“When you need help for your family or child, we’ve found that it’s hard to find a Spanish-speaking clinician in Rhode Island,” said Jayashree Nimmagadda, a professor of social work at RIC and the center’s founder. “And those clinicians who are bilingual have long waiting lists.”

The center is primarily focused on recruiting, training, and graduating Latino students in clinical social work; building a community for clinical social work students; strengthening curriculum to address issues regarding Hispanic populations; and recruiting and retaining Latino faculty in social work “so our faculty represents and looks like the students,” Nimmagadda said.

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State Senator Alana M. DiMario, who has advocated for accessing mental health support, said finding a licensed provider with a similar cultural background can make all the difference.

“One of the things we know is mental health services are accessed more frequently and are also more effective when people feel as though they can access a provider who can understand them,” DiMario said. “That goes both for understanding the provider in terms of the language they’re more comfortable speaking, but also in terms of familiarity with cultural aspects.”

DiMario said there’s often “less stigma, less barriers, when somebody can access care from a person who looks like them and sounds like them.”

The center, which opened over the summer, was funded by a grant from the US Health Resources and Services Administration. The grant provided $650,000 for the first year, with the possibility of additional funding for another three years, according to a press release from RIC.

Rhode Island’s primarily white and English-speaking behavioral health workforce does not reflect the racial and cultural diversity of its residents, and a 2021 report by the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island found that efforts must be made to close the gap.

DiMario pointed out how the process for becoming a licensed social worker or mental health care provider inherently works against many people.

“There are a lot of barriers there,” DiMario said.

Traditionally, people need a bachelor’s and master’s degree to become a mental health care provider.

“And during the master’s degree, you need to complete several hundred hours of unpaid training,” DiMario said, adding that individuals then typically take a lower-wage-paying position while seeking independent licensure.

There is also a standardized exam that is not offered in any language other than English, she said.

“You can see where those disincentive points are for people who’s first language is not English, or people who need to work their way through college and grad school, and for people who need to make sure their taking on a higher wage earning job because they have student loan debt,” said DiMario, who helped pass legislation last year that makes the social worker licensing process slightly more accessible, by eliminating the first of two standardized tests licensees are required to take.

The center plans to partner with guidance counselors at local schools, so that when students consider future careers, they think about social work.

“Usually when students think of helping other people as their passion, they may not think of social work as an option,” Nimmagadda said. “We plan to be more intentional about building awareness.”

The center also seeks to close the gap in research by and for the Latino community.

“We believe there are alternative treatments that can serve our community more effectively,” said Vilna Tejeda, the center’s co-director. “Our hope is that this will lead to an end of over diagnosing and over medicating in our communities.”

The center’s work also aligns with RIC’s Hispanic Serving Institution status, a federal designation that recognizes schools where 25 percent or more of undergraduate, full-time students identify as Hispanic. RIC is the only college in Rhode Island with the distinction.

Additionally, they’ve partnered with Rhode Island Free Clinic and Clinica Esperanza, and signed agreements so that students from the center can become interns with these agencies and receive clinical supervision from one of their licensed, bilingual social workers.

Through the center, students will learn about specific health disparities and social determinants of health that impact Hispanic communities, according to RIC.

“This center is going to be a big deal for the state,” said Estrellita Moronta, the center’s first faculty fellow. “It demonstrates that Rhode Island is progressive and willing to move along with Latinx growth in the United States.”

The first meeting of students for the Center of Excellence, a program that seeks to end barriers to Latinx mental healthcare.Gene St. Pierre/Rhode Island College

Brittany Bowker can be reached at brittany.bowker@globe.com. Follow her @brittbowker and also on Instagram @brittbowker.

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The girls have known each other since preschool and banded together to create the Jaguar Zen Den after noticing students struggling with their mental health.

VACAVILLE, Calif. — A Vacaville Girl Scout troop created a wellness “zen den” for Willis Jepson Middle School students after noticing themselves and their peers struggling with mental health through the pandemic.

Troop 20113 consists of lifelong friends Amy Borchert, Cailtlin McGee, Lily Coble and others who wanted to help students like themselves have a safe place to decompress from the stress of their studies. The girls have known each other since preschool and banded together to create the Jaguar Zen Den. 

“We all saw that people in our schools were struggling with just finding a safe space,” said Cailtlin McGee. “When we found out that we could actually help others, it definitely became something we wanted to do.” 

Because Jepson had just gotten a new principal and was looking for ideas for a wellness project, teacher Cynthia Roble suggested her daughter’s troop work together with the school. 

“[The school] jumped on it very quickly and said, ‘Yes, let’s do this,’” she said. “They provided a space, and we went from there.”

To earn their Silver Award, the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can get, the troop decided to create a mental health initiative to help their community — even though many of them were never Jepson students. 

“They all went to different middle schools. That’s kind of the beauty of this project. They came together and had a common purpose at one school, and they didn’t really care that it was a school that wasn’t their own,” said troop leader Angela Borchert. 

The girls proposed a wellness center to the school board and got it approved, allowing them to work alongside the Jepson Wellness Task Force which had previously been using the space but hadn’t seen much interest from students until now. 

“I would say we did use it somewhat last year,” said Angi Roe, an eight grade counselor at Jepson. “[But] we have been able to utilize it a lot since it’s opened even more recently… it’s just been super special for our students to have that place to come and not go cry in the bathroom.”

They went with an ocean theme for the space because they found it relaxing themselves, but eventually “throughout our project, it got a lot more colorful and more welcoming,” said Amy Borchert. 

They did hours of research to find the best methods and tools to help someone decompress — leading the zen den to have sensory toys, coloring books, comfortable chairs, puzzles and more. 

Some of those tools were donated by the troop while others were purchased, thrifted or created to help the girls learn how to budget their allotted funds and restore/theme items for the space. 

Girl Scouts creating the Jaguar Zen Den

“My favorite part was yardsaling because we were able to not only find stuff for the wellness room, we were also able to go out of a [Girl Scout] meeting and have time together to find stuff that we all thought could help,” said Lily Coble. 

More students are using the zen den since it opened in the middle of September, nearly eight months after the troop began their plans. School counselors expect more students to use the revamped space as they learn about the resource. 

“It’s been a fun space to share with students,” said Roe. “We are so grateful for what this space already, in the short time it’s been open, has been for us.” 

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After years of work, Larimer County officials gathered in southwest Fort Collins Friday morning to officially cut the ribbon on the Larimer County Behavioral Health Services at Longview Campus building.

