Families ACT Receives Grant

Families ACT has received a $10,000 grant from the Promoting Policy Change Program of Drug Policy Alliance to network with other organizations statewide to raise awareness about the impact of our policies on people with mental health disorders.

Affordable Counseling Now Available at Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics

Thanks to a grant from Mary Jane Brighton, Santa Barbara's Neighborhood Clinics will now be able to offer counseling regardless of a patient's ability to pay, using counseling interns from Antioch University and the Alcohol and Drug Counseling department at Santa Barbara City College. Counseling will be available at Isla Vista, West Side and Eastside clinics as well as the Eastside Dental Clinic.

“We’re here to help,” said Vickie Gonzalez, a licensed family therapist and director of the clinics’ mental health services.

Free Therapeutic Body Work Sessions Donated to F-ACT Members

Santa Barbara's Body Therapy Institute offers free student massage, Shiatsu and Trigger Point sessions to Families ACT members!

Call Katie at 966-5802 for details.

McCune Foundation and Fund for SB fund Families ACT 2009 inititiaves

Good News!

Families ACT has been awarded grants from McCune Foundation and Santa Barbara Foundation to support the Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders and our Public Education Campaign.

We are now seeking matching funds from the community. One of the objectives of this campaign is to support dually diagnosed consumers to speak publicly about their experiences. If you have personal experience with dual diagnosis and would like to tell your story as part of our outreach to the community please contact Families ACT at 805-637-1339 (stipends available).

US Senate Hearing: Overhauling Justice System

On Thursday, June 11th, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs held a hearing on Senator Jim Webb's proposed legislation to overhaul America's criminal justice system.

A link to the video of this hearing can be found on Senator Webb's website: 

http://webb.senate.gov/email/criminaljusticereform.html

Families ACT! Launches 2009-11 Initiative

Families ACT! has launched a two- part initiative for 2009-11.

We will be embarking on an comprehensive Community Education Campaign to document the crisis we face, to represent the needs of our dually diagnosed population and to explore collaborative community solutions to the lack treatment options. We are meeting with County and City officials and scheduling presentations at civic, educational and faith-based groups to show our video and elicit community support for a residential treatment/detox center.

As part and parcel of this initiative, The Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders, which Families ACT convened in the summer of 2008, will be charged with gathering data on the numbers of Santa Barbara County's residents dealing with mood/thought disorder and co-occurring substance use to document the need for a continuum of care and residential treatment/detox facilities for this population.

Senator Jim Webb: Our Champion in Washington D.C.!

Senator Webb gave a speech on the US Senate floor on March 26, 2009, proposing new legislation to reform the nation's criminal justice system:

http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/FS_CrimJust_3-26-09.pdf

Here are the key Slides/Statistics he used which document the shocking increase in the numbers of Americans incarcerated in recent decades and the percentage of these who are incarcerated for drug offenses and mental illness:

http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/SlidesCriminalJusticeBill.pdf

Here is an audio link to his NPR (National Public Radio) Interview from Sunday March 29, 2009:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102486450

Cover story by Webb in Parade Magazine (3/29/09):

http://www.parade.com/news/2009/03/why-we-must-fix-our-prisons.html?index=2

ARC in Carpinteria to close

The ARC in Carpinteria with almost 90 beds for men in recovery is scheduled to close around the end of April.

This is a tragedy!

The Salvation Army is asking several million dollars for the building.

Various groups/agencies in our community are trying to figure out how to salvage this facility.

Can anyone help??

Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders

The Santa Barbara Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders will be meeting April 10th at noon.

We will be exploring strategies for getting residential treatment and detox facilities for Santa Barbarans with mental health and co-occurring subtance use disorders in these financially strained times.

The people who run Nueva Vista, a model "therapeutic community" for up to 61 people with mental illness near San Jose, will be at the meeting, to tell us about their program.

Nancy Gottlieb, Interim Division Chief of Alcohol and Drug Programs at ADMHS, and Dr. Edwin Feliciano, Medical Director for ADMHS are planning to attend.

Several representatives from the Sheriff's Department will be attending.