The STARR News: July 2021 |
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July is
BIPOC
Mental Health Month!
We are well into July, but you still have time to engage in activities and events that support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) mental health awareness.
The term “BIPOC” is widely recognized by MHA, NAMI, and DBSA to be used in place of "Minority" for Mental Health Month. As language is always evolving and important, we want to continue to educate stakeholders with the latest information available.
We love MHA's BIPOC Mental Health Month theme of Strength in Communities. MHA created a toolkit for this that covers community-developed systems of support created to fill in gaps within traditional systems that may overlook cultural and historical factors that impede BIPOC and QTBIPOC mental health. It explores three topic areas:
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Community care refers to ways in which communities of color have provided support to each other. This can include things such as mutual aid, peer support, and healing circles.
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Self-directed care is an innovative practice that emphasizes that people with mental health and substance use conditions, or their representatives if applicable, have decision-making authority over services they receive.
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Cultural care refers to practices that are embedded in cultures that are passed down through generations that naturally provide resiliency and healing.
Check out the details and download the toolkit HERE.
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What topics do you want to discuss in the next STARR Zoom Conversations?
The STARR Coalition hosts monthly interactive conversations via Zoom, from sites, for sites. The idea is to bring the STARR community together to have open dialogues and benefit from one another's experience. The zoom calls are co-hosted by site personnel that offer their experience and some baseline information, then the calls are opened up for interactive discussion.
So, what would YOU be interested in discussing? COVID rebounding? Recruitment best practices? Connecting with more diverse patient communities? Creating a local public relations campaign for your research site?
Some of the topics that we've discussed include:
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Research Sites Role in the Community: Working with Local Advocacy & Non-profit Groups -- hear from sites that have benefited from their relationships with advocacy on how to develop those strong working relationships with the local advocacy organizations.
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Trauma Informed Care: Creating a Trauma Sensitive Environment for Those Living with PTSD and other Brain Disorders
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Building Relationships with Your Local Advocacy Organizations - co-hosted by a few of our partners for DBSA, NAMI, and MHA.
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Recruitment: Leveraging COVID Trials -- virtual campaigns and activities, the Fauci effect and growing interest in clinical trials, marketing during a pandemic, and leveraging the COVID vaccine trials.
Let us know what challenges you are interested in
hearing about from the community!
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By next July, 988*, a 3-digit number for suicidal and mental health crises, will be available nationwide. Making it easier to call for help in a crisis is important, but what help will be available on the other end?
Thanks to thousands of mental health advocates like you, Congress is recognizing that people in mental health crisis deserve a mental health response. But we need to ensure that more crisis services are in place in the next 12 months before 988 goes live so that people receive the help they need, when they need it.
This week, the House Appropriations Committee is advancing a bill for the 2022 fiscal year (FY). This bill is an important step toward reimagining crisis response in our country. The bill:
- Doubles the Mental Health Block Grant (MHBG) ($1.6B, up from $757M in FY 2021), which gives federal funds to states to provide community mental health services, like early intervention programs, outpatient treatment and peer supports;
- Increases the crisis services set aside in the Mental Health Block Grant ($160M, up from $37.5M in FY 2021), which will provide your state with federal funding to invest in life-saving services like local 24/7 crisis call centers (“someone to talk to”), mobile crisis teams (“someone to respond”), and crisis stabilization programs (“somewhere to go”);
- Creates a NEW grant program for mobile crisis teams ($100M for FY 2022) to help jumpstart communities’ ability to ensure a person experiencing a crisis is met by mental health providers rather than law enforcement.
We need your help. The full U.S. House of Representatives will be considering this bill soon. Reach out to your Representative and urge them to vote YES on increased resources for mental health crisis services in the FY 2022 spending bill.
Thank you for your support.
Jessica Hart
Senior Manager, Field Advocacy
NAMI
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The STARR Site Certification was created to help advance mental health clinical research by promoting community engagement, empathy, and communication between research sites, staff, patients, and advocacy groups, as well as providing support for best practices around working with advocacy, suicide prevention, and other areas that enhance clinical research. |
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Everything The STARR Coalition does comes from our stakeholders looking to make positive change.
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Advocates Supporting Research |
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Matthew's publicly espoused, unwavering commitment to mental health research has made him a powerful ally in our fight against the stigma of mental health research.
In an interview for Spectrum News about Alkermes's FDA-approved treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder, Matthew praised the research that made the treatment possible.
“It’s very rare that new psychiatric medication comes to market. Whenever something like this happens, it’s very exciting," said Matthew. “These are the type of innovations we really want to see developed [...] because they’re desperately needed,” he continued. “Research holds so much potential and so much hope, but it can only be successful if it has participants.”
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The STARR Coalition has partnered with thought-leaders across the industry and advocacy to create a National Call to Action to Support Mental Health Research. We have created a campaign consisting of actionable items anyone can do to support and help bring mental health research into the same light as cancer, diabetes or heart disease.
We need everyone's help promoting this National Call to Action!
To join the Call to Action and find ways you can support mental health research right now, visit our website at www.thestarr.org/c2a
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The STARR Coalition | phone: 501-725-8890 | www.thestarr.org |
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