The multi-level building that sits on a 40-acre lot at the northwest corner of Trilby and Taft Hill Roads serves as the culmination of a mental health initiative led by the county and funded by a 2018 sales tax of 0.25%.

Larimer County Commissioner John Kefalas, left, participates in a Native American sweet grass blessing with Zach Rockwell, right, at the opening ceremony for the new Larimer County Behavioral Health at Longview Campus in south Fort Collins. (Jenny Sparks/Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Jody Shadduck-McNally, Larimer County commissioner, welcomed the large group of county and other local officials Friday morning, starting off by asking if anyone there had been themselves or had family impacted by mental health issues; many of those gathered raised their hands.

“It (is) important to know that this impacts our community more than people may know,” she said.

The facility, which will be operated by SummitStone Health Partners who will work in collaboration with area hospitals and outpatient behavioral health providers, is meant to serve as a single location for a variety of mental health crises, according to previous reporting. The building houses its own pharmacy, therapy rooms, a full withdrawal management — or detox — wing, a full-service kitchen and a docking bay for ambulances and law enforcement dropping patients off.

Patients are expected to be accepted into the center by early December.

Shadduck-McNally spent several minutes thanking the large group of individuals who helped make the building possible, from those who were with the county years ago to those who are still there today. She also thanked the SummitStone team, who she described as a “cornerstone” partner, as well as the county voters who “overwhelmingly” supported it, adding this creation of this facility may not have been possible in other communities but was in Larimer County because of how everyone worked together.

People walk through the lobby of the new Larimer County Behavioral Health Services at Longview Campus Friday. (Jenny Sparks/Loveland Reporter-Herald)

“This took a community,” she said. “This took a village. And this took an entire county.”

Michael Allen, CEO of SummitStone, also thanked the many people who made the project possible and who came to celebrate Friday. He said that as of now, the facility has hired 75% of the staff that will be needed to run it.

“We will be ready for you when we open in December,” he said.

Friday’s event also included a land acknowledgement, which featured a sweet grass blessing to a large portion of the crowd and several dances by the Iron Family, a third-generation group of Native American performers; each dance represented different stories and ideals such as love for the earth and relief from grief and mourning, among others.

Jan Iron, in speaking to the crowd, said that being able to come and be part of land acknowledgements and being able to perform like this helps continue the memory of those who came before them and and celebrate their lives.

She added she appreciates those who will work to save and help those in need no matter what.

An official ribbon-cutting on the building and self-guided tours followed, allowing those who came to go inside and see what there is to offer.

Allen said getting to see the building after the years it took to get it finished was surreal but important, saying that it is going to change the Larimer County community.

“This facility is one more tool in our arsenal to (lower) suicide rates,” he said. “Because one suicide is too many.”

Shadduck-McNally said the campus was named both for the literal view around the facility and its proximity to the Long View Trail, but also for its connection to how the building will approach mental and behavioral health care, focusing on the long view of helping those in need. She said the center will show compassion, equity and a belief that mental health is a “fundamental right for all.”

“This is only the beginning of our journey for mental health and behavioral health (services) in our county,” she  said.

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LOS ANGELES — Founded 50 years ago in the East Los Angeles garage of Franciscan nun Sister Karen Boccalero, Self Help Graphics & Art (SHG) established itself in the ensuing decades as a vital and vibrant community-focused arts space and printmaking studio. Now, a series of exhibitions staged over the coming months will contextualize the organization’s history and legacy, delving deep into different aspects of its cultural and social resonance.

The inaugural show Marking an Era: Celebrating Self Help Graphics & Art at 50 opened last month at the Laguna Art Museum, one of the first institutions to acquire a significant number of prints made by artists at SHG. In 1992, the museum purchased 170 works spanning the first decade of the SHG’s Professional Printmaking Program (PPP). Curated by Rochelle Steiner, the exhibition features 78 works, one by each artist in the acquisition. Rather than organize it chronologically, Steiner grouped the works thematically, with loose sections devoted to hybridity and immigration, art history, the body, portraiture, war, AIDS, and urbanism.

Sister Karen Boccalero (1978) (photo courtesy Self Help Graphics & Art)

Self Help Graphics & Art emerged alongside the Chicano Movement of the early 1970s as an important hub for Latinx and Chicanx artists at a time when they were still fighting for art-world visibility. In 1974, SHG brought arts education to the streets with the Barrio Mobile Art Studio, a van offering printmaking workshops in local communities. The previous year, they began an annual Día de los Muertos Celebration, bringing art, music, and performance together in recognition of the holiday with Indigenous roots that is widely observed in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.

Although printmaking has always been a central focus of the organization, SHG wanted to create a more formal program, and in 1983, the PPP was born. Every year, SHG hosts two ateliers for five to seven artists who work with a master printer to create serigraphs and monoprints. The initiative is ongoing, with more than 2,000 editions produced to date. Marking an Era highlights a dynamic period in the early years of the PPP, showcasing the experimental spirit and technical growth that took place over the course of the decade.

Barbara Carrasco, “Self-Portrait” (1984), 17-color serigraph, 40 x 28 inches, and Diane Gamboa, “Malathion Baby” (1990), 13-color serigraph, 50 x 38 inches (photo Matt Stromberg/Hyperallergic)

The works in the show embody a remarkable diversity and breadth. Some express a boisterous energy, such as “Cruising Turtle Island” (1986) by Gilbert “Magu” Luján and Yreina Cervántez’s “Danza Ocelotl/Ocelotl Dance” (1983), which both reinterpret Indigenous themes. Other artists employ photo-based techniques, as with Jean LaMarr’s “Some Kind of Buckaroo” (1990), which depicts fighter jets streaking across a purple sky above a brown-skinned cowboy, and Elizabeth Rodriguez’s stark untitled 1986 body print serigraph. An edgy, postmodern-Punk aesthetic is visible in several works: John Valadez’s untitled 1985 screenprint in vibrating orange, purple, and green; Barbara Carrasco’s cartoonish 1984 “Self Portrait”; and Victor Ochoa’s humorous depiction of literal fractured identities, “Border Bingo/Lotería Fronteriza” (1987).

Patssi Valdez, “The Dressing Table” (1988), 12-color serigraph, 37 1/2 x 25 inches (image courtesy the Laguna Art Museum)

Marvella Muro, director of Artistic Programs at SHG, emphasized that the organization has also served as a resource for a broader population of LA artists and people of color. “It has empowered Chicanx communities, but not exclusively,” Muro told Hyperallergic. “That’s what I want to elevate. It’s a multi-cultural space.”

