Media Alerts
The Alameda County Everyone Counts Campaign aims to track, analyze, and respond to how individuals with mental health challenges are portrayed in the media. We review numerous media examples and choose one to which community members can respond to the author or editor that posted the piece.
Common Shares About Abuse
By Leah Harris Hip-hop Icon Common Writes Memoir of Resilience after Childhood Trauma Content Warning: The following material includes discussion ...
Harm Reduction in Oakland
By Leah Harris California Harm Reduction Legislation Poised to Offer Treatment, Alternative to Criminalization for Drug Users Late last month, ...
How to Reach Out for Support
By Leah Harris How to Reach Out for Support When You’re Struggling with Your Mental Healt. We often hear the ...
Can Tattooing be Therapeutic for Trauma Survivors?
By Leah Harris Can Tattooing be Therapeutic for Trauma Survivors? Traumatic experiences can leave visible and invisible scars on survivors ...
Movement and Your Mental Health
Our physical and mental health are deeply intertwined. The state of our mind can affect the health of our bodies ...
Black History Month 2019: Resources on Black Women, Stigma, and Mental Health
Black History Month 2019: Resources on Black Women, Stigma, and Mental Health It’s Black History Month! This year we are ...
Sally’s Place
Sally’s Place, Alameda County’s First Peer-Run Respite, Opens its Doors On Monday, January 21, 2019, Sally’s Place, Alameda County’s first ...
How Will You Resist Stigma in 2019?
How Will You Resist Stigma in 2019? It’s a new year, and with it comes resolution season. While it’s great ...
Making New Years’ Resolutions that Stick
The beginning of each new year finds us flooded with advertising and messages designed to remind us of where we ...
Childhood Trauma and Adult Empathy
New Study Finds Correlation between Childhood Trauma and Adult Empathy We know from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study and other research ...
Eating Disorder Recovery and the Holidays
Eating Disorder Recovery and the Holidays: Tips to Support Yourself and Others This Season While the holidays are associated with ...
No Feeling is Final
“No Feeling is Final:” New Mental Health Podcast Explores Suicide and Reasons for Living “Just ask for help,” is a ...
Shattering the Silence Surrounding Suicide: PEERS hosts The S Word Documentary on May 18!
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States (CDC). There is one death by suicide in the US every 12 minutes ...
May is Mental Health Month 2018: National and Local Ways to Celebrate Recovery and Defeat Stigma
May is Mental Health Month is here once again. There are numerous ways to make your voice heard and to ...
Embrace Your Voice: April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
While preventing sexual violence and providing support for survivors should be a focus all year round, April is a month ...
NBA Stars Speak Out about Mental Health, Resilience
In recent weeks, several NBA players have spoken out about mental health, paving the way for boys and men to ...
The Power Threat Meaning Framework: A Hopeful New Way of Understanding Human Distress and Resilience
For too long, the understanding of human distress has been individualized, ignoring the context for people’s behaviors and symptoms. But ...
Mass shootings, mental health, and stigma
Tragic mass shootings understandably have led to widespread alarm and a search for solutions. In the days following the Parkland ...
New Study Shows More Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Youth are Coming Out, Experiencing More Mental Health Issues
A study recently published in Pediatrics contains some familiar and new findings that have important implications for families, mental health and health ...
Iconic Hip Hop Artist Jay-Z Takes on Mental Health Stigma
February is Black History Month, and legendary rapper Jay-Z has emerged as a hero to African-American communities struggling with the ...
Mental Health-themed Comics Destigmatize, Inspire, and Heal
Graphic art can be an incredibly powerful vehicle for fighting stigma when it comes to trauma, mental health, and resilience. With ...
Putting Your Mental Health First in 2018
At a time of year where everywhere you look there are “New Year, new you,” posts and articles, New Years’ ...
Tips for Surviving the Holidays in Recovery from Addiction
While the holidays can be stressful for everyone, this time of year can be immensely challenging for persons in recovery, ...
Try a Sound Bath for Relaxation and Stress Reduction
A healing modality that has begun to take off in the West in recent year is “sound healing,” involving the ...
#MeToo and Recovering after Sexual Trauma
The #MeToo hashtag and movement, started ten years ago by activist Tarana Burke, was made viral in a tweet by actress Alyssa Milano ...
Finding Love When You Have a Behavioral Health Condition
In a recent op-ed in the New York Times, comedian Maria Bamford discussed her experience with dating after a prolonged mental health crisis ...
Coping in the Face of Tragedy
We live in particularly difficult times, with natural and human-made disasters and tragedies occurring on what feels like a constant ...
Listen Up for Mental Health: Podcasts to Help You Feel Less Alone, Get to Sleep
The podcasting world is seeing an explosion in growth, and mental health podcasts are no exception. It seems that this ...
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month! Suicide Attempt Survivors and Hopeful Suicide Prevention Messages Featured at the 2017 Video Music Awards
2017 continues to be a powerful year for public discussion and dialogue about suicide, and this year’s Video Music Awards ...
