Wellness Council Minutes

September 10, 2004

9:30 -11:00 a.m.

Present: Loretta Jones, Co-Chair Chris Palma

Ken Wells, Co-Chair Kavita Patel

Roland Holmes, PhD Nissa Rauf Madyun

Moses Chadwick Kerry Hickey

Michael Rodriguez Barry Collins

Bowen Chung Plus Williams

Ruthie Gray Chrys Terry

Barbara Boulet Paul Koegal

Moraya Moini Andrea Jones, minutes

• Welcome/Introductions: Everyone introduced him or herself and was welcomed.

• Corrections to Minutes: The minutes for August were accepted with one abstention. Corrections will be made to the Photovoice section.

• Update by Committees (10 minutes each): All of the Co-Chairs were not present, but it was decided that those present would update the Council on what they were doing.

1. Talking Wellness: Talking Wellness is trying to reduce the stigma of depression by dealing with the community. The Spoken Word event gave the public an opportunity to speak on depression. Future plans include workshops with poets and clinicians, more spoken word events, and a Community Pictures project. The Community Pictures project has been submitted for IRB approval. Basically this project will involve two groups of people, one with experience with depression or mental illness and one without. The two groups will take photos (one roll per person) of their environment that impact them. The photos will be categorized into a theme. The pictures may be used in a community redesign project, in conjunction with the poetry from the Spoken Word, (in an art exhibit or small book), and/or Public Service Announcements. Any changes, such as empowerment or coalition building, will be measured as the project progresses. They may video or audiotape interviews of the participants talking about changes in themselves. Research: Thematic Analysis—looking at all of the Spoken Word to identify themes that come through. They need support to define that, possibly through an exhibit that follows up on the Magic Johnson conference. (Maybe even a permanent exhibit in the lobby at the MJ Theater, making sure TW has input. The community will need a written agreement on how their poetry/photos will be used. This agreement will not exceed 1 page, and will not supersede ours.) Bowen Chung’s Letter of Intent: Bowen submitted a letter of intent to Johnson & Johnson to sponsor an exhibit. UCLA (instead of HAAF) would be asked for support for the technical requirements, i.e. graduate students to help, art supplies etc. The letter of intent does not include audience response systems. Sub-Committee: The Sub-Committee of people from the Baldwin Village area put together by Loretta Jones & Ed Corbett reviewed the Spoken Word videos, talked about problems in the community (noise, dirt, etc.), and reviewed the plans of the TW working group. Other community members from other working groups are now attending that meeting. Their (the sub-committee) role needs to be figured out. Community is important as a way of tapping into the community. Suggested future trainings: How to do leadership, trainings to give back to the community, how to build leadership skills. We have a diverse group of people on this committee. This is an opportunity groom leaders, to groom the community to become community activists. They live here; they know what’s going on. Connections: Some of these people have connections. How so we take advantage of these connections? Is there a protocol? There was a discussion of this subject, which led to a discussion of the budget, and whether or not we could handle the rapid pace at which we seem to be growing. This discussion ended when it was pointed out that the Executive Committee handles budget items.

2. Building Wellness: Building Wellness is working on their website. The focus of their website is to train the provider. They have formed three toolkit groups to focus on a) Screening and Assessment, b) Education, and, c) Referrals, which involves developing a strategy to do referrals. Kavita Patel is going to write a proposal for the Building Wellness website. The proposal is only for Building Wellness. However, Building Wellness will still be a part of the overall website.

3. Supporting Wellness: Supporting Wellness is exploring options for community-sensitive, community-appropriate services and innovative programs. West Angeles is pulling together resources in the community into a network. Rev. Tolbert (Apostolic Faith) and some other ministers want training in recognizing depression. They need spiritual/clinical speakers that could relate to the religion aspect. There was a major discussion on the pros and cons of getting ministers to see things from other than a religious perspective. Raising awareness with pastors is something that we can do by inviting them to the table. Ruthie Gray: Ruthie Gray shared that Loretta Jones provided follow-up support for Tameeka Knox, the young lady who spoke at the August meeting of Supporting Wellness. We are obligated by the IRB not to allow anyone to walk away with nothing if they are in need, or suicidal, etc. The Stakeholder Committee: Supporting Wellness voted to send a representative to the Stakeholder Committee. They are drafting a letter to apply. Teleconference: Vicki Hendricks, who will be the joining Building Wellness as a Co-chair will host a conference on pre/post term delivery. It was agreed that Supporting Wellness move forward.

• The Website: The Witness for Wellness website (www.witness4wellness.org) is up today. The site has a graph that will track everything on the website. There are video clips and an oral history. Eventually we will have both Spanish (by Michael Rodriguez) and Korean (by Bowen Chung) language translation. We can have a trailer that says, “Spanish is coming! Korean is coming!” This is the 1^st generation of the website. Coming events will be posted monthly. HAAF will be the central contact point. People will not be able to contact each other via the website; personal e-mail must be used for that. Internal forms (request forms, consents, etc.,) will be available, but password-protected from general public access. Guidelines for research partners, a way of submitting papers for presentation, and proposals will also be on the internal part of the website.

• New Committee: It was proposed that we form a new committee, a core group that does new projects, funding, inside and outside recruiting, etc., like the IRB—a clearinghouse to release the Wellness Council from having to spend part of their time on these issues.

• Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars: The Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Foundation (RWJ) is sending a representative to Los Angeles in November. RWJ is the largest funder of health research outside of the U.S. Government. Even though their main focus is substance abuse, they are interested in the Witness for Wellness program. There will be a meeting on November 16, 2004 with HAAF, UCLA, and representatives from each of the working groups attending. There was a discussion on where the meeting would be (HAAF or UCLA?), who would go, how many could go, transportation, etc.

• Next Meeting Date: Friday, October 8, 2004, 9:30-11:00, at the HAAF office, located at 3856 W. Martin Luther King Blvd, Suite 209, Los Angeles, Ca 90008