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VA announced that it has partnered with CaringBridge, a global nonprofit social network, to aid in Veterans’ connection and communication with their support communities.

CaringBridge provides free, secure, personal websites — as a dedicated platform — to assist family and friends in communicating with loved ones during any type of health journey.

“Partnerships with organizations such as CaringBridge that can offer impactful support and connection form an integral part of our public health approach to ensure we reach all Veterans,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “Collaborations like these can help particularly in preventing Veteran suicide, which remains VA’s top clinical priorities.”

Through this partnership, CaringBridge highlights a tailored destination page that focuses directly on the needs of service members, Veterans and their families. Each customized website supports healing and connection in various ways, keeping families and friends informed and linked using interactive journals and providing access to resources on the site.

In addition to coordinating supportive tasks, CaringBridge has collaborated with VA medical centers and staff to offer training to help facilitate online outreach and support for Veterans and their families. The organization’s customer care staff also have been trained on VA resources and how to make referrals to the Veterans Crisis Line.

Read more on VA.gov.

Clarksville has a new distinction in the battle against suicide — it’s the first city in Tennessee to provide suicide prevention training to its entire workforce. The training program is known as QPR for Suicide Prevention, which stands for “Question, Persuade, Refer for Suicide Prevention.”

The effort started after the city — then led by former Mayor Kim McMillan — accepted the suicide prevention training challenge issued by the executive director of the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network (TSPN), Scott Ridgway. It was continued by the current mayor, Joe Pitts.

In all, TSPN professionals delivered nearly 50 one-hour training sessions to nearly 1,200 city employees from November through April. Misty Leitsch, TSPN’s Zero Suicide director and a Clarksville native, led the bulk of the training, and said its purpose is providing practical and proven methods of identifying and responding to those in crisis.

“We teach individuals how to appropriately ask, what not to say, how to persuade and how to refer,” Leitsch said.

“Clarksville is the first city in the state to mandate and complete this training, which is awesome. They have been very dedicated and committed to getting employees trained.” Leitsch said they also train people to identify suicide warning signs and risk factors, as well as the statistics associated with suicide. 

At the same time, a separate Governor’s Challenge to Prevent Suicide Among Service Members, Veterans, and their Families has also been rolling out in seven states, intended to create a public health model for suicide prevention at the state and local levels. 

Read more on TheLeafChronicle.com.

Native Americans have the second-highest death rate related to opioid use in the nation – a number that’s been on the rise for nearly two decades. In 2017, the rate hit 15.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; only whites are dying at a higher rate – 19.4 per 100,000 people. The crisis took center stage at a gathering last week of Native American health experts sponsored by the National Indian Health Board.

Stacy Bohlen, CEO of the board, said a number of factors have contributed to the opioid epidemic among Native Americans. One, she said, is a lack of access to basic health care and treatment when someone is suffering.

“People can’t afford to get care but can certainly afford painkillers,” she said.

Bohlen said improving the public health system for American Indians and Alaska Natives would go a long way toward preventing opioid abuse and overdoses.

Shervin Aazami, a policy analyst at the health board, said the opioid crisis in Indian Country has been overlooked by most Americans.

The federal government has distributed grant money to states to address the addiction crisis.

“However,” Aazami said, “they often neglect to allocate money towards the tribes, leaving the Native people to sit waiting.”

At the tribal health conference last week, Virginia Hedrick, director of policy and planning at the California Consortium for Urban Indian Health, spoke about steps communities can take to address the opioid crisis, including reducing the stigma around addiction itself as well as alternative pain management.

“It could be that an individual has suffered trauma throughout their life, and an opioid is a way to address a mental health issue,” she said. “We don’t typically see individuals who are struggling with an addiction that don’t have an underlying issue.”

Read more on CronkiteNews.org .

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. 100 Black Men of San Antonio, Inc. has been selected as the Partner of the Month for January in recognition of National Mentoring Month.

The overall concept of the 100 began in New York in 1963 when a group of concerned African American men began to meet to explore ways of improving conditions in their community. The group eventually adopted the name, “100 Black Men, Inc.” as a sign of solidarity. These men envisioned an organization that would implement programs designed to improve the quality of life for African Americans and other minorities. They also wished to ensure the future of their communities by aiming an intense number of resources toward youth development.

Today the organization has grown to over 116 chapters with more than 10,000 members who continue to strive to improve the quality of life in our communities and enhance the educational and economic opportunities for African Americans. 100 Black Men of America, Inc. has more than 100,000 youth participants annually in its mentoring and youth development programs. With a mission to improve the quality of life and enhance educational opportunities for African Americans, members of the 100 continue to serve as a strong force in the world by overcoming the cultural and financial obstacles that have limited the achievements of some African Americans, particularly young African American males. Members of the 100 have made outstanding progress, proving that Blacks can, and do, excel as corporate leaders, community leaders and as independent business owners.

Some of the programs that are currently offered:

Health & Wellness Leadership Initiative: Harnessing the Strength of African American Organizations as well as other community organizations from around the community and the nation, they educate to Fight HIV and AIDS, heart disease, drug and alcohol dangers, obesity, and other debilitating health issues that plaque communities throughout the nation. They stress the importance of healthy eating and living habits as a way to foster improved health and long life.

