KQED: BAY WINDOW

BAY WINDOW: HOPE ON THE STREET
OUTREACH PROGRAM AND PARTNER INFORMATION

Background

The struggles of the homeless and the mentally ill -- and their families and the neighborhoods where they live -- are receiving renewed attention. Community programs in California are offering an array of services, from better housing to more jobs and job training to more support groups and socialization efforts. In addition, an increasing number of people who have a mental illness are ending their silence, shattering societal stereotypes.

In accordance with renewed efforts to implement reform in community mental health programs, KQED is one of several stations to receive a Sound Partners for Community Health grant to produce, in collaboration with community partners, locally conceived programming and outreach projects that address improving the quality of mental health care.

KQED is proud to be partnering with the Mental Health Education and Workforce Development Initiative (MHEWDI) at San Francisco State University's College of Extended Learning to improve the quality of care for the San Francisco Bay Area's mentally ill homeless population. By joining forces, KQED and MHEWDI will leverage each other's strengths and reach more people more effectively than either could do alone.

Stigma, shame and discrimination prevent an estimated 80 percent of mentally ill individuals from seeking treatment. Frontline mental health care workers -- especially primary care physicians and educators -- need to understand how these factors prevent individuals from seeking help. The goal of the KQED/MHEWDI partnership is to show mental health clients, mental health and other health care professionals, and the general public that there is hope for the mentally ill, even those living on the street, that many can lead stable and fulfilling lives when given access to quality care.

Outreach Program

In addition to producing and broadcasting Bay Window: Hope on the Street, KQED and MHEWDI are working together to create strategic outreach events with other community organizations. Community engagement activities will consist of four mental health awareness/education events that will use Bay Window: Hope on the Street as the springboard to exploring issues raised in the film. The theme of each event will be tied to recovery and will target different parts of the mental health community.

These four events will reach major mental health care stakeholders, including

media makers, who have the power to affect broad perceptions about mental illness.
educators, who often are the first to see signs of mental disabilities and who have a forum to teach about stigma.
mental health care workers, social workers and primary care physicians, who guide those in need of assistance through the system and who must face head-on the quality of mental health care in the Bay Area.
mental health clients and their families, who must navigate the mental health care system while confronting their own misconceptions about mental illness.
key representatives of mental health community organizations and policymakers, who have the power to make improvements in access to mental health services while confronting fiscal and political constraints.

Outreach Events

October 10, 2002, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Ð Media and Mental Illness: Shattering the Stigma

Bay Area journalists and mental health community representatives will join together at this seminar to discuss the power of the media in shaping public perception of the mentally ill and how to improve media coverage. Otto Wahl, professor of psychology at George Mason University, will be the keynote speaker, along with a distinguished panel that includes: William Brand, Oakland Tribune; Rob Elder, San Jose Mercury News (ret.); Nguyen Qui Duc, KQED Public Radio's Pacific Time; and Michael Isip, producer, Bay Window: Hope on the Street. A clip from the documentary will also be shown.

Hosted by the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Co-sponsors for the event include: Alameda County Council of Mental Health Agencies, KQED Public Broadcasting, Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services, Alameda County Mental Health Board, Peers Envisioning and Engaging in Recovery Services, Mental Health Association in California, CSU Hayward's Institute of Mental Health and Wellness Education, and SFSU's Mental Health Education and Workforce Development Initiative.

Contact: Mike Lippitt, Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services, lippitt@bhcs.mail.co.alameda.ca.us or (510) 567-8100
Location: North Gate Hall, U.C. Berkeley (corner of Euclid and Hearst streets), Berkeley, Calif.

March 1, 2003 Ð A Major Mental Health Symposium for Educators and Frontline Professionals

A one-day symposium will be hosted by San Francisco State University's College of Extended Learning's Mental Health Education and Workforce Development Initiative. Specifically designed for teachers (preschool to postgraduate) and frontline professionals, the seminar will address mental health and illness indicators, resources, new approaches and treatments, and the role of cultural and ethnic mental health belief systems. The emphasis of the event will be on hope, recovery, and the importance of early identification and intervention for long-term mental health and wellness. A clip from Bay Window: Hope on the Street will be shown in the morning to set the tone for the day. For more information, please go to http://www.cel.sfsu.edu/catpro/home.cfm?selection=mcce.

