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tonight’s city council work session on behavioral health will be live streamed here.
the agenda for the work session is here:
charlottesville.org/Home/Component…
charlottesville.org/Home/Component…
i haven’t livetweeted a meeting in weeks. i’m out of practice, my thumbs are slow, and i’ve missed a lot of meetings! i hope i can keep up.
the second speaker is from the central virginia clinicians of color network. they are a group of around 50 mental health professionals in the area that supports & empowers culturally responsive mental health treatment.
this is an ongoing issue locally & has come up at several city council meetings. people of color often struggle to find mental health professionals who understand their experiences.
(anybody know where wes & mike are? we’ve only got 3 of 5 councilors at the table here)
the next speaker is from creciendo juntos (growing together), a local nonprofit dedicated to assisting latinx people in accessing appropriate mental healthcare, which can be difficult for spanish-speaking patients.
(the speakers are at a mic that is located behind me. having spent the last three weeks hunched over a notebook in my lap, i’m unable to turn my head to look behind me - it’s surprising how much harder this makes it to follow what they’re saying.)
the next speaker says that when he moved to charlottesville, he was one of only three black clinicians in his field here. he says many of his patients really value having a black provider, particular since august 12th.
the counseling alliance of virginia also has a program that focuses on recruiting latinx clinicians & providing culturally responsive training to all of their providers.
he’s talking about the critical importance of being able to talk about race. he organized a two day training for clinicians about the issue & initiated racial awareness support groups & workshops for clinicians and community members.
the next speaker first asks the room to take a moment of silence for sage smith, a black transgender teenage girl who disappeared from our community six years ago.
she’s speaking about the transgender & gender nonconforming clinical consultation group.
she’s speaking about the transgender & gender nonconforming clinical consultation group.
trans people have lifetime suicide attempt rates of over 41%. she calls this shocking and appalling, which it absolutely is. for black & multiracial trans people, that rate is over 50%.
in her practice, she’s found that her trans patients often do not have adequate access to competent medical and psychiatric care.
she hopes council will take any available opportunity to dedicate funds to support trans & gender nonconforming people who are struggling to access adequate care.
now a representative from region 10 speaking about their integrated care model. this allows people to see their primary provider in the same practice as their mental health provider. they have spanish speaking clinicians & offer sliding scale payment options.
they offer a variety of programs, like chair yoga & cooking classes, to encourage management of chronic conditions & increase engagement among their patients with serious mental illness.
region 10 is not alone in struggling to find qualified psychiatrists — there is a nationwide shortage. she suggests this is partially due to decreasing stigma and increasing awareness, but also because behavioral health professionals are reimbursed at a lower rate by insurance.
region 10 now has 5 nurse practitioners and only 2 psychiatrists.
on our own charlottesville is a peer support network - all of their staff & board members are themselves in recovery from substance use and/or mental illness.
peer support is not clinical, it is not diagnostic, it is not telling you how you should feel. it’s meeting people where they are & supporting them.
“it is an honor to be in peer support - you not only give, but we receive,” she says.
“it is an honor to be in peer support - you not only give, but we receive,” she says.
partner for mental health helps connect people with the resources they need without forcing them to disclose anything they aren’t comfortable with — you don’t have to discuss your mental health diagnosis to get help from them.
heather asks about how these services are funded. partner for mental health provides its services for free to all of their recipients and is entirely privately funded.
having just spent a few hours editing my own mouth noises out of a podcast, i’m feeling particularly sensitive to the loud mouth noises the speakers are making into the mic.
the next speaker is myra anderson. she was one who brought the issue of mental health access to council a few months ago. she’s speaking tonight about stigma reduction as a person of color who struggles with mental illness.
she encourages a focus on mental wellness, rather than mental illness & talks about the importance of culturally competent practitioners & access to clinicians of color.
myra says she submitted a FOIA request about why the sankofa center closed. she says it was a funding issue, not a lack of interest.
she says if you have a race-based trauma, you can’t disclose that trauma to someone who looks like the person who hurt you. there need to be resources for people of color. it isn’t enough to hire one or two black therapists at various locations.
next up two women speaking about the therapeutic docket - a voluntary alternative to incarceration program for individuals with serious mental illness. participants follow individualized treatment plans & have their charges dismissed upon completion of the program.
oh thank god. for my first city government meeting after a few weeks working on another project, i was worried i wouldn’t get to see a terrible powerpoint! my fears were unfounded.
the powerpoint is about harm reduction. this graph of deaths from opioid overdose is... deeply upsetting.
the law that allows harm reduction programs requires the declaration of a public health emergency. the department of health established criteria of what constitutes elevated risk level, including HIV prevalence, overdose deaths, poverty levels, etc.
it is appalling to me that the law requires a certain level of devastation to exist before a locality can establish harm reduction programs. our area does not meet the criteria to legally allow a needle exchange program.
charlottesville’s overdose death rates are slightly lower than the statewide rate, but are higher than the rate for our health district.
she says it’s very challenging to get a needle exchange opened in virginia. not only does the locality have to meet the criteria under the law, many local agencies (including the police) have to sign off on the program.
while we have no needle exchange, our local health department does provide free narcan training. (narcan saves lives. get trained. get a dose. do it now.)
the health department also offers HIV & hepatitis C screenings and free condoms. people at high risk for HIV can get PrEP for free.
a speaker points out that the reason we as a community have responded so differently to the opioid epidemic is that it’s a white problem.
this is itself rooted in white supremacy - black people’s pain is taken less seriously & they are seen as more at risk for abusing/selling drugs and are consequently less likely to be prescribed opiates to begin with.
phrases that break my heart: “the jail is a de facto mental health provider.”
one third of people incarcerated at ACRJ screen positive for mental illness. among female inmates, that figure is more than HALF.
one third of people incarcerated at ACRJ screen positive for mental illness. among female inmates, that figure is more than HALF.
city council will hear a presentation from staff in january about the service gaps (and accompanying funding gaps) in the community.
public comment from someone who works on a crisis intervention team.
our jail is running at 140% of its rated capacity, down from 170% a few years ago.
UVA hospital is at 300% of its capacity. patients in the ED are treated in the hallways.
our jail is running at 140% of its rated capacity, down from 170% a few years ago.
UVA hospital is at 300% of its capacity. patients in the ED are treated in the hallways.
he says ‘stigma’ is a politically correct term. the real word is fear.
he thanks council for being willing to overcome the fear of talking about these issues.
he thanks council for being willing to overcome the fear of talking about these issues.
there is only one state hospital in all of virginia that can house pediatric mental health patients & it isn’t in our region.
nikuyah asks the people who spoke tonight what they as organizations are doing to get feedback from their client base.
the women’s initiative has clients fill out a brief survey each week that indicates whether treatment is working. they also have anonymous provider feedback forms & a procedure for clients who wish to speak to a clinician’s manager.
region 10 discontinued the surveys they were using due to low response rates, but they plan to reinstate the process soon. individuals do, as part of their quarterly review with their treatment team, give feedback on the process.
partner for mental health says the two client needs they have the most trouble meeting are timely access to psychiatric care & safe, private, affordable housing.
meeting adjourned! this is the kind of city government that isn’t exciting but that i enjoy covering. that was productive, informative, and connects to real needs in the community. and very few men talked. i enjoy that, too.