Nutrition and Physical Activity The 100 Way: Nutrition and Physical Activity the 100 Way is a comprehensive program, with an accompanying program manual, that educates youth on the importance of proper eating and physical activity. 100 Black Men of San Antonio, Inc. programs play an important role in motivating young people to examine factors that influence their behaviors, while guiding them in establishing viable, lifelong solutions.

Mentoring the 100 Way Across a Lifetime: The four basic pillars to mentoring are Education, Economic Empowerment, Health & Wellness, and Leadership Development! The social, cultural, emotional, and unique needs of youth, primarily African American males, are addressed through one-to-one and group mentoring relationships by 100 Black Men chapter members. The 100’s signature mentoring program is an effective, evidenced-based and strategic intervention that helps youth reach their full potential and become contributing members of society. The miracles of mentoring impact hundreds of youth throughout the city annually.

Learn more about 100 Black Men of San Antonio, Inc. and their mission to improve quality of life within all communities and enhance educational and economic opportunities for residents of San Antonio and surrounding areas.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

A recent report released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) found that structural racism, discrimination, and implicit bias are the main drivers of homelessness among Black people.

And as Jacqueline Waggoner, a commissioner with the homeless services authority says, “If you fix this for black people, you fix it for everyone.”

In 2017, nine percent of Los Angeles County’s residents were Black, but Black people comprised 40 percent of their homeless population. Using a racial equity toolkit to inform its work, the County intends to end homelessness by specifically addressing its structurally generated dimensions. These are embodied in the histories and stories of those now “living rough,” if anyone had been listening.

The 115-page report is a product of the Committee’s understanding of the importance of engaging community and centering race in developing effective solutions.

The report is the first step in a collaborative process to reduce racial inequity. Going forward, LAHSA will work with the Homelessness Policy Research Institute (HPRI) Race Equity working group to measure policy impact and to improve its understanding of the issues facing Black people. Staying true to the Committee’s recommendation of maintaining a racial equity lens throughout all processes, policies, and programs, Black people, people with lived experience, and service providers will be trained to conduct research. Additionally, the group has committed to being accountable to its stakeholders by sharing evaluation results (both positive and negative) with community organizations, government leaders, and, most importantly, the public.

In addition to strong accountability and evaluation practices, the Committee emphasized capacity-building as integral to success. Government funders and private philanthropy are encouraged to commit to providing long-term resources and to examine racial equity impact during the budget review process.

Ultimately, the group hopes to serve as a model for racial equity. With racial equity being a relatively new concept to government agencies, LAHSA’s commitment to implementing a racial equity framework throughout its entire process could serve as a model for other communities seeking to improve its homelessness crisis response system.

Read more on NonProfitQuarterly.org.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows white people have the highest rate of suicide in America, but many minorities are expressing grave concern over rising rates.

The CDC says between 2015 and 2016, suicide rates for non-Hispanic blacks increased more than 8.5%. The Hispanic population, during the same time period, saw just over an 8% increase. The rate for non-Hispanic whites remained nearly the same.

But if you take a broader look at suicide rates across cultures, it’s clear many communities are struggling to stop suicides.

A 2019 study from the National Center for Health Statistics shows between 1999 and 2017, suicide rates for whites, blacks, Asians or Pacific Islanders (API), American Indians or Alaska Natives (AIAN) and Hispanics increased across the board.

Younger Americans who’ve got roots across the globe say culture can impact the mental health discussion.

Yamini Rajan immigrated to Oregon with her family when she was in the sixth grade. Originally from India, she says Indian culture tends to silence the mental health conversation. Beyond that, she says stressful expectations to live up to a certain standard put kids under a lot of stress.

Yamini says she’s battled mental illness since she was in third or fourth grade. She’s now getting ready to head to college, but the journey to this point certainly wasn’t easy. She kept her mental illness a secret from her family for years. Shortly after her family moved to Oregon, her mom, Minal, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Yamini says her mom’s illness deepened her own depression. She was 12 years old. As Yamini progressed from sixth to eighth grade, she began to self-harm.

“I had no other examples of what to do because my parents had never talked to me about this,” Yamini said. In eighth grade, she attempted suicide. Thankfully, she survived, but she continued to hold the secret until a friend told her to tell the school counselor.

The school counselor told Yamini’s parents.

“I was too scared to face the truth,” Minal said. Minal says mental health is stigmatized in Indian culture. “In Indian culture, like in many other ancient cultures, like, the elders know better,” Yamini’s dad, Vijay Rajan, said.

Vijay and Minal says Indians put a lot of stress on careers and the type of work people do. They say your work defines who you are. For them, the realization of Yamini’s illness was a wake-up call.

“Imagine living in the same house, for over a year, where your child has been cutting herself all the way through her arm and you haven’t even noticed,” Vijay said.

The Rajans are able to talk openly about mental health now, but they realize many other families, many other parents across the globe, are too scared to start or participate in the conversation.

Read more on Katu.com.