Mental Health Awareness Ribbon (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Would you take a Mental Health First Aid course? Let’s face it; it is not unusual for employers to require employees to enroll in a Red Cross course to receive certification in First Aid/CPR.  This training can assist employees to respond to their co-workers who may suffer a...Read More

How we survived November 22, 1963 If you are at least 55 years old, then there is a pretty good chance you have vivid memories of where you were and who you were with when you first learned that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. Today we are pausing to remember and acknowledge  the...Read More

One step at a time…implementing the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 On November 8, 2013, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury issued a press release that outlined their final rule increasing parity between mental health/substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits as applied in group and...Read More

Remembering our veterans… On Monday, November 11, 2013, our nation will celebrate Veterans Day. Other countries around the world refer to this day as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. As so often happens with special days there can be whole generations which have no knowledge of how we came to honor veterans around the world...Read More

The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 October 31, 2013, will mark the 50th Anniversary of the signing of The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA). It was by all accounts the last piece of legislation signed into law by President John F. Kennedy. Three weeks and one day later President Kennedy was assassinated....Read More

A county locator map of California, with San Francisco County highlighted and enlarged in red. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) San Francisco Behavioral Health Court celebrates 10th Anniversary Have you ever heard of a Behavioral Health Court?  There is a good chance your answer to that question is “No!” However, it turns out that a number of...Read More

“Mom, we are OK.” We are now 48+ hours out from the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard. As each hour passes we learn a little more about the murdered victims, the injured victims, the first responders, the physically uninjured survivors, the alleged shooter, and his past history; all the while investigators (both varied...Read More

Albert Einstein during a lecture in Vienna in 1921 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” Albert Einstein Asking the right questions… As we mature we learn how to ask questions. Asking questions and seeking information is...Read More

Outing with Grandma! Growing up and growing older with our grandparents Did you grow up knowing and spending time with your grandparents or even one grandparent? It may seem to be an odd question, but the truth is there are many people who never knew their grandparents. Obviously sometimes the grandparents have passed away, but “not...Read More

The Crystal Ball (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Wouldn’t we all like a crystal ball? There are times as we move through life that the thought of having a crystal ball to see into the future sounds wonderful. Perhaps it is when we are making a decision about whether to try out for a team in junior...Read More