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The Kim Foundation, in collaboration with individuals, organizations, and healthcare providers throughout Nebraska, is pleased to bring you a monthly e-newsletter addressing mental health care.

We will provide you with access to valuable resources, connections to individuals and agencies working toward behavioral health reform, insight into successful programs offered in Nebraska, and updates on the latest news and events.

If you have comments, questions, or information you would like to share through the electronic newsletter, please email us at info@thekimfoundation.org.

For more information on mental health issues in Nebraska please visit www.thekimfoundation.org.

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Methodist Hospital Community Counseling Program

Creighton University Interactive Screening Program

Depression and Bipolar Alliance Omaha New Hope Chapter

Sabbath of Hope

Not Alone Radio Program February Schedule

Adapted for reprint with special permission by the author. Read the full story here: Winter 2009 Chart

At a time when government resources and state spending on mental health programs is at an all time low, Methodist Hospital’s Community Counseling Program helps fill the gap by offering community-based counseling services that are free, private, and accessible to all.

Funded by the Methodist Hospital Foundation, the Community Counseling Program brings together Methodist Hospital Foundation, Omaha Public Schools, and neighborhood churches. Schools and churches provide the space while Methodist Hospital Foundation provides a team of experienced, licensed counselors to help students and families deal with anything from low self-esteem, loss, divorce, anger management, drugs, alcohol, gangs and a variety of behavioral issues.

Today, the program has grown from one counselor at one high school and church to 17 counselors at 30 sites, including all OPS middle schools and high schools, two alternative schools, nine churches and one central office location. As of October 2010, year-to-date activities that include client sessions, professional consultations, and counselor educational presentations, totaled 16,788 with 14,956 individuals served.

For more information about the Methodist Hospital Community Counseling Program visit www.bestcare.org/ccp or to schedule an appointment with a counselor, click here to see a list of site locations and available counselors.

Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., through a partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Omaha Chapter has worked to implement an Internet Screening Program to help connect counselors with students in need of mental health services.

The Internet Screening Program (ISP) is a sophisticated online utility that students can use to assess their current mental state to help determine if they are suffering from depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, or some other mental health issue. Students can either conduct a Live Chat with a counselor or complete an online questionnaire that goes directly to the university counseling department. A counselor is then able to follow up with students directly.

Click here to read more.

Do you or someone you love suffer from depression or bipolar disorder? You are not alone. According to the National Institute of Mental Illness, depressive disorders affect approximately 18.8 million American adults or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. This includes major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder.

Help dealing with these illnesses is available. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance New Hope chapter in Omaha is an independent, peer-led non-profit organization that meets weekly to provide support, acceptance, and hope to members. A local group to the larger, national organization, New Hope is not affiliated with any doctor or hospital and recognizes that meetings are not a substitute for medical care by a physician or therapist, but can enhance the healing process.

Support groups play a vital role in recovery. Eighty-six percent of support group members report that their group helped them with treatment adherence which usually means less hospital stays, less time away from work, and less family conflict.

Click here to read more.

Special guest author, Stacy Davis, Director, Mental Health Promotion, Mental Health America of the Heartland.

Sabbaths of Hope is about faith communities responding to depression. This initiative is a partnership of Mental Health America of the Heartland and the Center for Practical Bioethics to:

• enable clergy, seminarians, and other faith leaders to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression
• offer more effective support to congregants and clergy suffering from depression
• provide referral and linkage to treatment options
• address stigma, discrimination, and other barriers to treatment
• promote holistic approaches to depression treatment

Faith community participants receive training and resources to enable them to conduct “depression and hope” related educational events for congregants and colleagues that culminate in a congregationally designated Sabbaths of Hope weekend observance. Presentations, workshops, sermons, worship services and forums on depression are conducted within local churches, and provide significant support to congregants. More than 85 congregations have conducted observances in the Kansas City area.

Click here to read the full story.

Remember to join The Kim Foundation and KCRO channel 660 AM for Not Alone, a live talk radio program focused on behavioral health and recovery.

Airing every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., Not Alone hosts guests from across the country addressing a variety of topics.

• February 1 – Bryan LGH Behavioral Health Services
  Not Alone will be providing an overview of some of the behavioral health services Bryan LGH in Lincoln, Neb. is able to provide for those in need of mental health care as well as highlight collaborations the hospital participates in as part of the Region 5 community.
• February 8 – Nebraska Family Collaborative
  Dave Newell with Nebraska Family Collaborative, a collaboration between Child Saving Institute, Boys Town, Heartland Family Service, Nebraska Family Support Network, and OMNI Behavioral Health, will share how the Nebraska Family Collaborative works to preserve and strengthen families by providing high quality services, enabling permanency and self direction for families.
• February 15 – Author Jacqueline Marcell
  Jacqueline Marcell, author of “Elder Rage, or Take My Father... Please!: How to Survive Caring for Aging Parents” joins Not Alone to share her story of caring for aging parents, dealing with the effects of Alzheimer’s and dementia, and the challenges to family care givers who live great distances from their aging parents.
• February 22 – Paolo del Vecchio
  The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) in Washington, D.C. leads Federal efforts to treat mental illnesses by promoting mental health and by preventing the development or worsening of mental illness when possible. Congress created CMHS to bring new hope to adults who have serious mental illnesses and to children with serious emotional disorders. CMHS Consumer Affairs Director, Paolo del Vecchio joins Not Alone to discuss how CMHS helps consumers in need.

Listeners outside of the broadcast area can access the radio program through KCRO’s website at www.kcro.com.

For more information on Not Alone or the Mental Health Minutes, please visit www.thekimfoundation.org.