Steiner added that it was important to frame the show in the context of other formative print houses in the region, such as Gemini GEL and Tamarind Press. “There’s a whole other story here about the history of printmaking in LA, of which SHG is an anchor point,” she said.

SHG is in the midst of a multi-million dollar renovation to their current 112-year-old building, purchased in 2018, and is operating from remote offices during construction; however, the group is still running programs like the Barrio Mobile Art Studio, Día de los Muertos Celebration, and an upcoming biennial printmaking summit to be held at the Vincent Price Art Museum on September 9. While the building is being updated and retrofitted, these four offsite exhibitions offer an opportunity to revisit and reassess its history on its 50th anniversary.

Glenna Avila, “Untitled” (1986), serigraph, 25 x 38 1/4 inches (image courtesy the Laguna Art Museum)

The second exhibition in the series, In the Heart of It, opening at the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center at the Los Angeles LGBT Center on November 18, focuses on the community of LGBTQ+ artists who have worked with and thrived at SHG. Sister Karen, who studied under Sister Corita Kent, an influential and progressive nun in LA who fused art and activism, founded SHG alongside artists Frank Hernández, Antonio Ibáñez, and Carlos Bueno, the latter two of whom were longtime partners who often signed each others’ work.

“I would do some pretty radical stuff, and she would just nod her head like, ‘oh, brother,’” said curator Ruben Esparza, who was invited to create a series of prints at SHG in the mid-1990s. The exhibition will feature about 20 artists including Ibáñez, Bueno, Teddy Sandoval, Joey Terrill, Laura Aguilar, and Miguel Angel Reyes.

Teddy Sandoval, “Angel Baby” (1995), silkscreen print (image courtesy Self Help Graphics & Art)

Los de Abajo/Monográfico, the third show, will focus on a collective that formed in the basement of SHG in the late ’90s. Members including Victor Rosas, Marianne Sadowski, Kay Brown, Don Newton, and Poli Marichal combined their prints to create large-scale collaborations. The exhibition, running from March 2 to April 27 at the Long Beach City College Gallery, speaks to the communal aspect of the space and the connections it fostered between artists.

The final show, titled The Re-membering Generation, will highlight the synergy between art and the East LA music scene that took place in the mid-1990s. During this period, musicians and bands including Quetzal, Ozomatli, and the Aztlan Underground formed a new movement that drew from Chicano history and culture, inspired by the Zapatista struggle for Indigenous rights in Mexico. Curated by musician and historian Quetzal Flores, the exhibition will feature archival works alongside new prints being created during the current PPP atelier that pairs musicians from this period with visual artists. It will be held at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College next spring.

While these four exhibitions offer historical perspectives on Self Help Graphics & Art, they also provide views of an organization that is still alive and generative.

“These works look as fresh today as they did then. These are issues that we’re still interested in, it’s absolutely relevant terrain,” Steiner said. “We should look at them with wide-open eyes.”

Gilbert “Magu” Luján, “Cruising Turtle Island” (1986), 12-color serigraph, 25 x 38 1/4 inches (photo Matt Stromberg/Hyperallergic)

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For exercise, Stephen Brown leaves his home early in the mornings to collect trash around the Briarwood community. During every trip, he would walk past the dilapidated building between a run-down gas station and Alpha Investments. He lived in the neighborhood for six years, and it was always vacant.

Over the pandemic, the property grew worse in appearance as trash and grocery-store carts decorated the property. People slept under the awnings. Last summer, he spotted a “For Lease” sign in front of the building, and out of curiosity, he called the owners for a walk-through.

Turns out, the Alpha Investments owners, an elderly couple, also own the building and a few other properties across the metro area. At one point, the building was an abortion clinic and later a daycare.

Stephen Brown signed the lease for the Briarwood Arts Center on Sept. 10, 2022. After nearly a year, the center has seen visitors from across the state including cities like Brandon, Clinton, Grenada and Kosciusko. Photo courtesy Acacia Clark

Brown invited the bulk of his family to the walk-through, hoping they could use the space as a family compound due to their various businesses. The building owners had been using the building for storage, so old refrigerators and ovens sat throughout the space. The insulation and tiles were falling from the ceiling, and mold and rust were present in certain areas.

Nevertheless, as Brown stepped from room to room, he looked past all the wear and tear, and the gears in his head started to turn. He visualized putting a small studio equipped with recording devices in one room, turning another into an arts and painting room, and setting up a pop-up shop in the next space.

After talking it over, Brown and other members of his family signed a lease for the building in September. However, one by one, cosigners began to drop out of the lease, citing reasons such as financial constraints or bad timing. Eventually, Brown was the last name on the lease, though he said he would have never signed for the building had he known he would have to manage it alone.

Following some self-reflection and prayer, Stephen Brown accepted his fate and soon afterward opened the Briarwood Arts Center. Approaching its one-year anniversary, the center provides art education and workspace for creatives to hone their technical skills and to develop greater business acumen. The community center also hosts workshops, mentorship programs, events and other offerings.

Attendees color the inside copies of Kenya Clark’s new coloring book while partaking in merlot, non-alcoholic beverages and snacks at the Color & Sip event at the Briarwood Arts Center on Wednesday, July 19, 2023. Photo courtesy Acacia Clark

Briarwood Arts Center is an idea factory open to members of the community who have ideas, but do not necessarily have the space to explore them, Brown explained. At the center, getting started is as simple as picking a date and coming in to work toward progress.

“It’s not that experts are not welcome here, but this space is kind of designed for folks who are still trying to figure it out,” he said. “(The Briarwood Arts Center is) for those who have a genuine curiosity about something, but are afraid to dip their toe in the water because they’re like, ‘What if I don’t get it right?’ But we’re like, ‘Come here and screw up!’”

‘I Am Because We Are’

Stephen Brown splits his time between his full-time job at the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Briarwood Arts Center. After his usual shift at the museum, he drives to the center to teach a music-production workshop, and then he records the Vibe Controls podcast in the music-production lab. Once he has finished, Brown will plan for the next program, which could be an ACT-prep class or the mentoring program, all while simultaneously being a full-time dad and music producer.

“It’s like all the stuff kind of overlaps,” he said.

The center offers various spaces for creativity such as Cole’s House #2. Named after Brown’s dog who was tragically murdered, the small music-production lab is where Brown teaches lessons on songwriting, music production, recording basics and the music business.

