V Building Wellness Minutes
Present: Fonda Whitfield Tammy Moore
Armond Anderson-Bell Stella Bishop-Tilghman
Ken Wells Janice French
Vicki Hendrick Lona Seymour
Drew Jones Kamau Williams
Andrea Jones, minutes
Welcome: Everyone was welcomed to the meeting. Pluscedia Williams,
one of the Co-Chairs, called to say she was unable to attend. We also had a new
co-chair, Dr. Vicki Hendricks, who was present.
Her specialty is pre/post partum depression. Lona
Seymour, who has been away for a while, re-introduced herself as a volunteer
interested in disparities in health care issues. She works for DPSS. Welcome, Dr. Hendricks and Lona
Seymour!
Website Development: There was a lot of discussion about different aspects of the website. Everyone seemed to have a different idea of what the focus of the website should be. Our focus has been to have a website for caseworkers and providers. Ken Wells stated that we need to look at strategies for faith based intervention. He said the website would have portals for various entities, including care managers, providers, and consumers. (The idea of faith-based intervention came up because someone mentioned that several area churches were interested in learning to recognize depression in members of their congregation. This brought on a discussion of whether or not the clergy would be able to accept clinical ideas of healing depression as opposed to traditional religious ways of healing. There was also discussion on who would provide and pay for the training of clergy members.) Armond Anderson-Bell felt the website should be user friendly, with education and resources for the betterment of those in need of services. Stella Tilghman thought the website should be more of a resource than a referral. Armond said referrals could be placed on the provider page of the website or as a checklist item on the consumer page. Other ideas: 1) Many people don’t have access to a computer; others are not comfortable with them, so a list of the people or organizations should be available, and also a printable version on the website. 2) The 12-step approach to recovery to outreach to community. 3) An 800 emergency service number to provide access to resources. Vicki Hendrick also mentioned a post-partum group that operates a peer counseling network to help depressed mothers. The help is immediate and the service is free. Question: How do we deal with problems that come in the process of seeking treatment? We need avenues for anticipating and dealing with needed services.
Dr. Wells’ Summarizes: 1) The group
needs to determine sources of referral information, and may need to look
further if there are other items to be covered.
2) We need a printable version of
the website. 3) Consideration should be
given to a video and audio message on the consumer side of the website. 4) Individual working group members are
encouraged to give testimonials for publication on the website.5)
Access resources from peer counseling network.
6) Ken Wells will meet with Armond
Anderson-Bell to familiarize him with the website. 7) Andrea Jones will e-mail
Erica Shoemaker to remind her to prepare a 1 page memo on her thoughts on the
education piece for the next meeting.
Further Discussion: There was more discussion getting churches involved in some way. Armond mentioned the Unity Fellowship Church Literacy Program and Food Bank. The screening process was also an issue. What type of services can we offer people?
Next meeting: