Tonight Relief will be hosting a fundraising event at Lake Terrace at 7:30pm. The event will feature a special presentation at 8:30: Connecting with our Children Building Relationships to Last a Lifetime that will focus on building positive parental relationships, which play a crucial role in the foundation of mental health for young children. The special presentation on how to form lifelong connections will include Rabbi Yakov Sputz, LMHC, and Dr. Zev Brown, PhD, both highly acclaimed and renowned educators and clinicians in their respective fields. Dr. David Leiberman. PhD, award-winning author and speaker, will moderate the event.
No Small Relief: Answering the Call for Mental Health Treatment and Awareness
By Rayle Rubinstein
There are the anxious parents; the tearful spouses; the concerned mechanchim; and the patients themselves, who can’t always describe their problems as well as they can share their need for help. The circumstances and problems vary, but the underlying concerns are the same.
They are desperate.
They don’t know where to turn.
So they call Relief Resources.
Fielding these calls are trained advisors, who begin the assessment process that will ultimately result in a referral to one of 4,300 clinicians in Relief’s carefully honed database. During the initial call, an advisor will obtain information about location, family history, duration and magnitude of symptoms, and other specifics that will help determine the most appropriate professional for the case.
There is also one more crucial factor in the referral process: compatibility. “A patient must feel a real connection in order to accept advice from a clinician,” says Rabbi Binyamin Babad, Relief’s director. “Compatibility between practitioner and patient is therefore a vital component of successful treatment.” Each of the clinicians in Relief’s database has been thoroughly researched, based on client feedback and meetings with Relief’s staff, to optimize the chances of successful patient-professional pair-ups.
A common misconception among those unfamiliar with the field is that mental health treatment is a “one-size-fits-all” profession. That could not be further from the truth. The mental health field is extremely nuanced, and it is crucial to pair a patient with a professional who specializes in dealing with his or her specific symptoms. That’s why the Relief framework includes maternal, geriatric, pediatric, trauma, eating disorder and general mental health departments. “Just as you wouldn’t send someone with a kidney disorder to an orthopedist,” says Devorah Levinson, a referral specialist and director of Relief’s eating disorders division, “an individual with an eating disorder shouldn’t be treated by someone who specializes in schizophrenia.”
The Commitment
The referral is just the beginning.
“We maintain contact with patients and their families to ensure that treatment is progressing effectively,” says Riki Schwartz, director of children’s services at Relief.
Relief acts a liaison between patient, family, practitioner, and other involved parties, such as mechanchim or rabbanim. The organization also works with hospitals and families to facilitate hospitalization and discharge process.
One of the greatest hurdles patients face is the associated cost of treatment. Relief’s Insurance Advocacy program is in place to fight for coverage in cases where patients have been denied by their insurance companies. Coverage is not always possible, however. That’s where Relief’s Patient Assistance Fund steps in. Subsidized by donors, “it is the community’s way of offering meaningful, dignified support to people whose circumstances warrant confidentiality,” according to Director of Development Rabbi Boruch Ber Berman.
The Awareness
In the changing face of today’s world, Relief is constantly working to provide the community with new skills and knowledge. Among Relief’s educational endeavors are seminars for rabbanim and mechanchim as well as mental health professionals. Community events focus on educating the public about specific conditions and normal behavior patterns.
Previous events have included “Mind Over Marriage,” a panel discussion by professionals on how to balance marriage responsibilities, a presentation on protecting children from abuse in today’s world hosted by foremost experts in the field. Relief has also recently hosted a teleconference, also focused on abuse; and an eye-opening seminar for mechanchim.
Please join tonight at 7:30 the event to benefit Relief at Lake that will focus on building positive parental relationships, which play a crucial role in the foundation of mental health for young children. The special presentation on how to form lifelong connections will include Rabbi Yakov Sputz, LMHC, and Dr. Zev Brown, PhD, both highly acclaimed and renowned educators and clinicians in their respective fields. Dr. David Leiberman. PhD, award-winning author and speaker, will moderate the event.
Events such as these foster healthy behaviors and relationship skills and provide tools for optimal functioning. They also serve to dispel some prevalent myths about mental illness. By educating the public about these realities, Relief continues to offer the greater community yet another invaluable resource.
The Service
Since 2001, Relief has facilitated the treatment of nearly 70,000 individuals; over 10,000 in Lakewood since 2002, paving the way for them to return to optimal functioning within their families and communities. To date, the Relief network includes branches in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Canada, Israel and the UK. In a single month, Relief Resources will handle more cases than the average practitioner will see in a lifetime. In a single day, Relief advisors may deal with cases involving the full gamut of symptoms, from schizophrenia to depression, suicide attempts to addiction. And yet, each call is treated as the only one. Each caller is already, at first contact, on his or her way to optimized care and treatment in the hands of a qualified practitioner.
Those who have made that initial call already know this. To them, Relief Resources is more than a referral service.
It is a lifeline.
Photos below from last year’s event:
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