From the desk of Jackie Lane, Executive Director NAMI CC&I
As I turned on my computer early this morning, the lead story was yesterday’s death of a young member of the Kennedy family at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. Information was very limited but reading the Cape Cod Times and the Boston Globe a little later, it was reported that the unattended death appeared to be from a drug overdose. And reading further indicated that the 22 year old granddaughter of Ethel and Robert Kennedy had a history of depression and had written, at age 16, about her issues in the school newspaper when she was in her prep school years at Deerfield Academy.
In reading of this loss of life of yet another talented young person, many things came to mind concerning what appears to us to be an epidemic of mental health issues among the young people of our society. We could have hours of discussions as to causes and reasons and there have been many theories offered by the professionals in the mental health and the educational fields. Regardless of the reasons, this epidemic is real, it does not discriminate, and it needs to be addressed in the most aggressive and timely ways.
This tragedy came at a time when we at NAMI CC&I have been spending considerable time on our strategic planning process, and the continuation and further development of pro-active educational programming directed at those who deal with children and youth of all ages is emerging as a priority. We need to make a serious investment in the social/emotional and mental health of our children as they grapple with a fast moving, ever changing world full of stress and pressure. Anxiety can be a double-edged sword. It can be instrumental in making one perform to the best of one’s ability. Most people feel a bit of anxiety or nervousness when speaking before an important audience, for example, and that can improve performance. But it seems that we are seeing constant anxiety in our young people, anxiety leading to stress and very often depression, depression that can become so severe that it causes the system to shut down just like the circuit breaker shuts off the electricity if there is an overload. We are all aware of drug issues (often self-medicating), self-harming, eating disorders, and suicide in our youth population.
We need to work hard to understand brain development, the effects of early childhood trauma, and the social/emotional issues confronting our children and youth. And we need to develop effective systems at all levels in the effort to stem the flow of tragedies relating to our young people. Every time a young person is lost, we have lost the opportunity to experience what could have been a successful and productive person in our society. We at NAMI CC&I are continuing to explore the best ways to do our part to educate and to advocate for a truly integrated lifelong healthcare system that addresses the whole person, mental and physical health. We owe it to the next generation.
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ADVOCACY
From the desk of Mary Zdanowicz, Esq
It is virtually impossible to be admitted to one of the Department of Mental Health (DMH) continuing care psychiatric hospitals, such as Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital.
Why?
More than 90% of admissions to state continuing care
hospitals were from the criminal justice system in 2018.
There were 947 patient admissions to DMH continuing care psychiatric hospitals in 2018. According to the testimony of the DMH Commissioner of Mental Health in March, 759 adults (80%) were admitted to DMH facilities for inpatient forensic evaluations and 102 adults were admitted from the Department of Corrections Bridgewater State Hospital (11%).
That is, fewer than 10% of the patients admitted to continuing care state hospital beds were involuntarily committed from the community.
Less than 1% of civil commitments were converted
to continuing care state hospital admissions in 2018.
In 2018, there were nearly 11,000 admissions to community acute care hospitals, such as the Center for Behavioral Health at Cape Cod Hospital. Only 86 of those admissions (0.8%) resulted in a transfer to one of the 663 continuing care beds in hospitals operated by DMH at five hospitals. The rest were from the criminal justice system.
This situation is only getting worse. In five years, between 2013 and 2018, the percentage of forensic admissions jumped from 50% to 80%. There were 602 admissions from the criminal courts in 2013 compared to 759 last year. One can only wonder how many admissions from the criminal justice system could be avoided if people could get the continuing care they need before they commit a crime!
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Jud Phelps,
who has served as the NAMI CC&I Director of Client Services since the inception of the position 3 ½ years ago, has retired and will be enjoying additional time with his family, especially his high achieving grandchildren. Jud has also been very generous with his time as a community volunteer offering support through his mentoring skills and plans to continue these activities.