A craft kitchen houses sewing machines, embroidering machines, vinyl cutters, T-shirt presses and candle-making equipment. Volunteers, nicknamed the Craft Cartel, can also teach classes in the room.

“Instead of us just trying to shove programming down their throat, we want to know what it is they want, and then we basically go find somebody to teach it,” Brown said.

Stephen Brown works full-time at the Mississippi Museum of Art while balancing being a father, operator of the Briarwood Arts Center and a music producer under the moniker, 5th Child. Photo courtesy Stephen Brown

The building includes a remote office for people who work remotely, but do not want to lease a long-term office space. The office has its own keyboard and mouse, Wi-Fi, and wireless printing. The boardroom in the back of the building is used for small group meetings like firearm-safety classes and gatherings of a local anime club.

Additionally, a branding lab has a backdrop for photoshoots or professional headshots. “There’s a photography studio called 242 Creative, and they’ve done a headshot gathering here where they just posted up with all their lights and filters and stuff and invited people to come and get headshots done,” Brown explained.

The e-learning center is for SAT and ACT prep, financial-aid advice, college planning, career coaching, and GED and GRE prep. The center has an art studio, a room for vendors to do a pop-up shop, and the Ubuntu room.

“Ubuntu means ‘I am because we are’; this is our general community meeting space,” Brown said. “This is where we have our youth-mentorship programs, photography workshops, financial-literacy workshops, mural painting, hip-hop cardio, Afro-Caribbean dance classes, the krumping dance class called Groove Moves and Vibe Sessions.”

Looking For Community

Bernadette Milnick lived in Tennessee before she retired and relocated to Jackson after her son, who lives in the capital city, asked her to move. She arrived last year in August, having no friends in the community for the first few months. One day while she was in her kitchen, she overheard a news story on her TV about the Briarwood Arts Center.

She paused her task and thought that maybe she would be able to find a sense of community there. She mentioned it in a conversation with her son, who coincidentally knew the owner.

“Mom, that’s my friend, Stephen Brown,” the son said at the time. “Oh, OK,” Milnick responded. “Call him,” her son continued. “He would love for you to come by and see him.”

So, she visited the Briarwood Arts Center and met with Brown. “I really like him,” she told the Mississippi Free Press.

By volunteering with the center, the Jackson transplant says she has finally found the feeling of community she had wanted. Milnick mainly helps at the front desk and occasionally hosts meetings, though she hopes to teach craft classes in the future.

Jackson Police Department Precinct 3 Commander Christian Vance started the Firm Foundations with his childhood friends and father as a way to help guide and mentor Jackson’s young men. Photo by Malcolm Morrow

Milnick has been helping to plan the art center’s first “birthday” on Sept. 10, along with other volunteers like Braden Luckett, who has a platform called Urban World that he uses to support local artists throughout the state.

Luckett has other clients across the South in states like Georgia and Texas, but he said he feels called to do work in Jackson. “Music has always been a part of my life,” he told the Mississippi Free Press inside the Briarwood Arts Center lobby. “It’s just right now, I feel like I’m supposed to help build here.”

Through personal conversations with Brown, Luckett has determined that people can often get too caught up in needing other people to create opportunities for them instead of simply going out and pursuing their dreams on their own.

“Sometimes, you just do it yourself,” Luckett said. “(Brown has) talked about toxic self-reliance because you don’t want to feel like you can’t depend on anyone. If you want your dreams to come true, just go do it.”

‘Firm Foundations’

The smell of Little Caesar’s pizza wafted through the room on the day this reporter visited the center before Jackson Police Department Precinct 3 Commander Christian Vance rounded the corner carrying the stack of orange boxes. The Firm Foundations, a nonprofit that mentors boys between the ages of 7 and 15, was hosting its youth-mentorship night. School had just started back, so the meeting was not as packed as it normally would be, but it proceeded as usual.

Inside the meeting room, foundation founder Christian Vance stood at the white board, initiating a game of hangman with the five youths in attendance. The category was candy and a few boys took some guesses at what the candy could be while Stephen Brown was having a discussion with another mentee about being a sibling.

A mentee stands at the whiteboard playing hangman with the rest of The Firm Foundations’ mentees inside the Briarwood Arts Center on Aug. 9, 2023. Photo by Malcolm Morrow

When Vance was 27-years-old, he wanted to find other avenues to positively affect his community, so he got together with his other childhood friends and his father to create The Firm Foundations. The program ran out of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation for five years before the pandemic slowed the program down, he said.

“Steven, who is the greatest human being that you’ll ever meet in your life, called me, and he’s like, ‘Dude, I got this thing going on,’ and it was automatic: ‘Dawg, I got you,’” Vance told the Mississippi Free Press.

The nonprofit founder also coaches basketball through the police academy, so some of his mentees are also his players. He gets to maintain regular contact with his mentees through these various avenues. It’s all about consistency, Vance said.

“A lot of these things are symptoms and not the disease,” the JDP officer explained. “A lot of times the disease is low quality of life. And we attack the low quality. That’s the root. If we can attack the low quality of life, then we’ll start seeing the fruit on the tree again.”

Ubuntu, which means “I am because we are,” is the motto at Briarwood Arts Center, and the phrase hangs on the walls of the room used for the mentorship program, dance classes and other events. Photo courtesy Acacia Clark

Many of Vance’s mentees do not have fathers around, so he endeavors to act as a positive male figure in their absence. As to what his mentees get from the program, he believes they may not see their own growth just yet.

“We talk about adversity, goals, feelings, And a lot of times, I’ll come up with a topic, and we’ll just talk through it. What is adversity? What does adversity do? How does it make you feel? What are the choices it gives you? What determines the choices you make?” the founder listed.

And at times, the conversations can get so personal and vulnerable that kids will burst into tears, mentors as well. Vance said he will never give up on Jackson. His hope and prayer is that if he does not see the city become what he believes it is supposed to be, he will at least help raise and guide the next generation of youth who will live and prosper here.

“The role of a man in society is to be a repairer of the breach,” Vance said. “And that means not only am I fixing this thing that’s broken, I’m taking you through safely while I fix this thing that’s broken. And then when I fix this broken thing, I’ll find another problem to solve.”

