The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) had released a brief guidance from SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity for state administrators and state grantees. A confluence of events—the COVID-19 pandemic, the associated economic crisis, and the widespread racially- focused protests and demonstrations across the country—has highlighted glaring inequities for racial and ethnic […]
Community engagement
Opioid Prevention Toolkit: Helping Our Communities Heal Safely
In 2018, as part of a multi-tiered strategy to tackle the opioid epidemic in Oregon, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) hired Brink Communications (Brink) to develop a patient-centered social marketing campaign to reduce the demand for prescription opioids to manage pain. In a year-long in-depth process, Brink and research partner Goodwin Simon Strategic Research (GSSR) […]
Communities Respond to COVID-19: Implications for APIs
This year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) comes at a time when many Asian Pacific Islanders (APIs) are experiencing discrimination and stigma emerging from anti-Asian narratives related to COVID-19. These narratives, embedded in a national context of uncertainty about health and safety, are increasing the vulnerability for fear, anxiety and emotional distress within API […]
Meeting the Needs of Justice-Involved People with Serious Mental Illness within Community Behavioral Health Systems
People with serious mental illness are over represented in the justice system. For example, most county jails in the United States house three times as many people with serious mental illness as would be expected from community-based estimates. In this article, they will review the complex array of factors that contribute to the problem of […]
Project THANKS: Examining HIV/AIDS-Related Barriers and Facilitators to Care in African American Women: A Community Perspective
Project THANKS, (Turning HIV/AIDS into Knowledge for Sisters), is an evidence-based intervention that utilizes a community-based participatory and empowerment building approach for African American female substance abusers living with HIV and other chronic diseases. Receiving input from African American women living with HIV related comorbidities was essential in improving the intervention to include a behavioral and […]
Resources for Dealing With and Responding to Mental Illness
Many people don’t know how to provide comfort or respond appropriately in times of need or crisis. Instead of listening and taking the time to provide a constructive response, they jump to conclusions. They say the first thing that comes to mind, or in other words, they react. This can be unhelpful, or possibly even […]