Visit our website & sign up for ARISE events and meetings!

Hope to see you soon!

Join us on our Facebook Page! This is a space for members to share advocacy information around mental health in San Francisco, pose questions to each other, and collaborate.

ARISE Meeting Notes—February 19, 2020

Attendees: Eddie S., Michael M., Felicia K., David W., Tasha/Donacyen G., Dan C., Kathryn W., Donald M., David L., Teresa T.

1.        Comfort Agreement

Be nice, respect pronouns, stories stay, lessons leave, give space take space.

 

2.       Communications

We use Constant Contact email system. The Facebook group is still active, but requires facebook log-in. We will focus on face to face, telephone and email communication. We have a Microsoft Office group. Eddie’s contact information: eddie@mental healthsf.org, 415-341-9511, in the office generally on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

3.        Meeting Time

3 ^rd Wednesday of the month. New members orientation 1pm – 2pm. Everyone 2pm – 3:30 pm. No more Saturday meetings.

4.       ARISE Hiatus

ARISE was on hiatus from between August and January because MHASF had to focus on the Redefining Crazy conference. The hiatus was hard on ARISE members who wanted to continue to attend and weren’t consulted ahead of time about the hiatus.

5.       Mad Mob SF

Mad Mob SF meets twice a month on the 2 ^nd and 4 ^th Fridays at 2 PM at Senior and Disability Action, 1360 Mission (between 9 ^th and 10 ^th Streets) on the 4 ^th Floor. Ideas closely aligned with those of ARISE. SF Examiner wrote an article on the January 24 Mad Mob rally at DPH.

6.       Newsletter

The goal is to have the newsletter out early in the month with a reminder about the ARISE meeting later in the month. Send submissions and also provide feedback.

7.       Care Providers

Too much focus on leading, rather than listening. Too much focus on technical proficiency, maybe not enough hands-on personal experience. Do doctors feel what patients are experiencing? Have they taken the medications? Being a patient can sometimes feel like on is a guinea pig.

 

8.       Strength-Based Communication Training

Learning how to talk to those in the medical industry, not with the goal of making those in the medical practice submissive, but as allies and advocates for those dealing with mental health issues.

 

 

9.       ARISE Goals

Support each other, advocate for others. Patient’s rights, patient directed treatment. Possible Guest Speakers from San Francisco County Clients Rights, Total Health Institute. Outreach to East Bay organizations. Invite MHASF board to our meeting and we could go to their meeting. Assess what could go right and what could go wrong with peer advocacy. Keep a database of how our efforts went. How do we interact with agencies who are doing similar things. Find out more about patients’ advocate/liaison. 12 step programs. Resources at St. Francis Hospital.

MHASF Staff And Peer Activists Support Proposed Mission District Hummingbird Respite Center

Photo Credit: Sam Lew/Mission Local

At a community meeting hosted by the SF Department of Public Health at the Salvation Army, 1156 Valencia Street, on Thursday, February 27, most people spoke out in support of a proposed navigation center style respite for homeless people with behavioral health issues. The Hummingbird Place program will provide 30 overnight beds for people transitioning from Psychiatric Emergency Services at SF General Hospital on a journey ideally to permanent supportive housing. Positive Resources Center/Baker Places will run Hummingbird Place, which will also have 25 drop-in spaces during the day for people with mental health challenges.

While a few people expressed opposition to the proposed program, most notablly about the meeting notification process and about possible problems that have rarely materialized at other navigation centers, the vast majority of neighbors and other community members commented in strong support of Hummingbird Place.

MHASF staffer, ARISE and Mad Mob SF member CW Johnson drew applause when he said, "I’m someone who had mental health challenges since the age of 13. If there was a place like this that existed, I would have been able to get it together a lot earlier. Homeless people are already in your neighborhood. If people are going to be here, why not help them?”

Likewise, Mad Mob SF member Victor Gresser who has struggled with mental health issues since being in his "single digits" explained, “People like me are far more likely to be victims of crimes than to do the crimes.”

Please read Sam Lew's coverage in Mission Local for additional detail about this meeting and an earlier community meeting about the proposed Hummingbird Place here.

Mad Mob SF meets on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month. Read more about Mad Mob SF on its webpage .

Voluntary Services First Coalition

The Voluntary Services First Coalition formed to oppose San Francisco's effort to expand the criteria for losing one’s civil liberties through conservatorships.

Please attend the next meeting of the Voluntary Services First Coalition:

Friday, March 6, 2020, 2 PM to 3:30 PM

Senior and Disability Action

1360 Mission Street, Suite 400 (between 9th and 10th Streets)

March Mental Health Topics

March 1 Is Self-Injury Awareness Day

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

March 30 Is World Bipolar Day

March Free Events

March is a great month to enjoy free events in San Francisco. Here are some suggestions:

March Free Museum Days:

Sunday, March 1

Tuesday, March 3

Tuesday, March 10

Wednesday, March 4, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Bill Graham Auditorium, 99 Grove Street, Project Homeless Connect.

Sunday, March 8, 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Sunday Streets Mission

Saturday, March 14, St. Patrick's Day Parade begins at 11:30 AM at the corner of Second and Market, ends at Civic Center.

Tuesday, March 17, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, SF Main Public Library, 100 Fulton Street, Lava Mae Pop Up Care Village

Thursday, March 26 to Saturday, March 28, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, Human Rights Film Festival

Sunday, March 29, 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Sunday Streets Excelsior

Mental Health Association of San Francisco has multiple job, volunteering, and internship opportunities available. Please check our website, linked below, if you are interested!

Warm Line Hours Are 24 Hours Per Day

Everyday of the Week!

Visit our website for more job openings and to apply:

https://www.mentalhealthsf.org/careers

Peer Inspiration

Kathryn Wren

Kathryn Wren is this month's Peer Inspiration!

Kathryn is a fifth year senior at SF State University. She is a Civic Engagement Fellow in the Institute for Community Engagement and has been serving her fellowship as an intern with MHASF since October 2019.

She has done outreach for MHASF at a variety of community events, most notably the Redefining Crazy Conference in November 2019. She is also doing research about and outreach to Mental Health Associations, and Mental Health America and NAMI affiliates throughout California as part of her internship.

Kathryn wanted to work with MHASF because she hoped to learn more about mental health outreach and peer support. She became acutely aware of mental health issues when her mother unfortunately became ill and died about five years ago during Kathryn's senior year of high school.

Her mother's death brought out information that several of her family members, including her grandfather, uncle and mother, struggled with mental illness.

She considers herself a peer because of her struggles with anxiety and stress as she strove to become the first person in her family to attend college. Her high school English teacher encouraged Kathryn not to suffer alone by urging her and her parents to get family counseling during her mother's illness and after her untimely death.

Kathryn received and continues to get individual thera py. She is also helping others through her work at MHASF and elsewhere and will continue to do so when she graduates this spring from SFSU.

 Thank you, Kathryn, for your help here at MHASF and for sharing your story.