Having had a long history in the counseling field, Jud helped us to develop and define the Director of Client Services position as we have been able to help hundreds of families and individuals navigate the difficult and broken mental health system. Jud was also able to use his wealth of mental health contacts as a basis in the development of our Resource Directory which is still in development and requires constant updating.
One of Jud’s most innovative ideas was his proposal to develop a “Primer” on mental health, a handbook with the basics about mental illnesses, their respective treatments, emergency services, local resources, and legal issues. We are in the second printing of the Primer and more than 2,500 copies have been distributed to providers, educators, policemen, and families throughout the Cape free of charge.
Jud also, in collaboration with Kim Lemmon, Director of Family Programming, developed and taught a 6-week course on mental health issues for the Academy of Lifelong Learning of Cape Cod, Inc. at Cape Cod Community College.
As a NAMI CC&I volunteer, Jud has facilitated an active support group for several years, taught our flagship Family-2-Family course, and recently became a facilitator for our new HomeFront course for the families of veterans. In both his personal/volunteer life and in his professional life, Jud Phelps has made helping others a central part of his life and our community is a better place for his efforts. Those who have called our help line will remember his calm and compassionate, but firm advice and counsel. We thank Jud for helping us to build the SUPPORT element of our mission, an important element, which is continuing to grow.
Thank you, Jud and Godspeed!
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Time to Buy Tickets for
the 4th annual
Dragonfly Fundraiser,
an event to inspire change with mental illness
on Nantucket.
Thursday, August 8th, 2019
5:30-8:00pm
This year, Dragonfly will donate net proceeds to
NAMI CC&I on Nantucket &
Fairwinds - Nantucket's Counseling Center.
Tickets available for $150.
Dragonfly-on-Nantucket.
Enjoy drinks & hors d'oeuvres, music by Jeff Ross,
& bid on fabulous items at the auction including
a Canyon Ranch weekend, Telluride, CO stay,
Hinckley Boat cruise, Tradewinds charter flights, &
artwork from Nathan Coe & Samuel Owen Gallery.
Dragonfly will be held at
The Great Harbor Yacht Club
96 Washington Street, Nantucket, MA
Valet parking provided.
Your donation is tax-deductible. NAMI CC&I on Nantucket and Fairwinds
A special thank you to 2019 sponsors listed below.
If you are interested in being a sponsor or donating an auction item,
GOLD SPONSORS
Kathy & Tom Arrix
Katie & Bob Keith
SILVER SPONSORS
The Wilson Foundation
J Pepper Frazier Real Estate
Cleanlines Construction
Cape Cod 5 Foundation
East Wood
Jennifer Jordan
Diane Ash
BRONZE SPONSORS
Ann & Fred Conti
Erin & Patrick Dorton
Robin Gillen & Harvey Jones
Kelly O'Donnell
Maria Roach
Nantucket Island Resorts
Nantucket Lightshop
Toscana Corp.
The Beachside Hotel
Amanda Wright & Betsy Wright
The Rockland Trust-Blue Hills Charitable Foundation
SUPPORTER
John Lawrence Funeral Home
IN KIND SPONSORS
The Raw Bar Yoho
Jeff Ross
La Rock Events
Flowers on Chestnut
Marquis Creative
Zofia & Co.
Eleanor Hallewell Photography
MEDIA SPONSORS
Nantucket Magazine
Nantucket blACKbook
ACK FM
The many generous people donated auction items.
Thank You to the Dragonfly Committee: Kate Kling, Founder,
Katie Keith, Kate Coe, Kerryann Leddy, Emme Duncan, Barbara Dale, Tamara Greenman, Cara Marquis, Amanda Wright, Candace Alexander, Melanie Wernick
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July has been a busy month with tourists, work, and summer activities, but relatively quiet for NAMI MV.
