This July, we asked members of our leadership team to share personal or work experiences related to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) Mental Health Month. Our Vice President of Adult Developmental Disability Services, Pam Brown, wrote the following opinion piece about her experience growing up in an African American Christian household and how the "Pray it Away" philosophy impacted her life ~ "Pray It Away" this phrase has been used when discussing homosexuality but it was also used in my household for many years as it relates to mental illness. Growing up in a Christian household, I always heard my grandmother say, "there is nothing wrong with him." Pray and God will take it away. PUSH (pray [...]

Just as every person is unique, so is every culture. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) individuals hold rich histories and unique experiences which impact their beliefs and well-being. According to Mental Health America (MHA), BIPOC communities are significantly more likely to develop mental health conditions. With July as BIPOC Mental Health Month, it remains essential to understand mental health challenges through a diverse lens. To support BIPOC communities, MHA outlined information and resources for specific cultural groups. American Indians/Alaska Natives It is estimated that at least 18.7% of the 9.6 million American Indian/Alaska Natives have experienced a mental health condition within the past year. Many native tribes and lands that exist within the U.S. have been deeply [...]

"While everyone - all colors - everyone is affected by stigma - no one wants to say 'I'm not in control of my mind.' No one wants to say, 'The person I love is not in control of [their] mind.' But people of color really don't want to say it because we already feel stigmatized by virtue of skin color or eye shape or accent and we don't want any more reasons for anyone to say, 'You're not good enough.'" - Bebe Moore Campbell July is BIPOC Mental Health Month, formally recognized as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in 2008 by a bipartisan and bicameral Congress. Oaks seeks to provide tools and support for all individuals [...]

Creating and rebuilding a healthy, nurturing environment is essential for families after a child has been placed outside of the home. Supervised visitation services give families a chance to develop positive parent-child interactions. From therapeutic to intensive, Oaks Integrated Care offers families supervised visitation services with the ultimate goal of reunification. Services include case management, weekly supervised visits and parenting groups based on the Nurturing Parenting Program curriculum. The evidence-based curriculum takes a trauma-informed approach designed to build nurturing parenting skills and stop the cycle of abuse and neglect. The family-centered program helps families like Jerry’s work together toward reunification. Jerry’s Story As a veteran and single father of three children, Jerry struggled with many challenges due to unaddressed [...]

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be overwhelming for both the individual and their family. PTSD is a common illness, not a sign of weakness, with the National Center for PTSD reporting about 12 million adults in the U.S. living with PTSD during a given year. As a loved one to someone battling PTSD, understanding how symptoms can affect many aspects including their career, family, and just day-to-day life is key to supporting them. Oaks Integrated Care offers mental health services with a focus on Trauma Informed Care for individuals and their families. Here are some tips to help guide you through the process of helping someone with PTSD. Learn and listen. Educate yourself on the symptoms and treatment options [...]

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Agender (LGBTQIA+) individuals are a valuable part of our communities. Oaks Integrated Care welcomes and celebrates diversity, inclusion and equality throughout our organization from our employees to the individuals and families we serve. For those who identify as LGBTQIA+, it’s important to recognize how the challenges they face can impact their mental health. According to Mental Health America, 4.5% of the U.S. population identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and over 39% of those individuals reported having a mental illness in the past year. That is nearly 5.8 million people. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, transgender individuals are nearly four times as likely as cisgender individuals to experience [...]

When living with a mental health condition or facing a mental health concern, it’s common to feel like no one understands what you’re going through. But many people overcome the mental health challenges they face. You aren’t alone – help is out there and recovery is possible. As outlined by Mental Health America below, mental health conditions can be hard and confusing. It’s becoming more and more common to talk about mental health in the open, but there’s still a lot of stigma or judgment that people have about mental health conditions. If you’ve seen or heard negativity about the same challenges you deal with, you might internalize those attitudes and feel shame about your experiences. This shame, or self-stigma, [...]

Navigating mental health challenges in our lives can sometimes feel daunting. Signs might start showing in different ways or might be hidden altogether. As outlined by Mental Health America this May in their National Mental Health Month "Back to Basics" toolkit, mental health shows you signs just like physical health. We all have days where we feel a bit sore, have a headache, or are extra tired. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re sick. You’re sick when something suddenly and significantly changes for the worse or prevents you from functioning properly. Mental health is similar – the occasional bad day is to be expected, but when things that used to be easily become a lot more difficult, something’s going on. Instead of [...]

This May for National Mental Health Month, Oaks strives to increase knowledge and awareness around mental health and its background. According to Mental Health America, most mental health conditions don’t have a single cause – they have many possible causes, called risk factors. The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to develop a mental health condition in your lifetime. Mental health conditions can develop slowly, or symptoms can start to appear more suddenly after you’ve experienced a stressful event or big change. Risk Factors Risk factors don’t just affect who will and won’t develop a mental health condition. They also impact the seriousness of symptoms and when those symptoms will show up. Risk factors can [...]

The first step in helping a child experiencing abuse or neglect is learning to recognize the signs. During the month of April, we recognize National Child Abuse Prevention Month (NCAPM), a time to bring communities together to prevent the maltreatment of children and the importance of working to build a safe environment for all. According to the Child Maltreatment Report, approximately 2 million children received prevention services in 2021. The State of New Jersey recognizes four major types of maltreatment: physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. Physical abuse includes a nonaccidental physical injury caused by a parent or caregiver to a child, whereas sexual abuse is sexual activities performed by a caregiver to a child. Emotional abuse [...]