—  INNOVATING MENTAL HEALTH CARE  —

TAKING ACTION: The mental health crisis is growing and communities are struggling. Stigmas, inefficiency and an invisible mental health continuum of care have plagued communities around the world. The mental health crisis has had a profound impact on Sheila as a mother, educator and activist.  Sheila has seen students struggle, as well as her own son. On the night her son, John, was killed, John shared suicidal thoughts on social media. He was struggling with his own sense of self worth.  John had been receiving professional help from a therapist specializing in trauma-based care.  However, it did not prevent John from going to a very dark emotional place.  That night, when an officer responded to John’s crisis, the officer was not crisis intervention trained, nor was a co-resepnder on duty.  The result was the loss of John’s life, and trauma to the entire community. It has taken some time for Sheila to reconcile John’s mental health, as well as the mental health of the officer. She has now set out to help other parents, police officers and communities deal with the mental health crisis.

ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE: If your community is looking to remove mental health stigmas, then accept the challenge and submit your request. Sheila is looking to work with individuals, organizations and local systems in the calendar years 2020-2021 who are eager to make their mental health continuum of care more visible, effective and efficient.

transformation: mental health crisis

Crisis is a powerful point of transformation.  Sheila has made it her mission to transform the systems supporting mental health.  Sheila along with the community organization she co-founded, JoCo United, have highlighted best practices in other areas of the country to push for change here in Johnson County, such as training first responders.  She has actively appeared in front of Public Safety Committees to support system improvements, such as the following.  

• Add mental health information to the police department website as well other government sites

• Increased mental health/ deescalation training for all first responders 

• Create a county-wide Public Safety Task Force to gain input from the community on health, safety, and well being of our community  

The community has rallied around these ideas and several have already been accomplished.  Sheila is energized by the innovative work being done around the country to meet the needs of communities.  Innovative work is occurring in San Antonio, Texas, with the Police Department’s Mental Health Unit, and in Tucson, Arizona with their Critical Incident Review Board. In San Antonio, Sheila has been a huge supporter of the work by Joe Smarro and Ernie Stevens, which was documented in the HBO movie Ernie and Joe. Officer Smarro and Stevens are members ot San Antonio Police Department’s Mental Health Unit.  Sheila  hopes to facilitate community screenings of the film.  This is one great example of stigmas being broken and communities thriving from mental health systems innovation.