‘Just Do The Work’

Stephen Brown said the hardest challenge that comes with running the Briarwood Arts Center can be toxic self-reliance, which can lead to burnout. “Toxic self-reliance is, ‘Man, I’m the only one who cares about this neighborhood. If I don’t pick this up, nobody’s gonna pick it up … Nobody else cares about this neighborhood, and I’m the only one who has to do it,’” he explained.

Dealing with the habit of self-reliance has been a personal struggle for the music producer, who is learning to better lean on other community members to assist him with registration, mentorship and other things. He is learning to be a better leader, he said.

“It’s an ongoing process, but thankfully I have people that have grace with me and that understand that that’s something I’m overcoming—(people who) know if they have to snatch it outta my hands to help me for the greater purpose of BAC and the greater purpose of the community, then I have to get outta my own way,” Brown said.

Most of the programming and events at the Briarwood Arts Center take place in the evenings or on weekends to make it easier for people to attend. Photo courtesy Acacia Clark

From his first year operating the center, Brown has learned to document everything, to not overthink as much and to not take things personally—that last point being of extreme importance as he struggles to get the Briarwood community to buy into the center. People within the immediate neighborhood rarely show up to anything, he said.

The center does, however, draw in people from Grenada, Brandon, Clinton, South Jackson, Ridgeland, Madison, Kosciusko and various other cities and zip codes across the state. The center has been on the news and people in the community know him as the man that picks up trash on the street with his trash grabber, yet he still struggles to bring them to the center.

“I don’t allow myself to take it personally. I don’t worry about who is showing up. We’re not called to be impressive. We’re called to be obedient,” Brown said. “Just do the work and leave it. Eventually, in the grand scheme of things, I have to find a better way to market what we’re doing to the Briarwood community.”

His short-term goal is to own the building instead of leasing it. Acquiring the building should take around $65,000, which the music producer does not readily have on hand at this moment.

Though experts are welcome, Stephen Brown said the Briarwood Arts Center is primarily designed for people who have a genuine curiosity for art, but who are afraid to dip their toes in the water. Photo courtesy Acacia Clark

“We are registered as a 501(c)(3) as the Briarwood Arts Foundation,” Brown said. “We got all the building permits, fire inspections. We’ve been doing everything the right way. We just wanted to show people for a full year this is what we can do with no funding. Now imagine if you were to give us some operating funds.”

Despite the center being self-funded, it has more money in its account now than it did when it first opened. In year two, Brown hopes to apply for more grants and funding now that he has shown that his business model indeed works.

“What we would want is some group of people in Shady Oaks to say, ‘Hey, there’s an abandoned building here in our neighborhood, too. Let’s get together and buy it and start the Shady Oaks Center,” he explained.

To learn more about Briarwood Arts Center, visit briarwoodartscenter.com. To keep up with the various programs and events at the center, follow their Instagram and Facebook pages. To donate or sign up for volunteer opportunities at the center, click here. 

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3:57 PM | Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Brooklyn Center is considering joining a Hennepin County program providing mental health services during police calls.

Through the program, paramedics and social workers respond to mental health calls and other non-violent emergency situations. 

Called the Alternative Responses Team, these social workers can respond to a scene with police officers, or can respond to a call independently.

Brooklyn Park and Hennepin County launched a program piloting the concept in March. The partnership was the first-of-its-kind in Minnesota. 

The unit would respond to low-risk 911 calls like disturbances, intoxication, drug overdoses and welfare checks. 

Through the program, the social workers would be employed by Hennepin County, but Brooklyn Center would pay their wages. 

Brooklyn Center is considering joining a Hennepin County program providing mental health services during police calls.

Mental Health Team Housed Out of Police Department

The cost for the program in the first year would be approximately $72,000, according to LaToya Turk, Brooklyn Center’s director of community prevention, health and safety.

While social workers would be housed out of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, they would be overseen by the city’s department of community prevention, health and safety. 

“They would be responding to calls using the police radio,” Turk said. “There needs to be some sense of collaboration and teamwork built with those groups. And so having them completely separate doesn’t allow for the relationship building.”

Reggie Edwards, Brooklyn Center city manager, said one goal of the program is to alleviate staffing burdens for the police department.

“In the context of being short-staffed and having a lot to do, we don’t want to add to the supervision of police officers,” Edwards said. “We don’t want to add to the load. So we’re not trying to add on more work when we already have very challenged staff as far as workload is concerned.”

Brooklyn Center City Council Member Dan Jerzak said he supports the program. However, he questioned why the police wouldn’t oversee the program. 

“Is the police department on board with this and what you’re proposing?” Jerzak asked.

“I’ve been meeting with the police department probably for the past six months on this,” Turk responded. “We’ve talked about it extensively. And I have not gotten any opposition on where the Alternative Response Team is housed.”

While social workers in the Alternative Response Team would be housed out of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, they would be overseen by the city’s department of community prevention, health and safety.

Hours of Operation for Brooklyn Center Mental Health Team

Hennepin County has proposed to operate the unit from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Mondays to Fridays. 

According to Turk, police data shows the strongest demand for the unit later in the week and during evening hours. 

She said the city is in ongoing discussions related to issues like hours of operation. 

“I think to be productive and create the unit we’ll have to start out at the same time,” Turk said. 

Previous Mental Health Response Planning

Brooklyn Center began considering its police response model in the wake of the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright.

The Brooklyn Center City Council passed a resolution in May 2021 to have unarmed civilians and mental health professionals respond to non-moving traffic violations and mental health-related calls-for-service.

Turk said that the city has considered contracting with other alternative-response providers.

“There was a huge gap in the financial responsibility for the city, as well as state and federal requirements for mental health response teams,” Turk said.

Edwards added that a single mental health response team is unlikely to address the full needs of the city. 

“There may be an opportunity to pilot another model at the same time so we can actually see results of both,” Edwards said. 

See also: Daunte Wright Memorial to Cost Brooklyn Center Nearly $250k

Brooklyn Center

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A section of the old Welch’s Juice plant in downtown Kennewick will be part of a Benton County mental health and recovery facility. It will be used for a crisis stabilization, secure withdrawal and 23-hour observation facility.

Bob Brawdy

bbrawdy@tricityherald.com

With work set to begin soon on the Tri-Cities’ first substance use and mental health recovery center, one key matter has been decided — what to call it.

The Benton Franklin Behavioral Health Advisory Committee have settled on a new name for the facility at its most recent meeting, after the working name was too closely related to several other area businesses earlier this year.

The committee wanted to find a name that would convey that this is a recovery center for everyone in the region.

What’s in a name?

Over the past month a subcommittee worked to narrow down nearly three dozen suggestions.

