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Metal Health

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Hamptons Happenings: 2015 Mental Health Awareness Day

12th Annual East End Mental Health Awareness Day
“Changing Times, Changing Minds”
Saturday, April 11, 2015
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Registration begins at 9:00 am
Southampton High School – 141 Narrow Lane, Southampton, NY
Mental illness in word collage

FREE EVENT
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Guest Speakers

Kristie Golden, Ph. D
Associate Director of Operations, Neurosciences, at Stony Brook Medicine

Jeffrey Steigman, Psy. D
Chief Administrative Officer, Family Service League
on

The South Fork Behavioral Health Initiative
& Medicaid Redesign – Health Care Delivery System

Panel Discussion – Stories of Resilience
Richard Lawless Th. D.- Moderator
Morning Workshops:
A. The Peer Movement – the importance of peers in recovery
Tracy Puglisi, Association of Mental Health and Wellness and Elizabeth Breier, NYS Office of Mental Health

B. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) – Support, education, advocacy and leadership Ellen Tollefsen, NAMI member

C. Inspirational Triathlon Racing i-tri – Transporting Girls to the Finish Line, Theresa Roden, Executive Director

Afternoon Workshops:
D. Substance Abuse & Mental Health Concerns in Suffolk County
Kristie Golden, Ph. D. Associate Director of Operations, Neurosciences, at Stony Brook Medicine

E. Psychopharmacology – The Fears and the Facts:
Eric J. Bartky M.D.

F. Helping in a Crisis – Symptom appropriate treatment and care
Robyn Berger-Gaston LCSW-R, ACSW
Division Director of Family Service League.

Exhibitors – All day
Coffee, Lunch & Networking

This Free Event is Co-Sponsored by
Southampton Town and East Hampton Town and Bridgehampton National Bank
For more information call (631) 702-2445

Jeffrey Steigman, Psy. D
Chief Administrative Officer, Family Service League
Jeffrey Steigman, Psy. D
Chief Administrative Officer, Family Service League

If you, a family member, or a friend are living with the effects of a mental illness, or if you have an interest in learning more about mental health issues, you should attend the annual Mental Health Awareness Day.

Mental health can take a variety of forms, trauma, depression, anxiety, and PTSD are to name but a few. Whilst there are a generous selection of treatments that can help, from attending a mental health facility for Christians to group CBT sessions, people still suffer in silence because of the many negative stigmas that surround such conditions.

Co-Sponsored by the Town of Southampton and East Hampton, the annual Mental Health Awareness Day is free, day-long event includes a panel discussion, workshops, vendors, and the opportunity to network with consumers and professionals in the field. The conference should be attended by anyone on the East End concerned with mental health issues, including consumers, community members, and professionals.

Association for Mental Health and Wellness
Suffolk County Division of Community Mental Hygiene Services

Content provided by Southampton Town Government:

HM Mental Health: When Someone You Know Struggles with Fear, Anxiety and Stress! What do you do when someone you know has to deal with persistent fears, anxieties, or even depression? Well the first thing you need to do is to get the person to seek the services of a professional who can lead them in the right direction and give them the help they need. In addition, here are some other techniques you can use to help the person cope. One approach is to use cannabis. This is not necessarily the correct option for everyone. In fact, some people like to use CBD or a vaporizer as this reduces the adverse effects of the substance. Dispensary supplies tend to cater to a wide range of needs. It is understandable that if you have never come across a product like this before or are considering trying this to help manage the symptoms of anxiety or stress, maybe looking at reading something like a cbdpure review, just to give you more of an idea as to what you will be getting yourself into when it comes to the use of cbd oil. Even if you have heard positives about this, it is always important to do your research, to be on the safe side. I’m sure you will find a solution to dealing with your anxiety in the best way possible.

