hundred Club of Contra Costa County will donate $15,000 to Youngstrom’s widow, volunteer Maggie Lucca said.

“Out of the blue, your dad is gone and your husband is gone,” she said. “That is very traumatic.”

The nonprofit, which has clubs throughout the nation, supports the families of police and firefighters killed in the line of duty. To find out more about the club or donate, call 925-837-0199 or visit www.100clubcontracostacounty.org.

“While the chose the profession, they are still out there protecting us, and when, God forbid, something happens to them, we need to step up and help the surviving members,” Lucca said.

Staff writer Daniel M. Jimenez contributed to this report. Contact Sean Maher at 925-943-8013 and Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow them at Twitter.com/OneSeanMaher and Twitter.com/mgafni.


Similar news:
Category: Donations  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

Charity shouldn’t begin at home for Save the Children

When I entered such a home – as I often did as a doctor – I discovered no
evidence that cooking had ever taken place in it, beyond reheating of
prepared food in the microwave. The children did not so much eat meals as
forage or graze, more or less ad libitum. One of the most elementary forms
of civilised social intercourse was therefore alien to them.

Meanwhile, down the road, there were Indian shops selling fresh vegetables so
cheap that you could hardly carry away all you could buy for £10 – the cost
of 30 cigarettes. It goes without saying that the homes of which I speak
were plentifully supplied with flat television screens, some of them as wide
as the sky, and almost always illuminated.

The pattern of child-rearing in Britain is all too often that of a toxic
combination of overindulgence and neglect. First a child is bribed into
silence, or at least minimal compliance, by being given what it wants; then,
when it is old enough to demand rather than request, it does so. A higher
proportion of parents in Britain end up frightened of their own children
than anywhere else known to me – I never saw it in Africa, where I lived for
several years. And it is not only their parents who are frightened of them:
who these days dares to tell children to behave themselves in a public
place? Old people shrink away from them in fear; I have not seen this in
other countries.

About a fifth of our children leave school unable to read or write fluently.
This is not the consequence of poverty: on average, at least £50,000 will
have been spent on their education. No doubt bad schools, bad teachers, and
bad teaching methods have a part to play. But it cannot be easy to be a
teacher of children whose parents, or parent and latest lover, will take the
child’s part in any disciplinary dispute because of their egotistical belief
that anything that emerges from them must be above reproach.

Despite the catastrophically low educational level in many parts of this
country, there has never been a demonstration, much less a riot, with
slogans such as: ”We demand that our children be properly taught.’’ Many
parents – to judge by their actual conduct – think it is more important for
children to have the latest Manchester United strip than that they should be
able to read well. Our state does very little to supply the deficiency.

By the end of his childhood, a youngster is considerably more likely to have a
television in his bedroom than a father living at home. The combination of
family instability and a vulgar, celebrity-obsessed, low-IQ and all but
inescapable popular culture (of which, incidentally, the BBC’s website for
home consumption is clearly a manifestation), means that British children
lead the western world in many forms of self-destructive as well as
unattractive behaviour.

But none of this is poverty, properly so-called: it is squalor, mental,
emotional, moral, psychological, cultural and often, as a result, physical
too. But to call it poverty is actually to make it worse, in so far as it
misidentifies the problem and fosters the very culture of dependency that
brings so much of it about in the first place.

In Africa, I saw nothing like it, at least in the rural areas, neither the
neglect nor the overindulgence. And this was in areas of real poverty, where
the food supply was uncertain and cigarettes were sold by the puff if they
were available at all, and where any fever might lead to death in a day.

I hope I have made it clear that I have no doubt that there is a real problem
with childhood in Britain, but poverty of the kind that Save the Children
was nominally set up to combat is not that problem. It is an ever more
deeply entrenched cultural problem, of state-encouraged, if not promoted,
ignorance, dependence and cultural degradation.

But what of Save the Children? The first thing to say about it is that, like
so many charities in Britain today, it is not a charity, at least not in the
normal sense of the word. It is part of the charitable-bureaucratic complex
that is to modern Britain what the military-industrial complex was to
Eisenhower’s America. Like most bureaucracies, it is there to serve itself.

It spent £88 million on humanitarian assistance in 2009 and £58 million on
staff wages (it was far from the worst in this respect: the Child Poverty
Action Group spent £1,551,000 of its income of £1,990,000 on wages). In
2009, its chief executive was paid £137,608 which, while not vast by the
standards of commercial chief executives, was more than six times the median
British wage at the time. This is certainly not what individual donors might
think or hope their money is spent on; and it is certainly not what I think
charity is. Fourteen of its staff earned more than £60,000, and 150 between
£30,000 and £40,000. The “charity” operated a fixed-benefit pension scheme.
Its charity clearly began at home.

