News

Taressa Penny battled through a high-risk pregnancy and learned to become the best advocate for her health. Penny said her pregnancy was scary because doctors considered her pregnancy high risk. Penny also knew black women die at a higher rate during or soon after giving birth.

Pregnant women of color are more likely to experience stress that can.impact the health of the mother and baby.

She decided to indulge in self care and exercise, but also worked with health care providers she says cared about her physical and mental health.

Dr. Tiffany Ruffin at University Health says postpartum depression is the number one complication of child birth.

“Irritability, not acting like myself, not feeling connected and anxiety,” Dr. Ruffin said. “So also the constant what if’s, the worries, the things that just keep me up at night.”

Pregnant women of color are more likely to experience stress that can impact the health of the mother and baby.

Read more at KSHB.com.

A new bipartisan bill, titled the Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act, aims to increase rural residents’ access to virtual mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services by authorizing up to $10 million in annual grants through 2027.

People who work in these industries have the fourth-highest suicide rates of any industry, with 36 males per 100,000 dying by suicide, according to the CDC.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would work with the Department of Agriculture to award annual grants to deliver behavioral telehealth services and develop metrics to compare the quality and impact of telehealth appointments versus in-person visits.

Several studies have shown telehealth appointments are as effective as in-person services, although little research has been done to analyze telehealth efficacy of different patient demographic groups.

Read more on BHBusiness.com.

The strength of community-based organizations (CBOs) is knowing and engaging with their own stories and that of their communities to make a difference. Building on previous Elevate CBOs webinars, this four-part series, led by Carlos Morales of Viva Technology will focus on providing the context and tools necessary for behavioral health organizations to convey their impact and move their work to the next level through data storytelling. Though registrants can choose which sessions to attend, we highly recommend you attend all sessions. Registration for the limited-capacity Post-Workshop Q&A Hour will be released after each session.

Through this Elevate CBOs workshop series, attendees will:

• Understand the importance of data storytelling for behavioral health equity work 
• Identify data, stories, and visuals that are optimal for conveying their organizations’ work and impact 
• Learn how to make data, narratives, and visuals that are interesting and palatable to their audiences 
• Gain the tools necessary to market themselves to funders, community members, and other partners  

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

This series is a continuation of the Elevate CBOs Webinar Series, an overarching policy-driven initiative from SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) that began in 2021.

The event will also be shared on Facebook Live at fb.com/nned.net and closed captioning will be available through Zoom.

Speaker

Created in 2011 by Black and Hispanic social workers at the nonprofit organization Youth Guidance, Working on Womenhood’s (WOW) goal is to build a healthy sense of self-awareness, confidence, and resilience in a population that is often underserved by mental health programs.

Youth Guidance offers WOW to about 350 students in Waukegan Community Unit School District 60, which serves an industrial town of about 88,000 located about 30 miles north of Chicago. Just over 93 percent of the district’s 13,600 students are Black or Hispanic, and about 67 percent come from families classified as low income.

Compared to other students, Black and Hispanic students have a harder time getting mental health support in school. In-school mental health support targeted to girls, especially evidence-based, sustained programs like WOW, is scarce or nonexistent in many public schools.

Despite some of these implementation challenges, WOW leaders and counselors consider the Waukegan WOW program a success.

Read more at HechingerReport.org.

VA has said that ending veteran suicide is its top clinical priority, and a White House fact sheet ahead of President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address called suicide among veterans a “public health and national security crisis.”

Nearly 50,000 veterans and former service members received free emergency suicide prevention care in 2023 in the first year of a new Department of Veterans Affairs program.

The initiative is designed to help those in “acute suicidal crisis” access emergency services at VA and non-VA facilities and saved the former service members at least $64 million in health-care costs, according to VA. The policy covers 30 days of inpatient or crisis residential care, 90 days of outpatient care and related transportation costs.

Homelessness among veterans also increased by 7.4 percent in 2023, according to VA, with more than 35,000 veterans recorded in last year’s count by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Read more at WashingtonPost.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. Whole Systems Learning has been selected as the Partner of the Month for February in celebration of Black History Month.

Whole Systems Learning works with Black youth and individuals in the community to provide them with the resources and support needed to establish new pathways in life. They believe that through creativity, education, and support systems, previously incarcerated citizens will have greater opportunity to reach their fullest potential.

Some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

• Emotional Awareness Training
• Hip Hop Heals
• Housing Services
• Coping Skills Development

Learn more about Whole Systems Learning and their mission to provide African American male youth and all returning citizens a support system for a pathway to purpose through creativity, careers, culture, and health.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.