photo credit:
photo credit: “The Mental Health Act” by Ian Smith

Learn as much as you can in managing anxiety and depression such as finding the time to talk to someone and relaxation techniques, to knowing where to buy the best strains for anxiety and learning how to take control. There are many books and information that will educate you on how to deal with fear and anxiety. Share this information with the person who is struggling. Education is the key in finding the answers your looking for in managing your fears. Be understanding and patient with the person struggling with their fears. Dealing with depression and anxiety can be difficult for the person so do not add more problems than what is already there. When trying to help someone with depression, it might be worth looking for something that can ease their symptoms, such as some medical marijuana from https://www.togoweed.ca/. That way, they should be able to manage their depression, allowing them to get on with their lives. However, in every depression or anxiety-related situation you experience, begin to learn what works, what doesn’t work, and what you need to improve on in managing your fears and anxieties. For instance, you have a lot of anxiety and you decide to take a walk to help you feel better. The next time you feel anxious you can remind yourself that you got through it the last time by taking a walk. This will give you the confidence to manage your anxiety the next time around. Another thing to remember is that things change and events do not stay the same. For instance, you may feel overwhelmed today with your anxiety and feel that this is how you will feel the rest of the week or month. This isn’t correct. No one can predict the future with one hundred percent accuracy. Even if the thing that you feared does happen there are circumstances and factors that you can’t predict which can be used to your advantage. You never know when the help and answers you are looking for will come to you. When your fears and anxieties have the best of you, seek help from a professional. The key is to be patient, take it slow, and not to give up. In time, you will be able to find those resources that will help you with your problems. BIOGRAPHY: Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods”. Stan’s managing fear book has become very popular with over 300 positive book reviews and counting. Please read the many book reviews of Stan’s popular book by going to Stan’s website at http://www.managingfear.com/

Hamptons Wellness: Managing Your Persistent Fears, Anxieties and Stress

Everybody deals with anxiety and depression, however some people have a difficult time in managing it. As a result, here is a brief list of techniques that a person can use to help manage their most persistent fears and every day anxieties.

When facing a current or upcoming task that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, the first thing you can do is to divide the task into a series of smaller steps. Completing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.

Sometimes we get stressed out when everything happens all at once. When this happens, a person should take a deep breath and try to find something to do for a few minutes to get their mind off of the problem. A person could get some fresh air, listen to some music, or do an activity that will give them a fresh perspective on things.

Additionally, marijuana is celebrated in various parts of the world as a remedy for stress relief for its ability to improve your mood. Consequently, if you prefer to take a natural approach to managing your mental health, you might want to consider giving cannabis products a try for yourself. There is a huge variety of different cannabis strains out there such as strawberry kush that can all have potentially unique impacts on your wellbeing.

Correspondingly, if you are tempted to introduce cannabis products into your mental health toolkit, then knowing as much as possible about your chosen strain is crucial. For instance, you might find that sun rocks weed is a particularly good fit for helping you to relax and unwind if your worries are stopping you from getting to sleep. Above all, insomnia can be highly overwhelming but there are strains of cannabis out there that can be incredibly useful.

However, that being said, it is important to note that there are also different levels of marijuana quality. They are rated on a A-AAAA scale in Canada, with A being the lowest quality. Obviously you want high-quality marijuana to get the best effects. You can find out more about this on www.budexpressnow.net.

Furthermore, once you have chosen a strain that meets your expectations, you might also want to try out a few different types of accessories to find a way of using cannabis products that suits your lifestyle. For example, in recent years, dry herb pens have soared in popularity. You can learn more about dry herb pens by taking a look at this evolve-d dry herb pen manual. Needless to say, finding ways to cope is essential, even if herbal remedies are not for you.

Another technique that is very helpful is to have a small notebook of positive statements that makes you feel good. Whenever you come across an affirmation that makes you feel good, write it down in a small notebook that you can carry around with you in your pocket. Whenever you feel depressed or frustrated, open up your small notebook and read those statements. This will help to manage your negative thinking.Upset Crying Woman By The Ocean

Managing Your Persistent Fears, Anxieties and Stress

Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your depression and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem. By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future. Remember that it never hurts to ask for help.

Hamptons Spotlight: They are Dead and I Choose to Mourn Publicly

They are often forgotten quickly by everyone except their families. Lost in the obscurity of our very busy schedules. We are often told that ‘life moves on’ and so it does but there is a sadness that the passing of 12 souls will only be briefly remembered by those not directly affected by their passing. I choose not to be brief in my acknowledgement of their lives and the mourning of their deaths. I choose to mourn publicly! I have tried to read about these twelve victims of the Washington Navy Yard shooting; to learn a little more about them. It is uncomforting to know that so many of these people had daughters. I have daughters. Many were sports fans as one might suspect. One, a volunteer to make sure that the nests of Bluebirds was prepared to receive their small hosts. They had hobbies; they were family people, all the stuff that makes life worth the living these people had in their lives. Gone in an instant.

