Second Quarter Newsletter 2019

Leading a Mental Health First Aid Training

Our Mental Health programs are growing in underserved communities of color. Community champions are helping decrease stigma and increase information and help. Champions are becoming Mental Health First Aiders, taught how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness and substance abuse in their community.

This is all part of Catholic Charities’ effort to contribute wisely to the growing conversation that mental health is an important dimension of our overall wellbeing, and not a cause for shame or stigma.

Trainings take place at churches, schools, and veteran-serving organizations, which are already familiar with the inequity, housing conditions, and violence that impact young people, families, and combat veterans. In the Bay Area, combat veterans struggle with homelessness and PTSD, among other health needs, while families and young people struggle with street violence and economic systems.

Over the past six months, this project has certified more than 500 people and held mental health workshops for more than 400 people across the Bay Area.

Across all communities, we trained 1,032 people in Mental Health First Aid and 488 people in Youth Mental Health First Aid in our last fiscal year, which ended April 30. The 8-hour curriculum was developed by Mental Health First Aid USA .

To learn more about upcoming trainings, please click here. Catholic Charities offers trainings in both English and Spanish.

In May, the number of families apprehended at the U.S. southern border sharply increased to 132,887 compared with 99,304 in April and 92,840 in March.  In FY18, a total of 396,570 people were apprehended, as reported by US Customs and Border Protection.  Under the law, asylum requests must be made in the United States or at the US border.  They cannot be made in advance.  Because so many families are fleeing violence or persecution in their homeland, the crisis is growing. Qualified legal representation is in short supply, jeopardizing the right to legal counsel for asylum seekers.

In January, a small team from Catholic Charities East Bay, including two attorneys, joined volunteers at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, to help mothers and children detained while seeking asylum.

Help begins with education about the  asylum process in the United States, followed by preparing each mother for what is called the “credible fear interview.”  This is the first step to seeking asylum.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, INC is one of the founding organizations of this volunteer effort.  The Catholic Charities team was able to join the effort thanks to a generous gift from the Sisters of the Holy Family.

The goal was to provide due process and prepare mothers to put into words the persecution they face, why they fear returning to their home countries, why their government cannot protect them, and why they cannot relocate to another part of their country.

Some of the mothers fleeing with their children are specifically targeted by gangs in their homeland because they own small businesses, or they are relatives of police, witnesses to crime, or they have refused to help with drug trafficking.  Others experienced violence at the hands of domestic partners.  All have suffered greatly and came to the United States to seek safety for themselves and their children.

Their motivation and will to move forward comes from their children. The desire is to get away from death threats and to give their children hope for a better life.  When they finally meet with an attorney, their courage is bolstered, even though the process of documenting their story is re-traumatizing.  One of the Catholic Charities team members is a mental health professional who coached and guided mothers and helped them process the trauma associated with re-telling their story repeatedly in the asylum process.

Working close to 12-hour days, the team helped around 30 mothers prepare for their interviews and led group information sessions for more than 100 women. They estimate that more than 90% of the mothers and children detained will pass their credible fear interviews.  Anywhere from 300 to 2,400 mothers and children are detained at Dilley at any given week.

UPDATE:  When is Enough, Enough