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In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. Dekalb County Youth Service Bureau, has been selected as the Partner of the Month for July in celebration of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

The Dekalb County Youth Service Bureau (YSB) is a organization that provides individual, family, and group mental health counseling, as well as specialty services which are designed to keep families intact, keep youth out of the juvenile court system, and empower youth to achieve in Illinois.

YSB has been enriching the lives and relationships of youth ages 8 to 18 and their families for over 45 years. YSB became a separate agency in 1971 after being a City of DeKalb Department since 1969. YSB was one of three initial youth service bureaus in Illinois and since its inception, continues to respond to and meet the service needs of today’s youth and their families. YSB is a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) agency governed by a volunteer Board of Directors from throughout DeKalb County.

The some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

• Youth & Family Counseling –  Youth & Family Counseling (YFC) offers individual and family counseling to youth aged 8-18 and their families. YFC is designed to address the specific needs of those experiencing difficult situations in their lives. In addition, youth can be referred for a comprehensive assessment to determine if additional services are needed.
• Girls Empowerment Group – The Girls Empowerment Group encourages girls to seek and celebrate their “true selves” by giving them a safe space, encouragement, structure and support to embrace their important journey of self discovery. A strength based approach helps girls identify and apply their power and voice as individuals and as a group focusing on issues that are important in the lives of adolescent girls.
• Alcohol / Drug Early Intervention Programs – Early Intervention is designed to educate teens about alcohol, drug, and other substance related issues. A two-session screening assessment is used to gather drug/alcohol history and make recommendations for services. This program uses group education to provide accurate information regarding alcohol/drug use and exploration of the decision-making process involved in making healthy choices.
• Alternative to Suspension Program – Alternative to Suspension is for students from 6th-12th grade, to act as a gateway to mental health services for at-risk youth who are required to serve out-of-school suspension. While enrolled in the program, youth will receive a comprehensive mental health screening to determine potential risk factors that contributed to the youth being suspended.
• DeKalb County Youth Project – Youth Project is geared toward youth between the ages of 11 and 18. The program was developed for the purpose of equipping youth with the skills to identify, manage, and appropriately express anger and other intense emotions, in order to prevent aggressive and abusive tendencies, promote pro-social skills, improve anger control, and reduce the frequency of acting out behaviors. Youth can be referred for counseling or META (Managing Emotions, Thoughts, & Actions), an educational group that focus on three components: Anger Control (the Emotional component), Moral Reasoning (the Thoughts component), and Social Skills (the Actions component).

Learn more about Dekalb County Youth Service Bureau and their mission to assist youth as they build healthy lives and relationships with their families, friends, and community. YSB envisions a community where all young people know they are valued as important contributors, and know that YSB is here to support them so they can live up to their potential and achieve their personal goals.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

The online reporting center Stop AAPI Hate documented nearly 3,800 cases of anti-Asian hate between March of last year and February of this year. The increase in reported hate incidents ranging from verbal attacks to fatal assaults is leaving many on high alert. Experts say racism can create debilitating effects on mental health.

“Asians were not only fighting the pandemic but we were fighting racism,” said Dr. Carolee Tran, clinical psychologist and instructor at UC Davis. “It’s tragic and unacceptable that it took the events of Atlanta to really get the attention of the general public,” Tran said. “When we have these incidents, we watch them on TV, we watch on the news, we feel all these things in our body.”

A 2011 analysis of studies into racism and mental health among Asian Americans revealed significant relationships between discrimination and depression and anxiety.

“Awareness of racism and living in a scary, atmosphere causes one to be hypervigilant. It affects our prefrontal cortex, the amygdala,” Tran said. “These are the areas of the brain that impact affect and emotions. It can affect people’s concentration, attention, a sense of motivation even. You can feel more fatigue.”

Trauma, advocates say, that is collectively felt now by many Asian Americans.

Read more at KCRA.com.

A recovery home that opened in Bangor on Monday will help Indigenous men with substance use disorder as they seek to rehabilitate and transition. Male members of Maine’s Wabanaki tribes will be able to live at the Opportunity House at 123 Essex St. beginning around mid-May, pending the issuance of an occupancy permit from the city of Bangor, Wabanaki Healing and Recovery Interim Director Lisa Sockasbasin said. Seven people will be able to stay in the fully furnished building at one time.

The project has been years in the making, led by Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness with input from American Indigenous organizations and tribes across the state. The home will serve members of the five federally recognized tribes in Maine: the Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseets, the Passamaquoddy tribes at Indian Township and Pleasant Point, and the Aroostook Band of Micmacs.