I would write about my opposition to high capacity weapons without any opposition to the right of ownership of guns but that is a story for another day. Today I feel the need to focus on the plight of people and families suffering with mental illness in their midst. I have first hand knowledge about the silent suffering of those with mental illness because that sorrow has been visited on my family. It is extraordinarily difficult to manage because of the nature of some of those illnesses. Many times the illness is unrecognized or ignored. In some instances the onset is early in life and sometimes there is a late onset. Mental illness affects children, adults and the aged with varying degrees of affliction. Always there is pain and suffering with the individual and there is too often shame, hopelessness and helplessness experienced by the family. What to do? Where to seek help, a voice of support, respite from the endless hours of caring and concern with no escape. As you can see there is often no rhyme or reason to how mental illness will strike. This makes the care and treatment of this malady so difficult to manage. There are some studies that indicate that up to 20% of our population suffers with some form of mental illness. That’s a whole lot of people.

Those suffering with some forms of mental illness do not feel they need help, as this is a manifestation of their disease. This makes seeking help difficult for families and love ones trying to address the illness. Many times, without the acquiescence of the sick individual, everyone, including medical and primary care practitioners are unable to intervene without a court order. This can be daunting to family and significant others trying to get treatment for the ill.

Since the 1980’s, institutionalization of the mentally ill has been frowned upon but there was a concurrent reduction in both federal and state budgets in providing outpatient services for this population. This contributed to the explosion in homelessness, crime and subsequent incarceration. This has always been a shadow illness because of the shame, perceived or real, that was associated with those suffering. Families afraid of the whispers and innuendo tend to hide the afflicted. Drugs as well as biochemical imbalances or genetics induce some mental illness. I say… SO WHAT!!!! Whatever the cause, it is past time to look at mental illness squarely and to address the inequities of funding and services necessary to combat this epidemic.

The experience that I obtained dealing with mental illness in my family prepares me to explain some of what you may encounter as you deal with this trauma. You must persevere; it will be a long arduous journey that you embark on. There are success and relapse, sorrow and jokes, laughter and heartache; all those things that are associated with mental illness. This is no soft sell. This is hard, very hard. Because the science is not absolute and treatment is as much an art as it is a science, the ill may have a varying degree of cure. And yet, sometimes a treatment fits like a hand and a glove. It almost seems like magic when you see the cloud that has settled between you and the ill part and reveal the person you have been searching for, for so very long. You will need to vigilant because that cloud can separate you again and again. Be prepared for the frustrations as well as the miracles.


There are support groups and associations that can be very helpful in assisting you to get the help you or your loved one needs. Do not be afraid to confront the disease, denial is a recipe for disaster. Talk to your friends. TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS!!!! That is why they are friends, to help you when times are difficult not when times are good. Seek medical advice as well as the advice of mental illness specialists. By contacting all of these people, you should be able to reduce the symptoms of your mental health disorder. However, if you don’t feel very confident going to speak to a professional about your mental battle, it could be worth getting some weed joints to temporarily make yourself feel better. Those interested in that method can learn here if they want. Either way, it’s important to get some support however you feel most comfortable. I know this all sounds unreasonable but I have learned that we tend to function at diminished efficiency when we are in the eye of the storm and this is indeed a very frightening storm. All Managed Care and Long Term Care agencies have provisions for mental health services. All HMO’s have provisions for clients with mental illness that can be accessed. There is a political element as well that must be addressed. When Congress or local and State government attempts to reduce the funding for mental illness related services you must be prepared to fight to retain those services. We owe it to memory of the twelve victims of this last shooting or the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School or Aurora, Co, or Tucson, Arizona or…….They are Dead and I Choose to Mourn Publicly

For more information on Mental Illness and Support:
Mental Health Association of NYC
Office of Mental Health NYS
Mental Health Related Support Groups
The Mental Health Association of Suffolk
Suffolk County Division of Community Mental Hygiene Services
Open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday 853-8500

autism awareness-ribbon-in-brig-26879726April is Autism Awareness month …last year 2012 the Flying Point Foundation for Autism along with Southampton Hospital and Suffolk County Department of Emergency Medical Service offered a free workshop called Autism Awareness for the First Responder. It was so well-received they are doing it again this year on April 6, 2013 Free Workshop Interacting with Individuals with Autism at Hampton Bays Middle School. First responders will receive credit toward mandatory professional training.

This year they have expanded the day to include an afternoon session geared toward law enforcement, security and school support personnel (security, food service, transportation, aides).

The presenter is the father of a child with autism/Downs. He’s an EMT, firefighter and the course was developed in Massachusetts by another firefighter/father of a child with autism and it was featured last year on The Today Show. Doctors and nurses would most certainly benefit from this course, as well as office staff etc.

Below and attached is the information.ASDfirstresponderflyer2013 copy