The Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County is launching “The Mental Health Pipeline Project,” an initiative to place more bilingual mental health professionals in northern Sonoma County.
Barbara Grasseschi, board chair of the Healthcare Foundation said, “the lack of enough bilingual and bicultural mental health specialists in the schools, clinics and nonprofit organizations in our region was the number one challenge that we heard from service providers and community members in our summer listening sessions.”
Debbie Mason, CEO of the Healthcare Foundation said, “lack of timely access to mental health professionals was a near crisis situation even prior to the fires, and now since, will be an even greater issue as folks need help with post-traumatic stress, depression, anger and more caused by the fires.”
The Healthcare Foundation convened during the summer a number of listening sessions with nonprofit providers serving the region and hosted local visioning sessions for community members to share their opinions, as well. “Through that process we learned that families struggle to find providers that are bilingual and bicultural and if they can find one, often wait up to six months for an appointment,” said Grasseschi.
The Mental Health Pipeline Project is funded initially with $100,000 each year for a number of years, with initial funding from the Bancroft Foundation and the Foundation for Global Sports Development. The Healthcare Foundation is seeking addition support from other donors, as well. “We welcome the support from donors who understand that in our county, mental health has been identified as an area of critical concern in a community, with suicide rates higher than the norm,” said Mason. “People want something long-term and measurable to support and this initiative provides critical assistance for the coming years of recovery.”
The Healthcare Foundation has identified the partners for the initial phase of the project as University California San Francisco, Sonoma State University and Alliance Medical Center. As the project’s funding expands additional partners will be identified for participant placement.
Mason said, “As we increase donor support for this project, we can increase the number of professionals we can match with local nonprofit organizations and serve more families in need of mental health support.”
The Healthcare Foundation is the only funder exclusively focused on health for the northern region of Sonoma County. It is the leading proponent for creating healthier communities and relies on donor contributions to fund its work.
For more information about the Mental Health Pipeline Project, contact Mason at dm****@he******************.net or 473-0583.
— submitted by Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County
