Month: February 2024

Fundraising to Support Our Mental Health Workers

thesophiefund

The Sophie Fund’s 2023 “Cupcake Button” fundraising campaign collected $1,043.78 for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca.

Kayla Torres, Alecia Sundsmo, Max Fante, Lovisa Johanson, Alicia Kenaley, and Michelle Eells

The campaign was spearheaded by several Cornell University student organizations: Cornell Circle K; Pre-Professional Association Towards Careers in Health (PATCH); and Alpha Phi Omega Gamma Chapter (APO). The monies raised in the campaign included donations made directly to Family & Children’s.

At a luncheon at the Statler Hotel on February 2, Max Fante and Kayla Torres of Cornell Circle K delivered a check to leaders from Family & Children’s. The campaign collected donations targeted for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund, which provides wellness support and continuing education opportunities for the organization’s own staff members.

To make a donation to the Greg Eells Memorial Fund, click here and use the drop-down menu to designate your gift.

The Memorial Fund was created to honor Eells, the longtime executive director of Counseling & Psychological Services at Cornell University, board member at Family & Children’s, and national leader in the student mental health field, who died by suicide in 2019.

“It was wonderful to see the outpouring of support for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund, highlighting the importance of mental health care and caring for our caregivers,” said Lovisa Johanson, donor engagement manager at Family & Children’s.

“This fund to support mental health workers is crucial, and Cornell students played a vital role in driving these efforts forward with their passion and dedication. Grateful for the chance to work together to spotlight our exceptional staff and provide them with wellness support funding,” Johanson said.

Fante said that supporting the annual Cupcake Button campaign is one of Cornell Circle K’s service priorities during the school year.

“Cornell students have an unwavering commitment to foster mental health awareness in the greater Ithaca community. Supporting the Greg Eells Memorial Fund along with championing mental health care workers is the perfect way to empower students to prioritize mental health in our community,” he said.

Orell Rayhan of PATCH said that working with The Sophie Fund and the Greg Eells Memorial Fund provided an opportunity for her members to destigmatize mental health, which may impact them or their patients in the future.

“By sharing the impactful stories and missions of these incredible organizations, we empowered our members to forge deeper connections with the causes they support,” she said.

Family & Children’s is a private, nonprofit community agency dedicated to supporting, promoting, and strengthening the well-being of individuals and families by providing high-quality, accessible mental health care and related social services, with a particular sensitivity toward the needs of children.

In 2022, the agency provided 1,289 clients with counseling services in nearly 30,000 appointments. More than 1,000 other clients were served in other programs such as psychiatry, geriatric mental health, and community outreach.

The Greg Eells Memorial Fund was inspired by Eells’s widow, Michelle Eells, who seeks to provide greater support for clinicians and others who spend long hours treating clients with mental health issues including many who are struggling.

Eells’s family and friends also founded Health & Unity for Greg (HUG) “to continue Greg’s work in the world, inspired by Greg’s passion for people and overall wellness in mind, body, and spirit.” HUG focuses on uniting community through advocacy events that exercise physical and mental health to end the stigma for all.

The Sophie Fund organizes the Cupcake Button campaign and the related Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest each fall to promote mental health awareness and raise monies for local nonprofits supporting community mental health. Donors receive a Cupcake Button featuring the image of a cupcake created by Sophie Hack MacLeod, a Cornell art student who died by suicide in 2016 for whom The Sophie Fund is named.

Scott MacLeod, co-founder of The Sophie Fund, expressed his appreciation to the Cornell student organizations for their support of mental health.

“We are very grateful to partner with student organizations at Cornell, who year after year demonstrate strong support to advance better mental health on their campus as well as in the larger Ithaca community,” said MacLeod.

“In 2023, we greatly appreciated the opportunity to raise funds for Family & Children’s, which plays a leading role in supporting mental health in Tompkins County. It was equally important to us to honor Greg Eells, who dedicated his life to the mental well-being of young people, and to show solidarity with the mental health and social work clinicians whose service is so vital to our community.”

MacLeod said that since 2017 the Cupcake Button campaigns have raised a total of $6,612.66 for seven local nonprofits supporting mental health: Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service; Mental Health Association in Tompkins County; Advocacy Center of Tompkins County; the Village at Ithaca; The Learning Web; NAMI-Finger Lakes; and Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca.

