World Mental Health Day: Thursday, October 10, 2024

From the Corner Office ~Maggie Pritchard

October is a special for month for us here at LRMHC. The month begins with the first week designated as worldwide Mental Illness Awareness week, where we walk together to support our long-standing partnership with NAMI NH to demonstrate the importance of our work, in support of people with mental illness, and their families and friends. We remove our rose-colored glasses to reveal the vibrant ambers and reds of the beautiful fall foliage. We take time to see things in a different light. Doing so gives us time to take notice, be grateful, and become inspired to do more. Fall is the time that we reflect upon our organization’s successes (and sometimes less-than-successes) of the prior year, and project our hopefulness as we plot out our plans for the future and for those we serve.

We hold our Annual Meeting the last Tuesday of each October. This being an election year, we have a unique opportunity to change it up a bit- we have invited legislators and candidates from all over the state and our catchment area to attend, hear about our mission and our past year’s successes. We understand that moving forward requires the support and understanding of our electorate. We will get a chance to hear from candidates about their priorities and about how they may promote the state’s 10-year plan and “Mission Zero”.

We will unveil our Annual Report with this year’s theme of “The Measure of Mental Health” which means measuring our successes to move forward to inspire hope and change that benefit all our communities and residents.

I’m in awe of how our staff rolled up their sleeves and worked together to roll out our new electronic health record. To say it was a major undertaking would be a huge understatement. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the report by talking about our other major program successes- if you want to hear them, please join us at the event! There is a link to register in this newsletter.

I hope to see you there- Maggie

Mental Illness Awareness Week

Oct. 6-12

VOTE: Favorite Fall Activity

Apple Picking

Carving Pumpkins

Pumpkin Spice Everything

Corn Mazes

Decorating for Halloween

Annual Meeting Legislative Breakfast

The Lakes Region Mental Health Annual Meeting Legislative Event will be held on Tuesday, October 22, from 8:00-10:30 am at the Flip Side Restaurant, 566 Main St. in Laconia.

Please join us for this event and in celebrating this year's mental health champions, winners of the Helen Holbrook Service and Pete Harris Awards!

The 20-member LRMHC team raised $2663 for mental health awareness and in support of NAMI NH's mission!

Pictured: Some of the LRMHC 2024 team

Program Updates

Acute Services

The Director of Archways reached out to express gratitude for the way AS staff supported their organization with a patient. The dispatch was the first with Archways and working with the Plymouth Police. Plymouth PD also reported positive interaction and great support from the team.

Child & Family

Shout out to the many C&F staff that supported community events like National Night Out, NAMI NH's Highs and Lows Tour, Party in the Park, and the Greater Lakes Region Children's Auction "Night on Broadway" event. Thank you for being great representatives of LRMHC!
Recorded the agency's September radio spot!
Provided clinical support to the Spaulding Youth Center.
Presented to the PSU graduate class in Mental Health Counseling about their experiences working in Community Mental Health, and future internship opportunities.
Clinicians are now co-located at Laconia Middle and High, Gilford High, Campton K-8, Newfound High and Rumney K-8 schools.
The C&F team welcomed two new staff members.
C&F has cleared their waitlist!

Critical Time Intervention

2 CTI patients graduated from the program in August, 1 new referral in September.

Community Support Program

Supported Employment (SE) held a successful event on September 18th to celebrate patient successes and educate local businesses to encourage them to participate.

Neurological Treatment & Service Access

A patient obtained much-needed Cultural Formation Interview (CFI) services with the advocacy, and problem-solving supports of their Case Manager.
Neuro patients have experienced success, with Supported Employment staff assistance: one secured a job interview; one has a Vocational Rehabilitation job training with a local store; one resumed working after medical leave.
Open Access soft launched on September 10th and launched to the public on October 1st!
Therapists completed DBT training to continue improvement in providing EBPs to Neuro patients.
Welcomed new staff members.

Nursing

The Nursing Team is working to obtain supplies from DHHS to prepare for the cold/flu/COVID season.
A student nurse from Lakes Region Community College is working with the team for their psychiatric rotation.

Residential Services

Passage house is fully occupied. Housing staff presented to the Board of Directors outlining the current status and events at Passage House, and shared positive feedback from the Passage residents.

Substance Misuse Treatment

Continues to expand access to medically assisted treatment (MAT) services.
With grant support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the team continues to provide street outreach to those in our communities who are experiencing homelessness, substance misuse, and mental illness, and bring them in for intake, assessment, and services. The SAMHSA grant ended the first year of the project on September 30th, and the team looks forward to sharing year one results.

"A Place to Go"

A Place to Go on our Plymouth campus, is a short-term, peer-run stabilization center for people experiencing a mental health crisis that do not require inpatient care. It will offer up to 23 hours of support and supervision, and coordination to other community resources, as an alternative to hospitalization. During the Granite United Way Day of Caring on September 20th, volunteers from Plymouth Walmart generously donated not only their time, but a large amount of home decor, toiletries, and toys to make A Place to Go feel like a home-away-from-home.

Bay Street Apartments Furnishing Campaign

Lakes Region Community Developers (LRDC) and Lakes Region Mental Health Center (LRMHC)'s have raised over $15,000 towards the goal of fully furnishing all 12 units at Bay St. Apartments!

We want to thank the many businesses and individuals who have donated.

Bay Street Apartments will offer 12 units of supportive housing for people of very low income who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness. All 12 units will be small efficiency apartments. The project is a collaboration between LRCD and LRMHC, with expected completion in Spring, 2025.

To help us reach the finish line goal of $45,000, contributions can be made HERE.

LRMHC at Community Events

Representatives from Lakes Region Mental Health Center attended several community events recently, including Laconia Youth Alliance's Party in the Park, the International Overdose Awareness Vigil with Navigating Recovery, and Laconia's Multicultural Festival.

Thank you to all our staff volunteers and to everyone who stopped by our table for mental health resources or to say hello!

We are always looking for opportunities to connect with the community. Head on over to the “Community Education” page on our website to request LRMHC participation at your event.

Pictured: Christine Alvarez, Beth Vachon, Jess Kangas, Hope Dixon, Wendy Chase, Matt Soza