Some of the key criteria were a name that would be unambiguous, descriptive of their mission and conveys regionality. A decent acronym and how people would break it down into a shorthand name were also considered.

The top three choices were the Benton Franklin Recovery Center (BFRC), Columbia Valley Center for Recovery (CVCR) and Southeast Washington Recovery Center (SWRC).

Columbia Valley Center for Recovery was the clear winner. And for three committee members who did not rank it first, it was their second choice.

While the area is often called the Columbia Basin, committee members agreed that Columbia Valley elicited a stronger emotional response.

The term Columbia Valley is sometimes used interchangeably locally to describe the Tri-Cities portion of a much larger area along the Columbia River and its tributaries.

Michelle Gerber, who is a nonvoting member of the committee, said the “valley” term was more popular in the area by early farmers in the White Bluff and Hanford areas, before the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project helped bring a swell of new people to the area after World War II.

A section of the old Welch’s Juice plant in downtown Kennewick will be part of a Benton County mental health and recovery facility. It will be used for a crisis stabilization, secure withdrawal and 23-hour observation facility. Bob Brawdy bbrawdy@tricityherald.com

The term Columbia Valley is still used to describe the wine growing American Viticultural Area that encompasses all of the smaller local ones such as the Red Mountain AVA and Walla Walla AVA.

In choosing the term “Valley,” the committee is also broadcasting that this project is meant to help everyone in the region.

The next steps will likely include a branding campaign, and eventually new signs for the two buildings that will eventually make up the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery.

Progress toward opening

Benton County recently purchased the second building it was leasing for the project in the old Welch’s Juice plant for $5 million in order to save money and make the grant application process easier.

The old Kennewick General Hospital will be used for inpatient residential drug and alcohol treatment, while the Bruneau Avenue facility will be used for crisis stabilization, secure withdrawal and 23-hour observation.

The old Kennewick General Hospital on Auburn Street. Tri-City Herald file

Comprehensive Healthcare has been selected as the vendor to manage the facilities. They are hammering out the details of the contract, and expect to submit it to county commissioners soon.

Once that is in place, the committee will select a design-bid team that can start work immediately. They’ve already received proposals, so all that’s left before approving that contract is to see what Comprehensive recommends working on first, and what their needs are.

The benefit of the process is that they can prioritize which portions of the project to complete first, enabling them to open in stages if they need to. That contract could be awarded, with design beginning by the end of the month or in September and the buildout happening as the design process progresses.

The entire project is expected to take one to two years.

Crisis response

Meanwhile the committee also is exploring options to work as a “bridge” in the interim. One of the possibilities being explored is a crisis response team.

The committee is working with interested groups to figure out what a contract would look like for a team of mental health professionals that is able to respond to calls with police or EMTs seven days a week.

They’re also considering proposals for a 23-hour voluntary sobering center, which would allow people to come in to sober up in a safe place and give case managers the opportunity to offer them access to other services. This could largely be staffed by peers in recovery.

The difference between this 23-hour facility and the one included in the long-term plans is that it is completely voluntary and people can leave any time and check themselves in as often as they feel is necessary, while the other can be used for mandatory holds and has more licensing requirements.

Committee members have described similar voluntary facilities as having “living room” setups with recliners and peers in recovery on hand to talk to.

One of the major roadblocks for both proposals is the current lack of services in the area. The crisis response teams would not have a facility to refer people to until one of the recovery center projects opens, while the sobering center would not be able to address the days-long complications that can come from physical withdrawals.

United Family Center and Lourdes have both given the committee initial proposals. The UFC proposal would cost $1.6 million but would include more comprehensive care, and some of it could be billable to insurance or medicaid, while the Lourdes proposal would cost about $600,000 a year.

Lourdes has told the committee they could put the sobering center at its existing hospital in Pasco, which would help it open more quickly. Care beyond just sobering could then be managed by the hospital system until the recovery center is open.

The main goal with both programs is to create a diversion pathway for police to offer alternatives to just taking someone to jail, and to begin the process of getting someone connected to services they need to get long-term help.

If approved, the sobering center and crisis response teams could be up and running by early next year.

The exact build-out time will depend on the scale of services each is expected to provide and contract negotiations once vendors are selected.

The Benton Franklin Behavioral Health Committee includes local elected officials and county employees, mental health and addiction professionals, first responders and citizens.

They are responsible for stewarding a variety of funds earmarked for mental healthcare. Some of those funding sources include a .01% sales tax, opioid lawsuit settlement money and a variety of grants.

Related stories from Tri-City Herald

Cory is an award-winning investigative reporter. He joined the Tri-City Herald in Dec. 2021 as an Editor/Reporter covering housing and development. His past work can be found in the Tyler Morning Telegraph and other Texas newspapers. He was a 2019-20 Education Writers Association Fellow, and has been featured on The Murder Tapes, Grave Mysteries and Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen.

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OMAHA — After a young teen attempting suicide received emergency medical attention recently at Children’s Hospital, the attending health care team knew he was still at risk.

But when they sought to have the boy transferred to a mental health facility for more intensive psychiatric care, they could find no open beds nearby. 

He was sent to a place several hours away, Chanda Chacón, CEO of Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, recalled on Friday.

Bird’s-eye view of Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, with planned pediatric mental health center pictured to the left in white. (Courtesy Kiewit and HDR)

“This is a burden for families, many of whom often can not accompany their children out of state,” said Chacón. 

That availability is expected to change with the planned $110 million Behavioral Health & Wellness Center at the Children’s Hospital campus at 84th Street and West Dodge Road. 

Eating disorders and other therapy

An official groundbreaking was held Friday for the pediatric mental health center set to bring 38 in-patient beds — an amount supporters said more than doubles the area’s capacity.

Also Friday, the first architectural renderings were revealed of the 107,250-square-foot, four-story structure expected to open in early 2026.

Among features: a special “experiential” kitchen for youth and families dealing with eating disorders; 14,000 square feet of space for general outpatient therapy; and a crisis screening and stabilization assessment hub that organizers said will be the “first of its kind” regionally.

The array of services, set to rise on a seven-acre lot just west of the main hospital, will help meet what organizers described as an “urgent” need, as suicide and related mental health problems have climbed, especially since the pandemic.

Chanda Chacón, president and CEO of Children’s, in forefront of seven-acre site where the new youth mental health facility will rise. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

Funded in part by federal dollars earmarked by the Nebraska Legislature, the center stands out also for the continuum of services, medical care and follow-up mental health services that youths will be able to get co-located at the same campus.

