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HOPE AND HEALING DIDI HIRSCH COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH CENTER | SPRING 2007 2007 ERASING THE STIGMA LEADERSHIP AWARDS Didi Hirsch Honors Suicide Prevention Advocates and Inaugurates Beatrice Stern Media Award With a program that culminated in a powerful performance by Tony Award- winning actress Jennifer Holliday, Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center’s eleventh annual Erasing the Stigma Leadership Awards brought out hundreds in support of suicide prevention. Held on Friday April 27 at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons, the Awards honored Suicide Prevention Center founders Drs. Norman Farberow and Edwin Shneidman, and singer and advo- cate Jennifer Holliday. The event also inaugurated the Beatrice Stern Erasing the Stigma Media Award, Dr. Norman Farberow Dr. Edwin Shneidman which honors a member of the media for their advocacy and support of mental health services. Chris Rose, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, was the first recipient of the Media Award. Comedienne Julianne Grossman, whose one woman show “From Bonkers to Botox” chronicled her own battle with depression and suicide, emceed the program. Dynamic and vibrant, Julianne filled the program with laughter, inspiration, hope, and most of all, a sense of community. Dr. Kita Curry, Didi Hirsch’s President/CEO, amazed at the number of supporters in attendance, Jennifer Holliday Chris Rose commented “Who knew mental health could sell out a room?” CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 HELPING FSP CLIENTS WITH MEDICATIONS Creative Thinking and Therapeutic Alliances Get Full Service Partnership Clients on the Road to Healing By Duane E. McWaine, M.D. As a result of hard work by our clinical and develop- of the list of things to be accomplished is forming ment departments, Didi Hirsch successfully competed a relationship – a therapeutic alliance. This is a priority for grant money from Proposition 63, the Mental Health when dealing with any of our potential clients, but takes Services Act. Through our new Full Service Partnership on added import with the FSP clients. Often it is the (FSP) programs, we have expanded our reach into the “relationship” that is cited by clients as the healing populations that are most chronically ill and have had force in their care. Families will often rely on that the most difficultly in obtaining and maintaining relationship when the client has somehow lost his treatment. Whether by virtue of the nature and severity way. They turn to us, and we respond. But the of their illnesses, trouble finding stable housing or other challenges for our medical staff have to do with transportation, or even personality issues, these are choosing the appropriate medication intervention. the clients that are more underserved than even our Many clients in these programs have a long history of traditionally poorly served populations. The challenges not taking their prescribed medication. Our staff must abound. assess this, seek to understand the reasons why they For our clinical staff, these programs represent do not comply, and then intervene. challenges in identifying, finding, contacting and, Perceived lack of effectiveness is the most common most of all, engaging those clients who have been reason people stop taking their medications, followed by traditionally difficult to reach. For our medical staff the perceived side effects. Thus, it is incumbent upon the challenges are somewhat different. Always at the top CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center is a United Way-supported agency, funded in part by the Los Angeles County Departments of Mental Health, Health Services, Probation, and Children and Family Services; State of California Department of Rehabilitation; and United Hostesses’ Charities. Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 2007 BOARD NEW BOARD MEMBER OF DIRECTORS Janine Lichstein Uses Extensive Volunteer Experience to Help Didi Hirsch CHAIR A Julliard-trained dancer, world traveler, art lover, new Andrew E Rubin grandmother, and volunteer extraordinaire, Janine B. Lichstein joined Didi Hirsch’s Board of Directors this past EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIR year. Janine, who has volunteered extensively with Stanley D. Lelewer organizations such as the United Way and the Junior VICE CHAIRS League, first became involved with Didi Hirsch through Sharon M. Kopman fellow survivor and Board member Stan Lelewer. Janine, Beatrice S. Stern like Stan, lost a son to suicide and became dedicated to Michael C. Wierwille educating our community about suicide’s devastating impact. TREASURER Martin J. Frank “Perhaps my entire life was preparation for being on Didi Hirsch’s Board of Directors. All the fundraising, board memberships, and jobs have prepared SECRETARY me to help the organization do what it does best,” said Janine. “Add to Howard M. Loeb that the loss of a son to suicide, and you have a person ready to