By Moryt Milo For individuals living with mental illness, proper treatment and safe housing top the list. The right treatment can enable some individuals with mental illness to live independently. But finding affordable housing on a fixed income in the Bay Area is challenging. The county is trying to change that for low-income individuals and…
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By Moryt Milo Ken Duckworth knew NAMI needed a book driven by individuals with lived experience, not your standard doctor-patient saga. He sensed what would resonate with the readers since he too had mental illness in his family, having grown up watching his father suffer from severe mood swings caused by bipolar disorder. As the…
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By Moryt Milo At a holiday party in December 2014, Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian was pulled aside by a friend and asked a very simple question: Why are there no inpatient psychiatric beds for children and adolescents in mental health crisis in Santa Clara County? Even though Simitian had been serving in public…
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By Moryt Milo For those who are uninsured and in need of mental health services, the prospect of finding help is daunting. But there is a solution. Santa Clara County operates a long-time program that caters to this demographic. It starts with a phone call to the county’s Behavioral Health Call Center. The screener determines…
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By Moryt Milo The air was crisp and the energy was electric as Palo Alto University (PAU) opened its Mountain View campus just steps away from the city’s downtown core. The small private nonprofit university has only one mission—to graduate doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s students in the field of behavioral health—which the university has been…
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By Moryt Milo Momentum for Health, one of the largest nonprofit agencies in Santa Clara County, helps youth and adults diagnosed with mental health disorders. The nonprofit focuses on the whole person by recognizing that successful treatment requires viewing the individual’s health through a 360-degree lens. CEO and president David Mineta said Momentum’s goal is…
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By Moryt Milo It’s a rare moment when a proposed law reshaping the mental health landscape receives unprecedented support. It’s even more stunning when it’s enacted within eight months. This is what occurred after Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out his CARE Court proposal. On Sept. 14, 2022, Gov. Newsom signed the Community Assistance, Recovery and…
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By Moryt Milo When an adult child is arrested, and the underlying issue is due to a mental illness, parents are frightened and have no idea where to turn. Alone, they scramble for information. There is help, though, through NAMI and its Family Jail Support Group. This monthly group can provide the necessary tools to…
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By Moryt Milo “I’ve been calling around for two years and this is the first time someone explained it to me,” the caller said to the peer navigator. The anxious resident had finally found someone who could unravel Santa Clara County’s complex behavioral health care system. A system that for most felt like a giant…
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By Moryt Milo When 988 goes live on July 16, a tsunami-size sea change will be felt in the mental health community. The new three-digit number for suicide prevention and mental health crisis services will shift the country away from calling 911 and triggering a police response. The new number, which replaces the National Suicide…
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