WFW Building Wellness Working Group

April 23, 2004

Meeting Minutes

The meeting started with introductions. This meeting started with working group opening discussion. Comments were as follows:

• Take advantage of primary care providers who see post partum and prenatal patients regularly.
• Contract with other groups, they also have Medi-Cal coverage – institutional reimbursement systems.
• Do we want a website? If so, what kinds of links and/or referrals? Who will man it?
• We can bring in Department of Mental Health and Los Angeles Best Babies Collaborative to see what resources they can bring to the table.
• First 5 LA has funding mechanisms in place for 0 – 5 population. It make sense to look at existing resources.
• The working group should start with a focus in one area. The first area of concern should be to look at the target population of teens.
• Network with organizations such as STD clinics, schools, Planned Parenthood, AAAOD,
• What level of depression does the group want to focus on e.g., moderate, mild, severe? What target group? What geographic area?
• There was a concern expressed about limiting depression levels to severe. People who don’t get help are those that have mild-to-moderate levels of depression. The people that get help are the ones that make the most noise.
• Programs like Camp Fire Teens in Action help to recognize symptoms of depression in youth, but there are limited resources to attend to the need.
• Need more resources to deal with youth and depression. Some of our youth are slipping through the cracks.
• There should be a tool kit for PTA groups to deal with the issue.
• LAUSD has cutback on psychosocial services. Parents are now involved in identifying needs of students.

Website Construction Discussion

• A strategic plan should be developed for planning capacity.
• Can a partnership be developed with Department of Mental Health (DMH) to explore what capacity building could be done.
• What kinds of test cases be done to test effectiveness of website?
• What are some challenges to constructing a website?
• Group worthwhile idea focuses on people resources, skills; not dependent on budget potential; explore possible links to health centers.

Building Wellness Working Group Meeting

April 23, 2004

Page 2

• Website content could include: links for clinicians, chat rooms, place to register, advertisements, access to read and post messages, on-line tutorial training videos, referrals, surveys, etc.
• Utilize a state-of-the-art user-friendly system.
• What are the language considerations?
• In considering referrals, SPA-6 needs outweighs capacity. Turnover is high among agencies.
• Maybe capacity should be our focus. What’s out there, do they know?
• What is the capacity of DMH?
• We should have a disclaimer for the depression project and our partners.
• There would need to be constant maintenance to the website.
• Is it premature to ask people what they want to see on a website or tool kit.
• What kind of timeline would it take to complete tasks outlined?
• Should website content include stories and pictures?

General Comments/Announcements

• The next meeting will be schedule for Friday, May 21, 2004. The focus will be on website construction.