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By creating an innovative health system and a new culture of health for the adolescent and young adult population, Stanford's Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing is creating a model for the country in how to better support our young people.
Fall 2022
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Welcome to our fall newsletter! Our Center team is emerging from this time of isolation and loss with a newfound vision of hope with our youth and families. We are grateful to finally see the recognition of the importance of youth voice across multiple settings, from state to international networks.
- Two allcove youth advisors and Youth Development Manager Ana Lilia Soto gave a wonderful presentation at the International Association for Youth Mental Health Conference on their work in developing the anti-racist ACCESS model for allcove centers.
- At the same conference, another former youth advisor shared their work in developing the TEMPOS tool to help media partners easily evaluate their suicide reporting in relation to international media guidelines.
- Members of #GoodforMEdia, along with Center Program Director Vicki Harrison, gave important testimony on the impact of social media on youth mental health, ultimately leading to the passage of the new California legislation requiring higher standards for media platforms in protecting young people.
- #GoodforMEdia youth also presented at the state Wellness Together School Mental Health Conference on their work, leading to multiple training requests by schools and districts to educate their staff and students.
As always, we are grateful for your support, guidance and collaboration. Together we hope to
create sustainable opportunities for broader mental health access, youth voice, and education.
Thank you!
Steve
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Youth voice: In memory of Briana | |
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On September 13, 2022, we lost one of our most enthusiastic voices for allcove, Briana Fernandez Diaz, who passed away from an aggressive form of leukemia at the young age of 22; she will be dearly missed.
Briana began her work with allcove through her membership with the Peninsula Health Care District Youth Advisory Group and later joined cohort 1 of the Central allcove Team Youth Advisory Group. Briana was the epitome of light - shining brightly everywhere she went and lighting up when talking about youth voice and advocacy. She worked diligently to uplift youth voice in the development of allcove in the San Mateo community and spearheaded the San Mateo feasibility study that asked the community, “If we build it, are people going to come?” and collected close to 500 surveys highlighting the need for allcove in the community. With the Central allcove Team Youth Advisory Group, she participated in many presentations and trainings. Briana shared that being part of allcove gave her soul a purpose.
Rest in power, Briana; because of your heart and passion for youth voice, allcove is better and stronger. Thank you!
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Photo courtesy of allcove Beach Cities | |
allcove program development
Our Central allcove Team continues to work in partnership with the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission and their allcove partners across the state to support the establishment of allcove centers in the communities of Palo Alto, San José, San Mateo, Redondo Beach, South Orange County, Sacramento and Santa Barbara. Front and center in all this implementation work have been local youth who have inspired us with their vision for the centers.
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allcove Beach Cities - We are excited that allcove Beach Cities, located in Redondo Beach, opened November 1st! Our allcove partner and lead agency, Beach Cities Health District, has brought together an impressive, multidisciplinary group of service partners that will ensure that the center will meet the comprehensive needs of young people.
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allcove San Mateo - The Peninsula Health Care District, the lead agency for allcove San Mateo, has also completed its call to bring together service providers and is scheduled to open mid-2023.
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allcove Sacramento - The County of Sacramento Department of Health Services has identified the Greater Sacramento Urban League as the lead agency for allcove Sacramento.
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South Orange County - We continue to support the University of California at Irvine and the Wellness and Prevention Center as they work towards establishing a center in South Orange County.
The Central allcove Team has further developed the allcove Learning Community, hosting sessions on youth engagement, supported education and employment, and peer support. The team is finalizing the development of datacove, the common data collection system, and is looking forward to its deployment with the centers. In addition, the team continues to participate in work led by the Commission around financial sustainability.
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Highlighting allcove partnerships with healthcare districts
Our first partners utilizing state drop-in center funds to open allcove centers are the health care districts in Beach Cities in Los Angeles County and Peninsula Health Care District in San Mateo County. Our healthcare district partners provide unique strengths as programs who know their communities well, provide critical funding and other support to their areas, and, in some cases, offer direct services to their communities.