“Just imagine the improved access to care for families,” said Chacón.

The effort was led by the Mental Health Innovation Foundation and its president, philanthropist Ken Stinson. At the event, Stinson spoke of the “sobering trend” and “alarming” rise of suicide among young people, which he said is fueled by proliferation of social media.

Social isolation and anxiety of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated mental illness scares, Stinson said. Consider these statistics from the Children’s Hospital Association and Centers for Disease Control:

• Mental health-related emergency room visits between March and October of 2020 jumped 24% among ages 5 to 11 and 31% among those 12 to 17.
• In the first three quarters of 2021, children’s hospitals across the country reported emergency room visits for self-injury and suicide attempts in kids up to 18 years at a 42% higher rate than during the same period in 2019.
• Suicide was the second leading cause of death, nationally, for youths ages 10 to 14 in 2021. “Here in Nebraska our statistics are not on the right side of that trend,” added Stinson.

Stinson noted an advisory issued earlier this year by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, calling attention to a public health “crisis” and “epidemic” of loneliness, isolation and lack of social connection in the country.

Given health consequences, Murthy called for public policymakers to enact strategies encouraging social connection.

Rise in police calls 

Tom Warren, chief of staff speaking for Mayor Jean Stothert, underscored the demand for services with statistics from the Omaha Police Department.

Warren said OPD in 2022 responded to 7,700 emergency calls for service from people reporting a mental health crisis.

In the first five months of this year, he said, OPD already has responded to nearly 5,000 mental health calls.

“Today is a hopeful day,” he said.

At groundbreaking of planned $110 million Children’s Hospital mental health center Friday, renderings are unveiled. At podium is Ken Stinson, a philanthropist leading the effort (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

City Council members Pete Festersen, Danny Begley and Brinker Harding were present at the event, which also drew Omaha State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan and U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer.

As planned, the complex will rise on the site of the recently demolished Nebraska Methodist College. The nonprofit foundation chose Kiewit Building Group as design-builder, which is to partner with HDR.

In addition to private donors, funding sources include $16 million earmarked by the Legislature from $40 million it set aside in 2022 for mental health projects across the state.

Another $15 million is to come from Children’s, which will operate the center and hire additional mental health care practitioners of all levels, Chacón said.

The health care community has started collaborating with partners to grow that workforce — including educational institutions, many of which were represented at the groundbreaking.

”We’re confident that this facility will help us attract the best and the brightest to Omaha to be part of that compassionate connected community we all see here today,” Chacón said.

Mental health has been a focus of Stinson’s for years, officials of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development noted in a recent media release. Stinson and Rhonda Hawks were among a group that raised funds to launch Omaha’s Lasting Hope Recovery Center in 2008.

The DED said mental health often has been stigmatized and often misunderstood.

Chacón described as shocking and scary the rise of youth mental illness and suicide attempts and said the new center is “catching up to the need.”

“It cannot come soon enough,” she said.

The planned pediatric mental health facility to rise on the Children’s Hospital campus will span 107,250 square feet. This evening rendering is a view of the front entrance of the “Behavioral Health & Wellness Center” with the perspective of someone walking into the building. (Courtesy of Kiewit and HDR)

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In the meeting room of the Apalachee Center, it was a time of laughter and celebration with friends amongst key Florida lawmakers, law enforcement, and community advocates for mental health.

The honorees for the Apalachee Center Community Hero Award are State Rep. Alison Tant, Florida Sen. Corey Simon, State Rep. Jason Shoaf ,who was not present at the event, and Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil.

“I personally love working with each and every one of you and you represent our community well. Keep up the good fight,” said Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, who has served on the governing board for over 20 years at the Apalachee Center.

The Apalachee Center is a private, nonprofit organization that specializes in providing mental health care to those experiencing emotional, psychiatric, and substance abuse crises.

It was organized in Leon County in 1948 and has expanded to eight counties in the Big Bend area with the help of many politicians through funding and support, including the four elected officials honored Monday as “community heroes.”

More:Red & Green: Corey Simon doubles number of local projects, triples spending as new GOP rep

Apalachee Center CEO Jay Reeve said each person is always on standby to help, and supportive in the expansion of the organization.

According to Reeve, Shoaf, who was elected to District 7 in 2019, reached out to the Apalachee Center to assist its mission to bring affordable and effective mental health services to the Big Bend.

“Beginning in 2020, his first year in office, Representative Shoaf was not only supporting but sponsoring funding that was for substantial Apalachee Center expansion,” Reeve said.

Shoaf sponsored bills in 2020 and 2022 with the Apalachee Center’s name in the title.

According to Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil, the Sheriff’s Office has a contract with the Apalachee Center to provide mental health services to those in detention facilities.

“We are trying to make sure that persons who leave our detention facility, if they have mental health issues or are on medication, that we now have up to a month’s medication to go out with,” McNeil told the Tallahassee Democrat after the awards ceremony.

Apalachee Center has launched multiple programs in partnership with the Sheriff’s Office, including the Mobile Response Team which provides emergency behavioral health assessments to avoid detention facility, hospital and emergency room use.

Reeve joked with Simon during the ceremony about the first time a senior manager on Apalachee’s staff asked if it was OK to snap a selfie with the former Florida State and NFL player, who went on to rack up major funding for local projects in his rookie legislative session.

“The senator hit the ground running when it came to behavioral health,” Reeve said.

Simon, who defeated Democratic incumbent Lorrane Ausley, was instrumental in scoring over $10 million in funding for the expansion of the Apalachee Center in Gadsden and Leon counties earlier this year.

“When I jumped into politics, I had a few things that I really wanted to touch on and mental health was one of them,” said Simon, who represents District 3.

“It’s bigger than money, it’s awareness,” Simon told the Tallahassee Democrat.

Tant, a state representative for District 9, said she was working with the Apalachee Center long before she ran for public office and was motivated by her own experience with her son who has a disability, to continue advocacy efforts once in office.

“I’ve been in the mental health space for a long time as an advocate really,” Tant told the Tallahassee Democrat. “We’re still seeing the impacts of COVID even now on our children and families so there’s just a lot to do, but I think with telemedicine, and the mobile response team as well as the city’s collaboration with mental health people to come along with law enforcement, is a really impressive step in something that will make a difference.”

In total, the honorees all sponsored and supported legislation that brought the Apalachee Center over $13 million in funding this year.