Save the Children spends about £500,000 a year on efforts in this country;
local government makes donations to it of about £500,000. The largest donor
to the charity by far in 2009 was the Government, at £19 million. The
European Union chipped in with another £12 million, the US government with
£11 million. Private donations have been going down as a proportion of the
charity’s total income (and the expenses of fund-raising are equal to 31 per
cent of the funds actually raised), while government contributions have been
rising. The chief executive is Justin Forsyth, fresh from having been Gordon
Brown’s communications and campaigns director.

Large charities in Britain are increasingly in hock to the government and its
bureaucratic machinery, with its statist outlook, and even share the same
vocabulary. When I looked on one website advertising charity jobs, I found
21 with salaries between £50,000 and £80,000, with titles such as corporate
development manager. Is this really what the old ladies who volunteer at
charity shops think they are raising money for?

Save the Children is not trying to save the children of Britain, it is trying
to save the jobs in the British welfare bureaucracy.


Similar news:
Category: Charities  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

Protest over mental health 'cuts'

irishtimes.com – Last Updated: Friday, September 7, 2012, 15:41A group protesting outside Government Buildings against the cuts to the mental health budget. Photograph: Cyril Byrne.

ÁINE McMAHON

Mental health campaigners protested today at Government buildings in Dublin over reports that the Government plans to use the €35 million promised for community mental health services to offset the deficit in the HSE.

Despite assurances from Minister of State for Mental Health Kathleen Lynch that the majority of promised posts for community health services would be in place by the end of the year, more than 50 campaigners gathered to say they were concerned about delays and uncertainty surrounding the mental health budget.

In Budget 2012, the Government committed to investing €35 million in the development of community based mental health services including 370 staff for adult child and adolescent community mental health teams, 34 staff for suicide prevention and ten staff for primary health care counselling services.

Advocacy group Mental Health Reform said the investment was part of an agreed transition from the old model of institutional hospital based care towards holistic, community based care outlined in Government’s own mental health strategy.

“We’re protesting about the risk to the €35 million that has been designated for community mental health care services.” the organisation’s director Orla Barry said.

“This is not new money for mental health services. Even with the proposed €35 million, the mental health budget still took a cut of 1 per cent in 2012. We are seen as easy targets. The transition is about reducing the reliance on hospital beds which are ferociously expensive. Some people may need to be in hospital but many can get help in their own homes and communities.”

Ms Barry called on the Government to keep their promise and deliver the allocated services for 2012.

Counselling psychologist Eoin O’Shea said the proposed cutbacks were “a disgrace in two different ways”.

“There is an untold human cost,” he said. “National and international studies prove the fiscal cost in the medium term. Cutbacks to mental health services result in economic deficits – absenteeism from work and increased pressure on physical health services and the fallout to their family members.”

  • |


Similar news:
Category: About Mental Health  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

VA won’t cover costs of service dogs assigned for PTSD treatment

Michelle Rossitch

Army veteran Luis Zaragoza, 28, with his service dog Cheyenne. Zaragoza did two tours of duty in Iraq, and suffers PTSD.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will cover the costs of service dogs to help veterans with impaired vision, hearing or mobility, but will not cover canines assigned for mental disabilities, according to regulations published on Wednesday in the Federal Register.

The VA said that despite many individual veterans’ testimonials that mental health service dogs provide relief from the symptoms of combat-related disabilities such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), it lacked research substantiating the efficacy of mental health service dogs.

“VA has not yet been able to determine that these dogs provide a medical benefit to veterans with mental illness,” the department said. “Until such a determination can be made, VA cannot justify providing benefits for mental health service dogs.”

To be defined as a “service dog” the animal has to be trained to do specific tasks for a person — such as picking things up, guiding them or providing balance.

Trainers say that for veterans suffering mental disabilities such as PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), dogs can be trained to help avert panic attacks and wake them up as they enter a nightmare. The animals can be taught to remind veterans to take medications and alert them if they have left a burner lit on the stove.

Luis Zaragoza, 28, who suffers PTSD from his service in the Iraq war, says he’s experienced more progress in a month with his service dog, Cheyenne, than in all the years visiting the VA since his discharge in 2004.

