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Mental health advocacy group honors school club, officials with regional Innovations Awards

Tribune-Review - 4/30/2021

Apr. 30—Students at Greater Latrobe Senior High received kisses when they entered the school on Valentine's Day last year.

Members of the school's Aevidum Club handed out Hershey's Kisses chocolate candies as a gesture of caring and inclusion for their fellow students.

The holiday can be a sad one for some, noted Jackie Rider, a school counselor and adviser for the club, which looks to create an atmosphere of acceptance among students while raising awareness of mental health issues and suicide prevention.

The candy, Rider said, conveyed the message that "you matter and you're important whether you have a significant other in your life or not."

The student club, formed four years ago, received one of five Innovations Awards presented by Greensburg-based Mental Health America of Southwestern PA during a program held via Zoom this week. The club was honored for its efforts on the prevention front of mental health.

Mental Health America uses outreach and education to combat the stigma associated with mental illness. The organization also presented awards in four other categories:

Education — Phil Koch, former executive director of the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County and now vice president of policy and community impact with The Pittsburgh Foundation;

Advocacy — Susanne Cole, president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Pressley Ridge, which provides mental health services, foster care, residential treatment and specialized education programs;

Recovery — Dr. Mark Fuller, medical director of recovery medicine for Allegheny Health Network'sCenter for Inclusion Health;

Lifetime Achievement — Patricia Valentine, retired executive deputy director for integrated program services with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.

Accepting the Prevention Award, in addition to Rider, was Adison Lemmon, a member of the Greater Latrobe Class of 2021 who recently was honored by Latrobe City Council for her leadership of Aevidum and for other aspects of her active school career. Lemmon said Aevidum, which was founded by Lancaster County students, has "had a big impact on me. It helps us become more comfortable about ourselves."

The club's Latin-derived name means, "I've got your back." Its logo incorporates a yellow silhouette of a hand.

While the club's activities have been curtailed during the covid-19 pandemic, Rider said a new "Everybody Needs a Hand" campaign is planned during May, Mental Health Awareness Month. Students may write positive messages and their names on prints of the Aevidum hand to enter a gift card drawing. The "hands" then will be gathered for a display at the school.

Koch earned praise for having developed the WestCo Nonprofit Network, a forum that allows leaders of community-minded groups to share ideas and pursue joint projects.

Koch, who began his career as a teacher, noted a recent study underscored the importance of coordinating efforts among Westmoreland County's human service organizations. That's more important than ever, he said, now that the pandemic has cut into revenue for those providers while increasing the demand for their services.

Local foundations, he said, "have the duty to provide our social and human capital, not just our financial capital, to support the nonprofit community."

Cole said her organization wants to see families have increased access to needed services while striving for fair and equitable access for all races.

"During the pandemic we've seen an increase in the need for mental health services," she said, as well as services for those with substance abuse issues.

Before taking on her most recent role, in June 2011, Valentine spent 13 years as deputy director for the Office of Behavioral Health in the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and 17 years working in the county's human services provider system.

She said there has been a major improvement in the provision of mental health services, with clients now taking an active role "as the leaders of their treatment team. They work on what they want to work on, not just what somebody else thinks they need to work on."

At the same time, she said, the mental health system needs to do "a much better job of joining with our communities, becoming part of the community."

Fuller's background in the field of addiction medicine and behavioral health includes roles as both a clinician and as a physician executive working for several managed care organizations. He has a long-standing appointment as an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry with Drexel University College of Medicine and West Virginia University School of Medicine, where he completed his medical training.

Fuller noted that the pandemic has subjected people to prolonged stress and trauma without the relief valve provided by socializing or attending a sporting event or movie. "Overdoses are up and all sorts of admissions to hospitals are up," he said. "That's going to continue; it's not a one-and-done. There's still a lot of work to be done."

On a positive note, he said Allegheny Health Network has partnered with the City of Pittsburgh to provide mobile teams that can respond to crisis situations where mental health and social services are more appropriate than police intervention.

"There can be no health without mental health," concluded Laurie Barnett Levine, CEO of Mental Health America of Southwestern PA.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff at 724-836-6622, jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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