We are excited to share that we received a generous $2,275.00 donation from Feiner Real Estate earlier this month. Feiner Real Estate offers an amazing charitable program called Clients Choice. Client’s Choice Program gives those who work with Feiner Real Estate the opportunity to connect with Martha’s Vineyard non-profit groups and the people who benefit from them. The buyer or seller with whom Feiner's agent work identifies an Island charitable institution of their choice and Feiner makes a donation once the property closes. No added expense to our client. Feiner gives back an impressive ten percent of their profits each year.
This spring, through Jim Wallen, NAMI MV became one of the Island charities within Feiner's Client's Choice Program. When Jim Wallen, a Family-to-Family graduate, sold a house to Brent and Beth Antony this summer, Brent and Beth chose NAMI MV as their charity of choice. Thank you Jim W., Brent, Beth, and Jim Fiener.
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NAMI MV also went to the diamond this month - the baseball diamond, that is. The Martha's Vineyard Sharks, currently in first place in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, hosted NAMI MV on July 23. We're excited to say that brochures and information were given away and the Sharks won.
We are moving full steam ahead with the Darkness Into Vineyard Light Suicide Awareness and Prevention Walk coming up in September. We are currently soliciting sponsors, and registration for walkers is now live on NAMI CCI's website. Hope to see you all there!
Happy Summer!
Lisa
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I
f you have the occasion to call the NAMI CC&I office, you may hear a new voice on the phone. Mary Bondarek, a young Cape Cod (Sandwich) native, has joined our staff as an administrative assistant. Mary, who possesses a lot of energy, a desire to learn, as well as those natural millennial skill sets that so many of us, myself included, are a little rusty on, earned her Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh (
cum laude
) with a concentration in early childhood development.
We are looking forward to a symbiotic relationship as Mary learns about the mental health care system and its resources, with all its challenges, as well as the necessary elements in play in managing a not for profit and moving it forward in response to community needs. From Mary, we can gain some new perspectives and ideas on how to relate to the younger generations where there appears to be an epidemic of mental health issues as young people try to cope with a fast moving, pressure-filled adult world.
There seems to be an acute lack of people in the mental health field on the Cape and we look forward to having Mary back on the Cape where need is especially great. And, in addition, Mary loves GOLF, an important part of our summer life at NAMI CC&I, as we prepare for the 10
th
Siobhan Leigh Kinlin Memorial Golf Tournament this September 9
th
at the Oysters Harbors Club!
Welcome, Mary!
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RESEARCH WEEKLY: Importance of Family Involvement in Inpatient Care
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There is widespread recognition among clinicians, researchers, individuals with serious mental illness and their families that involving family members in the mental health care of their loved ones is essential to providing quality and effective care. However, little is known about the effects of family involvement on inpatient care and how that involvement can be sustained upon discharge to an outpatient setting.
In a new study published online this week in Psychiatric Services, Morgan Haselden and authors from New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University analyzed Medicaid claims and closed medical records from two major urban community hospitals. The authors examined family involvement in inpatient hospitalization care from these records, where "family" also includes any individual who has a close relationship with the patient and provides support.
The authors found that there is a significant association between family involvement in inpatient care and both the creation of a comprehensive patient discharge plan and prompt continuation of treatment in an outpatient setting. The frequency of family involvement by the inpatient staff was assessed, including family visits during hospitalization, attendance of family meetings or therapy sessions, and discussing post-discharge treatment planning with staff. The results suggest that even a low level of family involvement at relatively low effort from clinical staff had a considerable effect on outcomes.
"This finding lends support to the benefits of family involvement in mental health care and adds new evidence that these benefits extend to the psychiatric hospitalization setting," Haselden and authors write. "Furthermore, family involvement was associated with patients' receiving more comprehensive discharge planning, underscoring the importance of family involvement and its impact on treatment."
Study findings
The results indicate that 75% of the patients in the sample had a family member contacted by staff during their inpatient hospitalization. Only 37% of the patients were discharged with a comprehensive treatment plan and 53% attended an outpatient mental health care appointment within one week. Notably, any involvement of the family with inpatient staff was associated with an increased likelihood of attendance of outpatient care appointments after discharge from the hospital at both seven- and 30-days follow-up. Other findings from the study included:
- Patients with a length of hospitalization of one week or more were 2.5 times more likely to have a comprehensive discharge plan than those whose stay was six days or less.