“For eight years I was just in limbo, but now I’m seeing glimpses of the old me — the me I was before I joined the military,” he said of the service-dog program.

The program, designed by Illinois-based nonprofit This Able Veteran, paired Zaragoza with the dog and a therapist. The dog is there to help the veteran re-enter mainstream life at intervals recommended and monitored by the therapist.

In Zaragoza’s case, the dog is trained to detect a tic — Zaragoza’s leg begins to shake — at the onset of a panic attack, and divert the veteran’s attention by bumping his leg. Cheyenne will do this a second time — more insistently — if Zaragoza fails to respond the first time. This happens up to five times a day, said Zaragoza, who lost nine soldiers in his company during two bruising stints in Fallujah and Ramadi, Iraq.

The veteran says he is regaining his ability to get out of the house and do things — like go to the shopping mall — that he has avoided because of the anxiety and hyper vigilance that is common to combat-related PTSD. Zaragoza says he sleeps more, functions better in the day, and interacts with more with other people rather than choosing to isolate himself. He’s lost 15 pounds because he is more active.

That was progress he had not seen despite years of visiting VA psychiatrists and doctors who prescribed medications for his PTSD symptoms.

“At the VA, what they tend to do is pump you with medicine,” he said. “That’s not a solution to any issue like PTSD or anxiety. They just kind of numb you. I knew that wasn’t the right choice for me. I was looking for an alternative.”

But Zaragoza’s opportunity remains relatively rare and unaffordable for many veterans.

The cost of providing custom-trained Cheyenne was about $20,000 said Behesha Doan, president of This Able Veteran. The costs — for training, as well as Zaragoza’s travel expenses, veterinary bills, and equipment — were funded by private donations. Zaragoza was one of six veterans assigned a PTSD dogs by the nonprofit.

But he is disappointed that the VA won’t pick up the bill so that more veterans can get this kind of assistance.

As an employee of U.S. Fish and Wildlife in Chicago, he is able to handle the cost of maintaining Cheyenne — things like food, kennels for work, home and cars, and vet bills. Even these costs would challenge many fellow combat veterans, he said.

“There are other veterans who can’t go to school or hold a job because their PTSD is so bad,” said Zaragoza. “A lot of these guys live on $600 a month.”

Stories like Zaragoza’s prompted members of Congress to push for the VA to provide more canine assistance to veterans, and recommended more research to explore how dogs might best help veterans suffering two of the most common mental disabilities from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan — PTSD and TBI.

As NBC News’ Rebecca Ruiz reported in August, a team of epidemiologists, mental health providers, veterinarians and other experts were conducting a study at the Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Fla. Proponents were eager for the three-year study to deliver data to demonstrate benefits and help create a framework for training mental disability service dogs.

But the research was temporarily suspended from January to June after a young girl was bitten by a dog. VA declined to be interviewed about the study, but told Ruiz that the project resumed after it increased monitoring through phone calls and home visits by the researchers and service dog providers.

Training PTSD dogs is tricky because the illness ranges from very manageable to very severe, according to Corey Hudson, President of the North American chapter of Assistance Dogs International, a coalition of not for profit organizations that train and place canines worldwide. “You have to be careful what you’re getting into, and make sure you are qualified to train a dog for that situation,” he said.

He said that his understanding was that the VA wanted the results from the PTSD service dog research to show what was effective before making a decision on benefits.

Doan, of This Able Veteran, said continued research, properly done, could help the VA set standards, and weed out service dog providers which have proliferated in the last few years. She stresses that pairing dogs and veterans without careful screening and training poses risks to both, and could just be a waste of resources.

“In order for this to be taken seriously, we’ve got to show that we have considered all the aspects of what could potentially go wrong and maintain all the efficacy of what goes right,” she said.

She is hoping that the VA, in its decision not to cover PTSD dogs is merely taking a cautious, go-slow approach, not ruling out benefits for the future or merely dragging its feet.

“If it’s done right we’ve got a helluva program going on,” she said. “If it’s not, you’ve got Joe Bag-a-donuts out there grabbing some dog off the street and calling it a PTSD dog.”

More content from NBCNews.com:

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook


Similar news:
Category: Mental Health  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

Burr Ridge hopes residents are in a giving mood

The leaders of west suburban Burr Ridge have a list of dozens of items they want for the community, including a new patrol vehicle, a portable Breathalyzer and even a cordless saw.

But because they didn’t make it into the budget, they have put them on a wish list and are asking residents for help.

Village leaders are setting up a donation program and asking residents and businesses to help pay for them.