go.” IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR Janine’s older son, Daniel, took his life in 1991. After participating in Didi Cheri Renfroe Yousem Hirsch’s Survivors After Suicide program, which helps those who have lost a loved one to suicide through eight-week bereavement support groups and BOARD MEMBERS monthly drop-in meetings, Janine went on to volunteer as a phone counselor Jonathan Cowan for recent survivors who had not yet had a chance to participate in the eight- Rudolph I. Estrada week program. Charlotte W. Fletcher, Ph.D. Frances Franco-Valdez Shortly after joining the Board, Janine decided to honor Daniel’s memory and Nathaniel Jackson, Ph.D. to celebrate a milestone birthday by asking friends and loved ones to support Vera Jashni, Ed.D. Didi Hirsch’s Alive & Running for Suicide Prevention 5K/10K. Jeffrey Khteian, C.I.D. Lee Leibman “I used Alive & Running as a vehicle to not only involve friends in the run, Janine B. Lichstein but also to honor our son. The response was terrific and I look forward to Laura Ornest serving in the years to come by introducing more people to Didi Hirsch.” Todd M. Rubin EMERITUS BOARD We welcome Janine to the Didi Hirsch family! Her passion, creativity and Kent Burton dedication are sure to be valuable assets to the agency and to all those Katherine Kolodziejski, Ph.D. committed to suicide prevention and mental health care. Jan Mennig, Ph.D. RECENT GRANT AWARDS Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center would like to thank the corporations and philanthropic organizations that have awarded us grants since the Fall 2006 Newsletter. Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke provided funds to enhance security at our S. Mark Taper Foundation Center, whose programs serve hundreds of families in the South Los Angeles and Inglewood communities. Support from the Emergency Food and Shelter Program and the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program helps Excelsior House and Jump Street, our crisis residential facilities, provide critical services to adults who suffer from acute problems due to severe and chronic mental illness and who are homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. A grant from the B.C. McCabe Foundation allows Didi Hirsch to continue to provide support to those who have lost a loved one to suicide through our Survivors After Suicide program. Funding from the Northrop Grumman Corporation allows us to update the telephone system used by our 24-hour suicide prevention crisis line in order to better serve callers. We are grateful for the support that these foundations and organizations have shown us. Because of their generosity, we are able to provide the very best of care to the people of Los Angeles County. 2. HELPING FSP CLIENTS WITH MEDICATIONS Continued from page 1 physician or nurse practitioner to give a clear decanoate. These can be given in injectible form explanation of the expectations for the medication. on a bi-weekly (Prolixin) or monthly (Haldol) basis. This includes common side effects, less common The latest entrant is Risperdal (risperidone) Consta. but troubling side effects, and when and how we Though it needs to be given every two weeks, it is might expect improvement. What bad things am I the only “atypical” or second-generation antipsychotic most likely to notice? How debilitating might these medication available currently. bad things be? When would we expect them to pass? What would cause us to stop this medication? What For some of our clients, disorganized thinking is a side effects should cause me to call or come in sooner reason for their continually not taking medications. than our next scheduled appointment? When should For them, we may arrange weekly pill boxes, which I expect improvement? How will I know if I’m getting our nursing staff fill with the clients’ daily medications. better? Without a clear message from us, clients may Clients come in on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and have unrealistic expectations, leading to disillusionment pick up these weekly boxes and bring in their empty and premature, unnecessary discontinuation. ones, thus giving us a chance to assess their adher- ence. For these clients, it is sometimes important to recommend medications that are likely to have We also have some “friend” pharmacies that can make early, positive effects, medications that are simple blister packs for our clients, again taking some of the to take, and medications that are “forgiving” – uncertainty out of the medication regimen for the i.e., not sensitive to an occasional missed dose. clients. This preparation puts each dose of the medica- tion in its own ‘blister’, so no counting of medications In the antidepressant realm, Prozac (fluoxetine) is an is needed and, as with the weekly pill boxes, a quick example of that last point. It has a super-long half-life look at the pack lets the client know whether he did or (a measure of the amount of time it takes to leave the did not take his medications that day.

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