Tompkins Clinicians: Sign Up for FREE Training in Suicide Care

thesophiefund

The Sophie Fund is providing free registration and free continuing education credits for healthcare professionals in Tompkins County to attend a two-day online training in suicide prevention featuring some of the nation’s leading experts.

The program, “Suicide Safer Care in Clinical Practice Incorporating Current Best Practices,” takes place in the afternoons of March 19 and Wednesday March 20.

The training, which covers identifying at-risk individuals in everyday medical appointments, best practice treatment, engaging family in suicide care, how social media impacts suicidal behaviors, and other topics, is sponsored by The Wellness Institute, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, The Jed Foundation, the Education Development Center, and the Zero Suicide Institute. (See full program, below.)

Free registration and free continuing education credits for physicians, primary care clinicians, health and mental health clinicians, and clinical social workers serving Tompkins County are supported by a grant from The Sophie Fund.

To request a registration link for free registration, professionals can email The Sophie Fund at thesophiefund2016@gmail.com providing their 1) name, 2) email address, 3) degree level, and 4) place of employment (or name and address of practice, if self-employed).

Scott MacLeod, co-founder of The Sophie Fund, said the training is part of his organization’s initiative to advance the Zero Suicide Model with healthcare providers in Tompkins County.

Zero Suicide is an emerging standard designed to save lives by closing gaps in the suicide care offered by healthcare providers. The model provides a practical framework for system-wide quality improvement in areas including training staff in current best practices, identifying at-risk individuals through comprehensive screening and assessment, engaging at-risk patients with effective care management, evidence-based treatments, and safe care transition.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Americans aged 10-34. Over the past five years, Tompkins County has averaged 12 suicide deaths per year. Another 1,600 parents, children, siblings, friends, and spouses may be impacted by the resulting psychological, spiritual, and/or financial loss.

An estimated 300 people in Tompkins County may attempt suicide every year. While rates for other causes of death have remained steady or declined, the U.S. suicide rate increased 35.2% from 1999 to 2018.

Suicide Safer Care in Clinical Practice

Incorporating Current Best Practices

A two-day virtual conference designed to strengthen confidence

and competence in providing caring, evidence-based services

 to clients with suicide risk.

Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 1:30-5:00 pm

A Framework for Understanding Suicide

Rory O’Connor, PhD, FRSE, FAcSS, president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention

Treating Teen Suicidality: What Works

David A. Brent, MD, academic chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital

Social Media and Suicide Prevention

Mitch Prinstein, PhD, ABPP, Chief Science Officer of the American Psychological Association

Sleep and Suicide Prevention

W. Vaughn McCall, MD, professor and Case Distinguished Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at Augusta University

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 1:30-5:00 pm

988 and Crisis Care

John Draper, PhD, former director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline/988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Family Focused Treatment (FFT)

David Miklowitz, PhD, professor of psychiatry in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute

A Cultural Humility Framework for Suicide Prevention

Roger Harrison, PhD, pediatric psychologist with Nemours Children’s Health in Wilmington, Delaware

Suicide Prevention in Clinical Practice

Jill Harkavy-Friedman, PhD, senior vice president of research at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Jennifer L. Hartstein, PsyD, owner of Hartstein Psychological Services

Learning Objectives

  • Discuss the factors that lead to suicidal thoughts and behavior and the interventions that are proven to reduce suicidal behavior.
  • Explain the Integrated Motivational-Volitional Model of Suicidal Behavior
  • Discuss evidence-based interventions and protective factors for suicidal behavior in teens.
  • Describe how to use a chain analysis to develop a safety plan and treatment plan.
  • Participants will be able to articulate the potential effects of digital media use on neural development.
  • Participants will be able to list up to 10 different ways that technology use may influence psychological adaptation.
  • Describe the relationship between insomnia and suicide and the value of treating insomnia in persons at risk for suicide.
  • Describe how 988 and crisis centers can support practitioners’ work and their patients.
  • Describe the research, findings, and clinical methods of family-focused therapy, an outpatient program for adolescents and adults with or at risk for bipolar disorder.
  • Explain cultural awareness, cultural competence, and cultural humility and how they differ.
  • Describe how a cultural humility approach can be used to reduce interactional barriers in clinical settings.
  • Provide a case example of how to assess for suicidal ideation, behavior, and risk.
  • Describe how to engage family in clinical work with a person with suicide risk factors.