  • Maps

  • Burr Ridge, IL, USA

  • Westmont, IL, USA

  • Riverside, IL, USA

“We are in the same boat as everyone else. Revenues are tight,” Village Manager Steve Stricker said. “The items (on the wish list) are not crucial to the operation of the village, but they are certainly items that we would like to have.”

Stricker said village officials came up with the idea last year after learning that west suburban Riverside has a similar program. He said the village is still establishing a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) program, but added that residents have already given funds.

In 2011, Burr Ridge resident Alan Rose, the CEO of Rose Paving Co. in Bridgeview, donated $5,800 to the Police Department for new Taser devices, according to village documents. Resident Joyce Walsh also donated $5,000 to the Police Department in 2011 for its efforts in protecting the village.

The village is also looking for committee members to serve on a board to handle the donations.

Some other items on the wish list include a desktop scanner for $1,000, a thermal imaging night vision system for $7,200 and suggestion of giving $500,000 toward a planned Interstate 55 bridge interchange project.

Stricker said he believes communities that are more affluent have residents and businesses who are looking to donate.

“I don’t want to stereotype, but some people are just able to donate more,” Stricker said. “We are grateful for their help.”

The median annual household income in Burr Ridge, which is known for its ritzy mansions, was $143,669 between 2006 and 2010, according to the U.S. census. This is well above the average income of $55,735 for the state. The median value of owner-occupied housing during those same years was $706,700.

Riverside officials said several residents have donated $300 for trees in the village, which is on its wish list, but the village has not received much in other donations.

“We don’t publicize the program,” said Village Manager Peter Scalera. “Most of the items eventually make it to our budget. But obviously the idea behind the donation program is to minimize the impact on the budget.”

Other nearby communities such as Darien, Woodridge and Westmont don’t have such programs.

But Ron Searl, village manager of Westmont, liked the idea. He said the village periodically receives donations from village businesses for community programs such as a recent donation to the village’s citizens’ fire and police academy.

“I think it would work on some level,” Searl said. “It sounds like a good idea.”


Similar news:
Category: Donations  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

William Shawcross appointed chairman of Charity Commission

The controversial journalist and royal biographer William Shawcross has been appointed as the next chairman of the Charity Commission, despite reservations among some MPs over his independence and experience.

Shawcross’s confirmation in the two-day-a-week, £50,000-a-year job follows a grilling by members of an MPs’ committee this week at which he admitted that friends had warned him that the post, which involves the regulation of Britain’s 180,000 charities, was “a poisoned chalice”.

The Old Etonian writer, broadcaster and one-time Labour party supporter has written widely and provocatively on a range of issues including the Iraq war, Islamic terrorism and Rupert Murdoch.

At the Commons hearing Labour MPs asked Shawcross whether being such an “outspoken figure” with “strong views” meant he was best qualified to hold such a sensitive post.

Shawcross told the committee he would not withhold his views, but promised MPs that if appointed he would take advice from fellow commissioners before writing anything likely to spark undue controversy.

The job has a high media and political profile because under the Charities Act the commission must decide whether organisations from private schools to religious groups offer “public benefit” and therefore can qualify for, or keep, charitable status.

Shawcross’s predecessor, Dame Suzi Leather, was pilloried by the rightwing press after the commission ruled that fee-paying schools that failed to provide bursaries to poor students or demonstrate how they benefited wider society should lose charitable status and its attendant tax benefits.

Shawcross will also have to manage an organisation with a shrinking budget and workforce. The commission will see its budget cut by a third by 2016. Shawcross told MPs this week he believed that charging charities to register with the commission should be considered.

Announcing the appointment, the Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said: “William has long been involved in the charity sector, particularly in human rights and international aid. His writings have helped shape the debate on the accountability of humanitarian organisations.

“He brings strong leadership skills, broad knowledge and experience of the sector, and intellectual ability to the Charity Commission, which acts as the independent and impartial regulator of the charity sector.”

The Cabinet Office said Shawcross was not a member of any political party, “although he had in the past been a Labour party supporter and has canvassed on behalf of various political parties”.

Shawcross is a former board member of the Disasters Emergency Committee, and a former chairman of Article 19, a human rights charity.


Similar news:
Category: Charities  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

Dept. of Mental Health Making Effort to Help Returning Veterans

Bookmark and Share

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Department of Mental Health said it is pushing to better train behavioral health professionals on how to help returning veterans and their families cope with the stresses that result from their experiences in the service and the readjustment to returning to the realities of everyday life.