- Hospitalized individuals with serious mental illness who also had a co-occurring substance-use disorder were less likely to have family involvement in their care and less likely to have been discharged with a comprehensive plan compared to those without a substance-use disorder.
- Patients with serious mental illness who were less than 21 years old were more likely to have family involvement in their care.
Of importance, 14 people, almost 10% of the sample, refused to have family involvement in their care. The authors argue that in some cases it may be important to limit family involvement if the relationship is not a positive one. However, prior research supports the notion that inpatient staff should consider both the family member and individual patient's viewpoint in treatment decisions and discharge planning when the patient refuses any involvement of their family members, according to the authors.
As we wrote in our May 14, 2019
research blog
on shared decision-making and the importance of family involvement, "in practice, caregiver or family member involvement in mental healthcare decision-making is rarely explicitly addressed." In agreement, Haselden and fellow authors argue that this discrepancy is even more pronounced in inpatient care, despite recognition of the value of involving family members. More information and education are needed to better inform inpatient care and promote the inclusion of family members in such practices.
References:
Elizabeth Sinclair
Director of Research
Treatment Advocacy Center
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Please Note: We have made a change to the NAMI Support Group Schedule. The twice monthly meeting at the NAMI Office for family members effected by Dual Diagnosis has been discontinued. If you have a loved one you are supporting with their struggle of both a mental health condition and substance abuse, we will be offering an educationally based program designed to help you better prepare for that role. Please contact Kim Lemmon, Director of Family Programs, at 508-778-4277 or
[email protected]
for more information.
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Webinar: Combining TMS with Psychotherapy for Treating Depression and OCD
Tuesday, August 13, 2019, 2:00 pm
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a safe, non-invasive type of brain stimulation, was approved by the FDA for the treatment of depression in 2008, and is now clinically available for the treatment of adults who have not been helped by antidepressant medications. Recently, FDA cleared TMS for use in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, if given immediately after cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of psychotherapy. This webinar will address the potential of combining psychotherapy with TMS for the treatment of depression, taking advantage of potential synergies between the two non-pharmacological approaches.
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Join a free peer support group for compulsive acquiring, saving and hoarding, facilitated by Mark Abbott, LICSW and Diane Delauter, LICSW of Falmouth Human Services, based on the book Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving and Hoarding (Treatments that Work) by David F. Tolin, Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee. The group will meet for 14 sessions (weekly on Tuesdays, start date September 17th, 3-4:30 pm). All who attend will:
- Increase insight and awareness into your own patterns of acquiring, saving & hoarding
- Receive support from others and your own copy of the book
- Develop strategies to de-clutter your home
- Change problematic acquiring and discarding behaviors
For more information on the Fall
Hoarding Peer Support Group
or to sign up for this series call Mark Abbott at 508-548-0533 x14. Support group sponsored by Falmouth Human Services.
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Dance In the Rain
Mary Munsell wishes to announce that Dance in The Rain will no longer meet at 145 Barnstable Road, Hyannis. During this time of transition and restructuring, program information will be available on their website at
www.danceintherain-wpa.org
and on their Facebook page. Specific questions can be directed to Mary at her email address -
[email protected]
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When shopping on Amazon, think NAMI CC&I and Amazon Smile.
Every dollar you give to NAMI CC&I goes to help support, educate and advocate for the residents of Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
Amazon donates 0.5% of your eligible purchases.
It's so easy, you can still use your Amazon Prime and you still collect points. All you need to do is:
When you are going to make a purchase on Amazon, first enter
http://smile.amazon.com
i
n your internet browser. On your first visit to AmazonSmile, you will be prompted to select a charitable organization . Select NAMI Cape Cod Inc.
Thank You!
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