The STARR News: February 2021 |
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Welcome to 2021!
We are excited about the new programs, workgroups, and services that you can tap into with The STARR Coalition. Starting with the next zoom conversation with advocacy organizations on Wed., Feb. 17th!
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Join us for our next Zoom Conversation:
Building Relationships with Your Local Advocacy Organizations
February 17th at 3PM ET / NOON PT
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The STARR Coalition is hosting an interactive conversation via Zoom for sites to hear from advocates on how to develop strong working relationships with your local advocacy organizations. We would love for you to join us – register now and be sure to add the call to your calendar. Register HERE!
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2020 – what a year, right?
We’ve faced some monumental challenges and as we look back, it’s worth reflecting on how far we’ve come and all that we’ve learned, not least of which is not to take going out to dinner or the movies with friends for granted; how important home and family is; and how precious hugs are, among so many other things. 2020 showed us how connected we are as individuals, despite social distance and stay at home mandates.
2020 took a particularly heavy toll on our collective mental health and by extension, the mental health advocacy organizations. NAMI, MHA, DBSA, and all of the mental health advocacy organizations experienced a tremendous increase in individuals reaching out for support and education. Despite a reduction of funding with cancelled fundraising events, advocates have continued to serve with diligence and perseverance.
Research sites were forced to completely rethink how they conduct trials with the safety and wellbeing of the volunteers front and center. Volunteers showed great flexibility with changes in procedures. Sponsors worked through complicated distribution chain disruptions, prioritizing current trials, redeveloping timelines and working with sites to create new practices. CRO’s stepped into the unknown with protocol adjustments, changes in site operations, safety measures and much more.
The stakeholders of The STARR Coalition – all of you -- are nothing short of heroes.
From a ‘new normal’, we look towards a ‘better normal’, innovating and working collaboratively like never before. Diversity in research is shifting to a change in systems, not simply rhetoric. Economic changes produced more streamline research and brought the volunteer closer into the way trials are being developed. For all that 2020 threw at us, we are ending the year stronger than ever. We are coming into 2021 perfecting the best of who we are.
The STARR Coalition wishes everyone
a happy and healthy new year and
we look forward to the great things 2021 has in store!
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We Love Oregon's CAHOOTS Program
For over thirty years, CAHOOTS responders have provided a community-based public safety system of mental health first response for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. Responders utilize trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction techniques to assess needs and provide immediate stabilization in case of urgent medical need or psychological crisis, assessment, information, referral, advocacy, and, when warranted, transportation to the next step in treatment.
NAMI Finger Lakes recently hosted a webcast featuring CAHOOTS' Operations Coordinator Tim Black.
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Featured STARR Coalition Podcast |
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In this podcast, Luke speaks with Kevin Lynch, President and CEO of The Quell Foundation. Kevin talks about their scholarship programs, which provide a pipeline of future mental health care professionals.
The scholarship program has awarded over a million dollars to students in 49 states across the US.
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The Quell Foundation works to reduce the number of suicides, overdoses, and the incarceration of people living with a mental health illness by helping to break the stigma by encouraging people to share their stories and working to increase access to mental health services.
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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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NAMI-NYC Metro Featured in CNN Article on New York City Sending Mental Health Teams Instead of Police to Respond to 911 Calls
Officials announced that New York City is creating new teams to respond to emergency mental health calls instead of police, as part of a pilot program that will launch next year. The teams will consist of EMS health workers and mental health crisis workers that will be dispatched through the city's 911 system. Police officers would be dispatched as backup in cases where a subject has a weapon or is threatening violence.
Chirlane McCray, the city's first lady, explained that there were more than 170,000 mental health calls to the city's 911 call center last year -- an estimated one call every three minutes -- and the majority involved "people who just needed help." She stated that the goal of the program is to treat mental health crises as health issues instead of a public safety problem.
Matt Kudish, executive director of NAMI NYC Metro, stated the program sounds like a step in the right direction, but he would like to see a program that does not involve police at all.
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STARR 911 is designed to identify callers having thoughts of self-harm and assures they are given helpful information. |
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During the screening of possible volunteers for studies, many questions are asked to make sure the individual meets criteria, one of them being suicidal ideation — instead of simply stating they do not meet criteria, the operator can either give the number to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline or give a “warm” hand off to a suicide prevention specialist.
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The ADAA 2021 Virtual Conference - Resilience and Recovery: From Research to Practice (March 18-19) will bring together clinicians and researchers from across the U.S. and overseas who want to improve treatments and find cures for anxiety, depression, and co-occurring disorders.
Registrants will have access to all of ADAA’s 130+ live, simu-live, and on-demand sessions and ADAA’s virtual poster hall through May 18, 2021.
Engage with speakers across a broad range of sessions, workshops, and symposia, hear from engaging Keynote speakers, network with peers from around the world in small discussion groups and with one-on-one chat functionality, and learn about cutting-edge thinking in research and clinical practice.
Earn 100+ CE/CMEs including several sessions that will qualify for Cross-Cultural Competency Diversity Credits, Suicide Credits, and will provide ethics-related content. All CEs are free to ADAA members.
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The STARR Coalition is partnering with thought-leaders across the industry and advocacy to create a National Call-to-Action to promote Mental Health Research. We are working on creating a campaign consisting of actionable items anyone can use to 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! If you are interested in joining the workgroup, please call, text, or email us!
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The STARR Coalition | phone: 501.944.8653 | fax: 501.224.1340 | www.thestarr.org |
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