On September 15, Dr. Adelsheim was honored to moderate a plenary panel on the allcove program at the Association of California Healthcare Districts 70th Annual meeting. Participants included Toby Ewing from the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, Rani C., a youth advisor for allcove Beach Cities with Ali Stewart (also from Beach Cities) and Eddie Flores and Dennis Zell from Peninsula Health Care District. The panelists shared their rationales for supporting the implementation of allcove on the state and local levels, and Rani provided valuable insight about
the importance of implementing allcove from the youth perspective. Several other health care districts expressed excitement about the possibility of implementing the model in their communities.
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allcove in the media
Our allcove program development continues to capture the attention of media, highlighting the youth voice and what makes the allcove model unique. Below is some of the recent coverage:
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Media and mental health initiative | |
#GoodforMEdia
Our #GoodforMEdia youth advisors were at the forefront of educational advocacy efforts as the California Age-Appropriate Design Code legislation was debated and ultimately signed into law by Governor Newsom. The law will establish new protections for youth engaging with social media. Check out the op-ed written by youth leaders Sonia and Emily published in the San Francisco Chronicle before the bill became law.
The team was also busy conducting peer-to-peer workshops and presentations highlighting GoodforMEdia’s overarching mission to support young people’s healthy engagement with social media and other forms of technology. Recent youth-led events included the Bay Area Youth Wellness Fair, a local Youth Leadership Summit, Youth Leadership Institute’s HOPE Youth Coalition, the Stanford Clinical Neuroscience Immersion Experience, Challenge Success’ Fall Conference, StarVista’s Health Ambassador Program-Youth (HAP-Y) and the California Student Wellness Conference.
This fall the GoodforMEdia youth independently presented a poster at the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) conference and will also facilitate a workshop series for a charter school in San Diego. For more information on workshops or the program, please contact Vicki Harrison at vickih@stanford.edu or visit our website.
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Native American mental health | |
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Huge success with the Native American Youth Mental Health ECHO program
The end of September brought the conclusion of the first year of our Native American Youth
Mental Health ECHO. The 19 sessions developed through a partnership of programs leading Native youth mental health intervention across state
created a tremendous sense of connection and collaboration across both the clinical/primary
care and school mental health tracks.
With topics ranging from building connection to community and the land to suicide prevention and wellness in schools, the ECHO presentations were very highly rated and attended.
Over 650 people from 37 states attended the primary care track events and over 300 people from 25 states attended the school mental health track.
Well over 80% of participants felt the series would inform how they work with Native youth
going forward, and over 90% said they would recommend the series to colleagues. We were
honored when Dr. Adelsheim and Stanford Psychiatry Resident Carolyn Krause-Koziol were
invited to present on our ECHO collaboration to the federally created Alyce Spotted Bear and
Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children on August 25. The Commission was also grateful for the recommendations for Native youth mental health shared by the team at the
hearing, which had been developed by the ECHO Project’s leadership team members.
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Stanford Redwood City Sequoia School Mental Health Collaborative
The Stanford Redwood City Sequoia School Mental Health Collaborative welcomes Dr. Sara Chowdhury, a new clinical fellow who is providing clinical consultations for Redwood City School District alongside Dr. Shashank Joshi for the 2022-23 school year. In addition, ongoing conversations are underway with a newly formed multi-tiered system of support team at Sequoia Union High School District to further socio-emotional learning and mental health supports for students and staff.
The collaborative was recently highlighted by Stanford’s Office of Community Engagement as an example of a strong emerging partnership between Stanford Community Engagement Hubs (of which our Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing and Gardner Center are a part) working alongside a community partner on a pressing regional issue.
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Southern San Mateo County Youth Advisory Group
The Southern San Mateo County Youth Advisory Group concluded a successful year of mental health trainings, presentations, and advocacy with community-based organizations and is looking forward to welcoming a new cohort of youth advisors in winter 2022. Inspired by the community support for allcove San Mateo, currently projected to open in the northern part of the county in spring/summer 2023, the group is collecting data about youth mental health needs through their community needs assessment. Anyone who lives, works, and plays in Redwood City, East Palo Alto and surrounding cities is encouraged to participate.
