Mental Health Week 2011 (May 9 - May 13) Pivots on Community Support

Mental Health Week 2011 Pivots on Community Support

Somerset Hills YMCA to Host 3^rd Annual Community Education Event

Mental Health Week, an educational collaboration between the Somerset Hills YMCA’s Healthy Outcomes Partnership (HOP) and the Mental Health Association in New Jersey (MHANJ), will run Monday, May 9, through Friday, May 13, at the Mount Airy facility of the Somerset Hills YMCA. A variety of topics will be covered, some of which include Bullying and children with special needs children: what helps, what hurts; Keeping the faith during difficult times; spirituality and mental health; Generation text: raising well-adjusted kids in an age of instant everything; Mental Health First Aid for the Somerset Hills -- and much more.

A compelling theme of the week will pivot on family and community resilience. Experienced psychologists and therapists will discuss issues that the Somerset Hills community has specifically suffered, such as domestic tragedies and the impact of 9/11, and talk about how the momentous support of various layers of family, friends and community relationships have brought residents through their suffering. Nicci Spinazzola, a trainer at Mental Health Association in New Jersey, a licensed marriage and family therapist and Clinical Director at the Somerset County Richard Hall CMHC, will present The Resilient Family – ‘Making it Work’ on Monday May 9 from 2:30 – 3:30pm. Spinazzola said, "I have been working with some of the 9/11 families in this community for ten years now and it is remarkable how I consistently hear one perspective. For each 9/11 anniversary, whether a loved one returns to the 9/11 site or revisits it in their hearts and minds, what I continue to hear is that they have been helped through these days and their darkest times by family, friends and their faith in the future. Community support is so important in their healing. I am beginning to see some of them now being able to go back to a time when they had had joy and pull that feeling into the present and enjoy what they once had. Family, friend and community support is key to that milestone."

A full schedule can be viewed on the Y website at www.somersethillsymca.org under 'Latest news.' All members of the community are invited to attend these free (unless otherwise noted) events to benefit from the wealth of information and resources that will be available. For more information, please contact Susan Visser at 908.766.7898 ext. 553 or at svisser@somersethillsymca.org.

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The Somerset Hills YMCA is a charitable community service organization, rooted in Christian values and dedicated to helping all people grow in spirit, mind and body.  We are guided by our core principles of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.