Contact Democrat staff writer Alaijah Brown at abrown1@Gannett.com.

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A counselor works with a patient at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center in Avondale. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

A patient uses a fidget spinner at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center in Avondale. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

PHOENIX – Valleywise Health is opening a second First Episode Center, an outpatient behavioral health center for young adults experiencing their first serious mental health episode.

It can’t come soon enough, health professionals say.

There is a dire need for programs that address mental health in young adults not just in Maricopa County but across the country, said Dr. Aris Mosley, a psychiatrist and medical director of the Valleywise Health First Episode Center in Avondale.

“When you have someone who has a brain health condition such as schizophrenia, you want to catch it early,” she said.

Arizona youth ranked 49th in the 2022 edition of Mental Health America’s annual report on the state of mental health in America. States with low rankings had a higher prevalence of mental illness such as depression, substance use disorder or some other emotional disturbance, as well as a lower rate of access to care.

“We want people to be able to access the service near where they live,” said Dr. Alicia Cowdrey, Valleywise’s outpatient medical director of behavioral health services, in discussing the First Episode Center’s new location in Mesa. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Dr. Alicia Cowdrey, Valleywise’s outpatient medical director of behavioral health services, estimated that the community needs 14 more facilities similar to the First Episode Center to meet the current prevalence of young people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia in Maricopa County.

Behavioral health experts say early treatment for young adults who have had a psychotic incident can be the difference between having a productive life and one spent in and out of hospitals and psychiatric treatment facilities. Early intervention also can take some pressure off understaffed inpatient psychiatric hospitals.

About 100,000 young people experience psychosis each year in the U.S, according to the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They say a person could be experiencing psychosis if they have delusions, hallucinations, incoherent, confused or inappropriate speech or behavior.

“Any time we have any sort of insult to the brain, it’s going to cause it to develop differently,” Cowdrey said. “We always want to intervene early with psychosis, and every person is different. It typically presents in young adults … but we always want to intervene early so that we can ensure that we can protect the brain.”

Cowdrey likened it to treating a broken arm. “If you went straight to the emergency room and got treatment, you are going to have a better outcome than if you were to wait a year or three years to get treatment. It’s not going to go back together quite as well.”

A patient decompresses with a computer game at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center in Avondale. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Research published in 2018 in JAMA Psychiatry concluded that the early intervention approach for psychosis can improve outcomes. An analysis of 10 randomized controlled trials compared treatment at centers for 2,176 patients with first episode psychosis over two years. The ones in early intervention programs had fewer hospitalizations, were more involved in school or work and were more engaged in treatment than those who received traditional care.

Valleywise’s First Episode team is comprised of a clinical coordinator, medical assistant, nurse, psychiatrist, recovery coach, a school and employment specialist, three team specialists, a registrar and program assistant and two front office staff members. Each client also is assigned a peer support specialist who has had a similar experience in terms of medication and possibly hospitalization and may be able to connect with the individual on a deeper level than the rest of the team..

Since psychosis is typically found more often in young adults, Mosley said, the center provides individual and family support, education and treatment as quickly as possible because the potential damage done to the brain heightens the longer the condition goes untreated.

The center, which treats young adults ages 15 to 25, opened in 2017 in Phoenix and relocated to Avondale the following year. Six years later, the facility is at full capacity with 89 patients. The second location in Mesa received its licensing June 27 and is expected to open in August.

Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center staff enjoys a game of basketball with patients at their fall festival. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Understanding psychosis

Psychosis and its connection to schizophrenia is often misunderstood. Cowdrey said psychosis occurs when a person has elevated levels of dopamine in the brain. The high dopamine level can alter a person’s perception of reality, she said.

Typically, “people might be seeing or hearing things that other people don’t see,” she said. “They might also become paranoid and perceive that things around them are different than how they are. Essentially, the brain is perceiving reality as different, so voices, hallucinations, delusions and paranoia can be common.”

The altered perceptions can cause inflammation in the brain, which can decrease cognition, Cowdrey said.

The initial psychotic episode is what Mosley called the “first break,” adding that many times that phase appears in the form of a mood disorder such as depression. It’s crucial to intervene early, she said, because the combination of dopamine levels and altered perceptions can cause the brain to develop differently, making it harder to treat later.

“It’s an incredibly alarming experience for people to have, as you can imagine,” Mosley said. “If you’re experiencing the world in one way that everyone around you isn’t, it’s pretty uncomfortable.”

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is one of the most common causes of psychosis, and it tends to affect more males than females. According to an article from Harvard Medical School, psychosis affects three out of 100 people in their lifetime, but only one out of 100 people will be diagnosed with schizophrenia.

An individual experiencing schizophrenia has experienced symptoms for a period of time that’s notably longer than psychosis, Cowdrey said.

“If we were to look out the window, most likely … everyone would see a blue sky. But if I had schizophrenia, and I’m looking out the window, my brain might be telling me that the sky is red. There’s nothing that you’re going to be able to do to convince me that the sky’s not red because my brain is telling me that it’s red,” Mosley said.

Patients at Valleywise Health’s First Episode Center celebrate at their fall festival. (Photo courtesy of Valleywise Health)

Treatment at First Episode

The majority of those treated at the outpatient center are referred from hospitals. Each person has an individual program that could include medication, one-on-one therapy and group sessions.

When a person begins treatment at a clinic for brain health conditions or disorders, they typically will see their psychiatrist once a month, Mosley said. She sees her patients once a week during their first month of treatment.

“That allows me to get to know the young person on a better level instead of letting so much time go,” she said. “If I see you once a week, I’m also going to be able to recognize if there are any side effects or difficulties with the medication. I’m going to be able to get those medications under better control and get them optimized more appropriately and quicker for the individual.”

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Medication typically plays a role in treatment and that could be a pill or an injectable, Cowdrey said. Antipsychotic medications will help reduce the dopamine level in the brain, she said, adding that young people often need low doses to keep symptoms under control.

Valleywise Health provides care for Maricopa County’s public health care system and is the primary provider of inpatient psychiatric beds for Maricopa County residents who have been court-ordered to get mental health care. Valleywise hopes to change the stigma around psychosis and schizophrenia, as 43.8 million adults experience mental illness each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The Mental Health Foundations reports that 90% of people with mental health problems say stigma and discrimination play a negative role in their lives.

Cowdrey said the Valleywise approach can “show people that there’s hope that, if they’re diagnosed with a brain health condition, they can get back on track with their life.”

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