New Suicide Prevention Documentary, The S Word: Interview with Bay Area Advocate Kelechi Ubozoh
This month is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and Suicide Prevention Week is September 10th-15th. The S Word is a groundbreaking new documentary ...
Want to Boost Your Mental (and Physical) Health? Try a “Forest Bath.”
We all know that too much time spent indoors, secluded from the natural world, can be problematic for our psychological ...
Keys to Building Resilience throughout Your Life
There is a common misconception that resilience -- the ability to “come back” after life’s stresses, challenges, and traumas -- ...
#IWantYouToKnow Hashtag Highlights Truths, Misconceptions about Mental Health
Living with a mental health or substance use condition can be difficult enough on its own sometimes. Well-meaning but unhelpful ...
How to Support a Loved one with a Behavioral Health Challenge
Krista MacKinnon, a parent and a person who is herself in recovery from bipolar disorder, is a nationally-recognized expert in ...
New Memoir Chronicles a Health Reporter’s Journey through Anxiety
Health reporter Andrea Petersen’s new memoir On Edge: A Journey through Anxiety is a first-person exploration of what it’s like to live ...
Facebook Teams up with Trevor Project to Offer Online Suicide Prevention Tools to LGBTQ Youth
The research is clear: LGBTQ youth are at greater risk of suicide than their straight peers. Facebook recently announced that it will ...
May is Mental Health Month: Social Media (and Local) Opportunities to Fight Stigma!
Social media has the powerful potential to defeat stigma through sharing the lived experiences of everyday people who are living ...
Stigma, Spirituality, and Mental Health
All too often, spirituality and mental health are seen as occupying different worlds. Given this long-standing division, people with mental ...
New Book Explores Link Between Mental Health and Genius
The exploration of the link between mental health conditions and creativity or genius is nothing new. Books such as Touched with ...
Marriage Equality Associated with Fewer Suicide Attempts by Sexual Minority Teens
While suicide attempts are not as well-studied as suicides, the available data suggest that sexual minority teens attempt suicide at ...
New Survey Shows Record Number of Americans Stressed Out by Politics
The American Psychological Association’s (APA) annual Stress in America™ survey “measures attitudes and perceptions of stress among the general public ...
Eating Disorders and Recovery
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is February 26-March 4 this year, and this year’s tagline is “it’s time to talk about ...
Black Mental Health Resources for #BlackHistoryMonth
In February we celebrate Black History Month together. In addition to honoring all of the women and men whose extraordinary ...
Portrayals of Mental Health Experiences on the Silver Screen Have Lasting Impact
Hollywood has a mixed record on how persons living with behavioral health experiences are portrayed. While some films, such as Take ...
New Peer Support Forum Launches in December
Sherry Dang is a Santa Cruz-based entrepreneur who has started a new peer support forum called “Talking Stick.” She was ...
Coping with Holiday Stressors
We’ve set our clocks back, and the hours of daylight are steadily decreasing. As the holiday season continues, many people ...
Powerful New Campaign Calls on Adults to Help Support Children Exposed to Violence, Trauma
According to the 2015 National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence, 58 percent of youth in the U.S. were exposed to violence at ...
National Survivors of Suicide Loss Day: November 19, 2016
Approximately 85% of people in the United States know someone personally who has completed suicide. For each person who dies ...
Thank Discovery Kingdom for Shutting Down Asylum-Themed Halloween Attraction!
It’s Halloween season again, and unfortunately, there are asylum-themed amusement park attractions galore. Advocates launched into action when they heard ...
Bay Area Survivor of Childhood Abuse Starts New Magazine to Defeat Stigma
Anxy, an exciting new magazine featured in Bustle, is designed to break down the stigma behind mental health conditions and expose ...
National Mental Health Day of Prayer
Please join us at the Alameda County Administration Building Courtyard, 1221 Oak Street in downtown Oakland to celebrate the National ...
Queer/LGB Youth Risk Factors
It’s National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and a new report highlights a population at high risk for suicide: LGB youth ...
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
September is also known as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Important dates to remember this month include World Suicide Prevention ...
How Pets Can Help Promote Mental Wellness
Research shows that owning a pet helps to decrease stress. Levels of oxytocin (the “feel-good” hormone) rise in the brain, ...
Run DMC’s Darryl McDaniels writes New Memoir on Suicide, Recovery
Darryl (DMC) McDaniels, of the hip-hop group Run DMC, has written a new book, Ten Ways How Not to Commit Suicide ...
How Can We Better Support Youth with Trauma Histories in the Juvenile Justice System?
According to a new analysis in Youth Today by Lauren Beretto, a member of the policy team at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, ...
American Debate: Should we bring back Asylums or integrate people with mental health challenges into the community?
The Commonwealth Club hosted a debate on treating mental illness by asking, should we bring back asylums? Here is more ...
Read Senator Mark Leno’s take on Mental Health Peer Certification in California
According to an article posted on The Painted Brain by Senator Mark Leno, "This bill would require the State Department ...