October 1-7 is Mental Illness Awareness Week, a week created in the hopes of educating and increasing awareness about mental illness. Mental health issues are important to address year-round, but highlighting them during this week provides a time for people to come together to support, educate and fight against the stigma surrounding mental health. Many people with serious mental illness are challenged doubly. Not only do they struggle with the symptoms and disabilities that result from the disease, but they are challenged by the stereotypes and prejudice that result from misconceptions about mental illness. Millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. In fact, there are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness. Some [...]

September marks Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. The month gives us time to connect with those affected by suicide, reflect on how suicide has touched our own lives and to share resources to better support individuals, families and their communities in efforts to prevent suicide. According to the CDC, each year more than 41,000 individuals die by suicide, leaving behind thousands of friends and family members to navigate the tragedy of their loss. Too often people considering suicide are afraid to ask for help, and those who think they see the signs of trouble are reluctant to be wrong and then offend, or cause embarrassment. NAMI reports that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among adults in the U.S. [...]

The opioid epidemic has devastated thousands of families across our nation, state and local communities. Today people across the country and around the world come together to raise awareness for Overdose Awareness Day. For many this is a day of grieving those we have lost, but also a day of hope, a call for further action to end the overdose crisis and a chance to share resources to help those suffering. At the national level, drug overdoses killed more Americans than the entire Vietnam War in 2016. In Burlington County alone, overdoses from heroin and other opiates rose 46 percent from 2011-2016. Since last year, more than 165 people have died of an illicit drug overdose in the county, including [...]

Thirty-one-year-old Jamie lives with a developmental disability and also struggled for years with suicidal ideations and psychiatric hospitalizations. Living independently and maintaining interpersonal relationships was extremely difficult due to challenges with a personality disorder and bipolar disorder. For much of her life, Jamie yearned to find independence. In 2008, Jamie entered our Supervised Apartments where she started to learn coping and anger management skills. The program provides adults with developmental disabilities the necessary daily living skills to function on their own with minimal assistance such as meal preparation, medication administration, household upkeep and community integration. Today Jamie can proudly say that she has not had any hospitalizations in nearly ten years and no longer experiences thoughts of suicide. With [...]

Thursday afternoon, July 21, phones started to ring and buzz constantly, Facebook became flooded with posts and the world shared in heartbreak as they discovered Chester Bennington had committed suicide at age 41. The Linkin Park lead singer’s death shocked and saddened many fans including me. More importantly, six children lost their father, a wife lost her husband, two parents lost their son and a brother lost his brother. When I received the text about his death, I didn’t want to believe it. I told myself my friend had simply come across fake news. I took to the internet hoping with everything I had that it wasn’t true. My heart shattered when I saw the many posts on my [...]

For many families in our area, summer vacation means a struggle to feed their children healthy, filling meals. An estimated 39,000 children in South Jersey are at risk of malnutrition during the summer months when schools’ federal breakfast and lunch programs are not available. For families living below the poverty level, school means more than just education; it also means a dependable source of food. YOU can make a difference! Drop off donations. Monday-Friday, 9am to 5pm, at the following locations: Mt. Holly Food Pantry 770 Woodlane Road, Suite 16 Mt. Holly, NJ 08060 Berlin Food Pantry 128 Cross Keys Road Berlin, NJ 08009 Hold a drive. You can make a difference by hosting a food drive to help replenish [...]

The department of Housing and Urban Development reports: On any given night, there are over 600,000 homeless in the U.S. 8,941 people experience homelessness in New Jersey Homelessness in NJ has decreased 12.4% since 2015 Sixty five year old Joseph became homeless in 1988 after a devastating fire destroyed his home and belongings of 25 years. With no family to turn to for help, he moved around finding shelter in the woods and abandoned buildings. For the past 10 years he called a small space under a bridge in Mercer County his home. This is where Joseph’s story begins to turn from tragedy to hope. Our Project for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program first met Joseph in January of 2016. [...]

As Mental Health Month comes to a close, it‘s important to continue to focus on mental wellness throughout the year. So often we place emphasis on improving physical wellness, that mental wellness does not receive the attention it deserves. Mental wellness, defined by the World Health Organization, is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to the community. The state of one’s mental health can influence the ways in which they look at themselves, their life and others around them. Without a healthy mental state it can be extremely challenging to live life to the fullest extent. [...]

After serving our country, many veterans face difficulties when they return to civilian life. Without structure and support, many of these men and women feel lost and may face hardships such as homelessness, unemployment, hunger, addiction or mental illness. Since 2008, Oaks Integrated Care has partnered with the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to provide services for homeless or at risk veterans through the Veterans Haven program. The program provides transitional housing for veterans and emphasizes sobriety, employment and reintegration into the community. The Treatment Team, comprised of Addiction Specialists, Social Workers, RNs and Vocational Counselors, offers group therapy, job readiness, relapse prevention, health and wellness programs, life strategies, anger management, computer training and a Post-Traumatic Stress [...]

To celebrate Mental Health Month this May, the Tri-State K-9 Crisis Response Team returned to Oaks Integrated Care for a 2nd year to teach us about their therapy dogs and the different services they provide! The therapy dogs serve children, families, neighborhoods and communities that are in crisis in an effort to provide comfort, stress relief, emotional support and crisis intervention services. Teams will comfort victims of trauma, disaster, or violence fostering resilience and self-efficacy. When asked about the process of becoming a handler/dog team on the crisis response team explained, “Each dog must have been a therapy dog for at least a year. The dog and handler need to have basic obedience skills, manners and be able to pass [...]