Native Americans suffer from one of the highest rates of substance use disorder, including alcoholism and addiction to other illicit drugs, of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. A survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that about 10 percent of Native American adults had a substance use disorder compared to about 8 percent for all American adults.

Maulian Dana, tribal ambassador for the Penobscot Nation, tied those historic issues with the oppression Native groups have long faced in the United States, ranging from being forced off their land by European settlers to the cultural destruction caused by forced attendance in boarding schools that discouraged Native customs.

“The intergenerational trauma, the historic oppression of our people, can be overwhelming,” Dana said. “And it really leads to those unhealthy behaviors and cycles of dysfunction.”

Read more at BangorDailyNews.com.

Five months after the launch of UW Police Captain Christopher Tarmann’s app created to help Law Enforcement officers who are dealing with depression and other mental health issues, it is thriving, with more features available.

“It’s really good because there are just over 1,500 people who have downloaded the app in Law Enforcement and I think that is probably where we estimated we would be at this time,” said Captain Tarmann. Mental health has been an important subject of discussion on the campus of UW Oshkosh after a current student Veteran and a former student Veteran died by suicide in recent months. “In the Wile Guardian app, we have resources for Veterans as well, who are in need of help,” said Tarmann.

Suicides are up among Veterans. According to the Veterans Affairs National Suicide Data Report, from 2008-2016, more than 6,000 Veterans committed suicide. In 2016, the suicide rate was 1.5 times higher among Veterans, than non-Veteran adults. The United We Stand is focused on changing those statistics for the better. “I definitely feel that it’s the type of thing that can break the stigma associated with seeking help with mental health issues,” said Steve Freund, student Veteran who works at VRC.

Wile Guardian is available now in the Apple App Store and Google Play for free. If you are not a law enforcement officer, you can also download the app for free resources, which include immediate access to services.

Read more at WeAreGreenBay.com.

The class of 2020 at Hawaii’s public high schools managed to graduate at a record rate after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, but far fewer of those graduates enrolled in college, new data shows. Just 50% of last year’s graduating class went straight to college, down from 55% the previous year. The drop was even more pronounced for students of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander ancestry.

“The negative effects of the pandemic on educational progress, in general, are not equal across socioeconomic and demographic groups, ” said Stephen Schatz, executive director of Hawaii P-20 Partnerships for Education. “In particular, economically disadvantaged, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders saw some pretty precipitous declines in the college-going rate for the class of 2020.”

“We continuously work to smooth the pathways for Hawaii’s public school graduates to advance themselves by enrolling in a University of Hawaii campus, ” UH President David Lassner said. “Next Steps to Your Future is an amazing program for the classes of 2021 and 2020 that provides free support, encouragement, and a head-start on college to help our recent high school graduates continue on pathways that lead to better futures.”

The Next Steps program helped guide graduating seniors to post-secondary education and training, connecting them with a dedicated adviser and offering a chance to take free career exploration classes at UH community colleges in the summer. Last year, 2, 154 graduates received support services through the program, and they could take 120 different courses that carried college credits.

Read more at YahooNews.com.

In the face of cultural as well as systemic barriers, many Asian Americans and Asian immigrants are struggling with the constant emotional onslaught. Therapists and community members say it’s common for immigrants, Asian or otherwise, to want to avoid making trouble or drawing attention to themselves. But Asian immigrants in particular, as well as many Asian Americans, also face some traditions that discourage speaking up and turning to mental health resources.

In many East Asian cultures, “there’s this sort of implicit understanding that you’re to suffer and you are to endure it,” said Steven Sust, a Chinese American who is a child-and-adolescent psychiatrist at Stanford University. “There’s a Chinese statement like ‘bitter life,’ or ‘life is bitterness’ — ‘meng fu,’ ” Sust added, which, he said, means “to just sort of grin and bear it.”

This sensibility can have a devastating effect, experts say, compounded by a lack of mental health resources in the necessary languages and a shortage of counselors who are not only sensitive to these realities but who share Asian heritage. Asian psychologists make up about 4 percent of the profession, while the Asian share of the nation’s population is closer to 6 percent.

Although the numbers of Asians experiencing anxiety and depression is rising, Asians in the United States access mental health care at half the rate of other racial groups, according to a 2019 study published by the American Psychiatric Association. In the past few years, however, social justice and grass-roots Asian American organizations have come together to encourage Asians to speak up and challenge the bias against mental health care. They’ve held rallies, offered free intervention workshops, and created directories of resources. And they’re not shy about taking on the cultural norms that have kept Asians silent.

Read more at WashingtonPost.com.