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Central allcove Team Youth Advisory Group
The Central allcove Team is delighted to announce that, following our extensive recruitment process with our youth advisors, in November we are welcoming our second cohort of the statewide Central allcove Team Youth Advisory Group with 17 members that diversely represent race, ethnicity, sexual identity, expression, and lived experiences across California.
Our first cohort played an instrumental part in allcove development through their feedback and engagement around confidentiality, policy transparency, youth engagement planning, and participation in numerous trainings. Youth voice is continually included and uplifted in our partnership with the allcove network.
The new cohort will be working with all of the Youth Advisory Groups that have formalized with each new allcove center throughout the state, serving in a mentorship role while continuing to support our statewide allcove development. These members will also take a leading role in the StrengthIn.Youth project and will participate in trainings with the allcove Learning Community.
To learn more, please reach out to Ana Lilia Soto, youth development manager, at analilia@stanford.edu.
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Sixth International Association for Youth Mental Health Conference (IAYMH) | |
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Under the conference theme of “Reimagining youth mental health,” our team had the privilege to send representatives to the IAYMH Conference this September.
In addition to our team members, four current and former Center youth leaders were selected to participate in and present their valuable work.
- Chloe facilitated a tabletop presentation on innovations in suicide prevention featuring TEMPOS,
- Khoa-Nathan moderated a workshop panel, and
- Samskruthi and Shravanti co-presented a workshop on the ACCESS (Anti-Racist, Culturally-Minded Community Education, Support, and Services) Project.
Representing allcove, ACCESS and TEMPOS on an international stage was a phenomenal experience and a great example of youth inclusion at the heart of the Stanford Center. For some it was their first time out of the country and an exciting opportunity to engage with other youth and professionals from around the world who are reimagining youth mental health.
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Teen wellness retreat - City of Mountain View
Another school year is in full swing, and we are making strides to highlight mental health and wellness through our community outreach efforts. This November, we joined the City of Mountain View Recreation Division's Teen Wellness Retreat in leading a workshop for youth. We focused on “Healthy sleeping habits” and emphasized sleep as an essential part of our overall health. The attendees learned that, through improving sleeping habits during this crucial time in youth development we can promote wellness, reduce the potential occurrence of mental health related issues, and improve quality of life at an early stage in young people’s lives. We are thankful for our neighboring partners at the Mountain View Community Center for the opportunity to be a part of this wellness-themed event for young people.
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Representation at the AACAP | |
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The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry partnered with the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to host the 2022 annual meeting in Toronto.
In collaboration with other co-presenters, Dr. Steven Sust was invited to present at the sessions:
Meanwhile, at the same conference, during a discussion on meeting patients where they are through community-academic partnerships utilizing innovative and collaborative ways to address the children’s mental health crisis, Dr. Raúl Poulsen introduced the allcove program to a diverse audience of global physicians and leaders. He emphasized the need to develop early intervention mental health programs with and by young people to better address the need of our youth population.
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Sarah Kremer
she/her/hers
Sarah Kremer, Ph.D., LPCC, ATR-BC, is joining our team as an interim clinical services and training manager.
Sarah holds a PhD in art therapy and is also a licensed professional clinical counselor and board-certified art therapist. She believes passionately in the power of art and the power of supportive relationships for everyone at any age to heal and grow. Sarah provides her diverse experiences and insights into services, support and training based on the foundational belief of building resilience in young people and the adults around them. We are excited for Sarah to join our team.
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she/her/hers
Marilyn Lopez Mota joins our team as youth outreach coordinator bringing a wealth of experience in youth advocacy and youth engagement informed by her lens of youth-centered practices. She advocates that we invest into the young folks around us by providing tangible means of support, modeling mutual respect, building intentional relationships rooted in youth empowerment, and most importantly, listening. Outside of work, Marilyn loves playing in the sun with her dog, Libre, cooking, spending time with loved ones and shopping.
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We are currently recruiting for several openings within our team. Please share these opportunities with people within your network who you think may be interested and qualified.
Our open positions include:
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