Contact: Dede Ranahan, Mental Health Education and Workforce Development Initiative, dranahan@sfsu.edu or (415) 405-7751
Location: South San Francisco Conference Center, 255 S. Airport Blvd., South San Francisco, Calif.

May 2003 Ð Training Event for Mental Health Professionals Working in Community Groups

This half-day training event is hosted by San Francisco Community Mental Health Services of the Department of Public Health, City and County of San Francisco and is designed to increase cultural awareness and sensitivity around the mentally ill homeless as well as to identify ways to improve care. Participants will include mental health professionals such as social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, mental health case managers, peer counselors and health workers working in community mental health programs. The specific date for this event is to be determined.

Contact: Juliet Valerio, 415-558-5915
Location: TBD

June 2003 Ð Seminar for Mental Health Consumers and Their Families

A half-day event hosted by the Mental Health Association of San Francisco will explore the power of stigma as an obstacle to recovery and treatment. The seminar will focus on helping families to overcome their misconceptions of mental illness in order to help them reach out to their loved ones who have mental disabilities, giving everyone involved hope for recovery. Participants will include mental health clients, mental health professionals and family members. The specific date for this event is to be determined.

Contact: Belinda Lyons, belinda@mha-sf.org or (415) 241-2929
Location: TBD

Our Partners

The Mental Health Education and Workforce Development Initiative (MHEWDI) at San Francisco State University's College of Extended Learning strives to bring the education system and the mental health system together as essential partners in serving the mental health needs of the community. The initiative is focusing on four strategic areas: mental health/human services workforce education and training that includes the education of mental health clients/consumers; mental health education for mainstream teachers/faculty (preschool to postgraduate); an enhanced, comprehensive system of accessible and effective supports for college students who have mental disabilities; and mental health education for the culturally diverse communities of the greater Bay Area. In addition, MHEWDI's advisory committee of approximately 60 representatives from a wide range of mental health organizations has been pivotal in the development of the content for the Bay Window: Hope on the Street documentary and outreach materials and events. For more information, please go to http://www.cel.sfsu.edu/catpro/home.cfm?selection=mcce.

Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services is working to provide a comprehensive network of integrated programs and services for all people who have serious psychiatric disabilities, regardless of age, ethnicity, language or geographic location, in order to minimize their number of hospitalizations, stabilize and manage their psychiatric symptoms, and help them achieve the highest possible level of successful functioning in their community of choice. It also provides mental health crisis and recovery services following major disasters and is working to improve its substance abuse services -- prevention, treatment, rehabilitation -- in order to reduce the illness, death, disability and cost to society that results from substance abuse. For more information, please go to http://www.co.alameda.ca.us/health/behavior/behav.shtml.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health's Community Mental Health Services-San Francisco Mental Health Plan offers a full range of specialty mental health services provided by a culturally diverse network of community mental health programs, clinics, and private psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists. For more information, please go to http://www.dph.sf.ca.us/PHP/MHP.htm.

The Mental Health Association of San Francisco is dedicated to providing dynamic leadership to the entire community, in all its rich diversity, by building resources for, fostering the strengths of, meeting the needs of and improving the lives of all who are challenged by mental illness. , through education, advocacy and service. For more information, please go to http://www.mha-sf.org/.

Grant Information

Sound Partners for Community Health seeks to increase public awareness of specific health issues and facilitate citizens' involvement in making decisions affecting health care by fostering partnerships between public broadcasters, community organizations and additional media entities. By utilizing a variety of programming and community engagement techniques, the alliances supported by Sound Partners help equip individuals to participate in community problem-solving around local health issues. Sound Partners is a program of the Benton Foundation and is funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For more information, please go to http://www.soundpartners.org/.

News Release: Sound Partners Awards $1.7 Million to Public Broadcasters