Great mental-health work is being done in Longmont
- Letter to the Editor
- Dec 17, 2019
- 2 min read
By Kristina Shaw
PUBLISHED: December 14, 2019 at 9:38 pm
TIMES-CALL GUEST OPINIONS | opinion@times-call.com | https://www.timescall.com/2019/12/14/kristina-shaw-great-mental-health-work-is-being-done-in-longmont/
Some of you may have attended the recent City of Longmont’s event “It takes a community!,” which featured Dr. Bruce Perry, psychiatrist and Senior Fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas as its guest speaker. Dr. Perry’s remarks focused on the importance of integrating trauma-specific treatment in mental health care, building healthy communities and addressing relational poverty. Too often, these issues are left out of conversations about mental health and addiction recovery and we want to thank the City of Longmont for providing a forum to explore them!
However, we feel it is also important to highlight the great work already being done in Longmont (and all of Boulder County) to integrate trauma-informed treatment in mental health care. Leading the way in this effort are two Mental Health Partners (MHP) programs:
Moving Beyond Trauma: Healing Mind, Body and Spirit (MBT): Recognized as a Category III National Child Traumatic Stress Network member, its therapists have significant training in trauma-informed care and are led by Dr. Janine D’Anniballe, a nationally recognized expert in trauma-informed care. MBT’s holistic model of care includes traditional talk therapy, as well as trauma-informed yoga, acupuncture, massage and animal-assisted therapy featuring Fievel, MBT’s Facility Dog. Our statistics show when an individual receives care through Moving Beyond Trauma, their resiliency increases while their PTSD, dissociation and somatization symptoms decrease. This is especially true for children, who saw a significant improvement in trauma symptoms after receiving care, including a decrease in re-experiencing, avoidance and negative mood.
Community Infant Program (CIP): Since 1984, this specialized team of infant mental health therapists and public health nurses have worked collaboratively with families to intervene in cycles of trauma and poverty through prevention and intervention practices. They serve over 250 families and 500 individuals annually and follow a multigenerational, bilingual and bicultural model. Our data shows that 95% of parents served through CIP experience an improvement in social supports, decreased family conflict and feel more emotionally available to their infant/young child.
Mental Health Partners would like to extend an invitation to all members of our valued community members (and Dr. Perry!) to learn more about these programs by visiting www.movingbeyondtrauma.org. Also, we are offering tours of MBT’s newly remodeled offices in Lafayette, CO and hosting a free, trauma-informed care lecture led by Dr. D’Anniballe on February 5, 2020, along with many other opportunities to receive trauma-informed care through yoga, massage and acupuncture.
Register and learn more on our website! www.movingbeyondtrauma.org.
A marketing and communications professional for the past 15-years, Kristina Shaw has spent the past 10 years specializing in nonprofit healthcare marketing and communications. She currently serves as public information officer and marketing director for Mental Health Partners.
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