“We need to strengthen our support for behavioral health professionals in Missouri who help these heroes overcome the invisible wounds of war,” said Dr. Keith Schafer, Department of Mental Health Director.

A source reports to KOMU that the goal is to get 2,000 professionals in the mental health and substance abuse fields to complete this important, free training by September 30.

The Department of Mental Health said it is asking for its contracted providers and other behavioral health care professionals to take special training in military culture, the impact of combat stress, the effects of deployment on children and families, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Training is free, online and nationally accredited, according to a press release from the Missouri Department of Mental Health. If you are a Missouri behavioral health professional or if you know one, visit http://www.restofthewayhome.com/ to learn more about the training.


Similar news:
Category: About Mental Health  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

Transitions Mental Health Expands services to Santa Maria, Lompoc, Guadalupe





Bookmark and Share

Tranistion Mental Health Association, a longtime public health organization in San Luis Obispo County, in launching a “Freindship Line” in Northern Santa Barbara County for people living with mental illness.

The Friendship Line is a peer-to-peer, non-crisis telephone support line, which is run and staffed by people who have experienced mental illness themselves. The Friendship Line is not a crisis line but will work in conjunction with SLO Hotline and other crisis lines in Santa Barbara County.

The Friendship Line provides supportive listening for callers living with a mental illness in Santa Maria, Guadalupe and Lompoc. “Calls to the Friendship Line generally involve conversations about everyday aspects of life, mental health symptoms and recovery, daily responsibilities, relationships, and positive life events,” said Steve Greene, Program Manager. “We hope that callers value being able to freely discuss any topic they choose and to experience a personal connection while doing so.”

The Friendship Line is available seven nights a week from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. by calling 805-345-1877. People can call anytime and leave a message if calling outside the designated time and staff will return calls during operating hours. “The Friendship Line is unique, providing a friendly source of peer support during hours when other services are often not available,” said Greene.

Four people have already been hired to help staff the line, and a bilingual staff member will be hired to help answer calls for people who only speak Spanish.

A similar Warmline for South Santa Barbara County is coming soon as part of this same project.

If there is an emergency please call 911 or for an emotional crisis please call the crisis Hotline at 800-549-4499.

Transitions-Mental Health Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating stigma and promoting recovery and wellness for people with mental illness through work, housing, community and family support services. TMHA operates 27 programs at over 35 locations that reach over 2,000 people and 1,500 families in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.


Similar news:
Category: Mental Health  Tags: ,  Comments off
07 Sep 2012

No charges for firm in Ed Lee donations

District Attorney George Gascón will not file criminal charges in the case of a property management firm accused of laundering thousands of dollars in contributions to Mayor Ed Lee’s election campaign last fall, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

There was “insufficient evidence to support criminal charges,” said Gascón spokeswoman Stephanie Ong Stillman. She declined to go into specifics on the decision.

The case had centered around $4,500 in contributions to Lee’s campaign from employees and associates of Archway Property Services. Lee’s campaign returned the money after being contacted by The Chronicle with questions about the donations. Lee’s campaign also notified prosecutors that it may “be the victim of a fraud.”

A donor provided The Chronicle with an e-mail from Andrew Hawkins, managing director of Archway Property Services who had worked as an eviction strongman for CitiApartments Inc., sent to 16 associates directing them to attend an Oct. 18 fundraiser for Lee.

“I expect each and every one of you to be at this event tonight,” he wrote in capital letters. “Bring your check books and write a check for $500.00 for Ed Lee donation. You will be reimbursed right away for you coming.”

At least nine people – eight Archway employees and the spouse of someone who received Hawkins’ e-mail – donated the $500 maximum allowed under city law at the event, finance records show.

One of the donors, who asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation, said Archway employees were reimbursed for donations. The donor gave The Chronicle a copy of a $500 reimbursement check from Archway.

Hawkins, who sent the e-mail under the name Dr. Andrew Hawkins-Cohen, donated $500 to Lee on Sept. 2, campaign finance records show.

State law prohibits donating in someone else’s name or being reimbursed for a contribution.

Hawkins said last fall that the money-laundering allegations were “more of an internal misunderstanding,” and he would not discuss details about it.

The whistle-blower who provided the documents to The Chronicle was fired shortly afterward. A call to Archway Property Services was not returned Thursday.

John Coté is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jcote@sfchronicle.com


Similar news:
Category: Donations  Tags: ,  Comments off
« Previous Entries
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Twitter