Asian Family Institute - integrated care

RAMS is extremely proud to announce the launch of the Asian Family Institute, integrated care (AFI-ic), which offers innovative and comprehensive mental health consultation and treatment through a holistic, integrated approach for the Asian & Pacific Islander American (APIA) population in the San Francisco Bay Area. It utilizes both conventional and complementary therapies in the treatment of mental health concerns and services are available in English and Chinese. Together, a therapist and acupuncturist & traditional Chinese medicine practitioner can work to provide personalized treatments to suit each person's lifestyle and promote self-awareness and resources for self-care. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the dominant medical practices used in many Asian countries, and treatments may include functional and nutritional assessments, acupuncture, and breathing and meditation exercises.

Asian & Pacific Islander Americans individuals frequently face complex mental health issues that require holistic medical and psychological care. Moving beyond demographic and cultural factors that may be a barrier to mental health care utilization for APIA individuals, the Asian Family Institute, integrated care is a remarkable step toward addressing systematic issues, by providing culturally responsive and linguistically sensitive services.

Deeply embedded in Chinese and many APIA cultures, individuals who are facing mental health issues are often encouraged to try their best to endure 忍 (ren); they may be discouraged to seek psychological services in order to try to save face, preserve their reputation, and not humiliate their family. With cultural pressures to suppress negative mood states, and the stigma against sharing experiences of psychological symptoms, individuals may feel reluctant to express concerns regarding mental health issues. Research on illness beliefs of depressed Chinese American patients reveals that they are more inclined to complain about somatic symptoms instead. Because of these issues, it is quite common for APIA individuals to feel more comfortable seeking out a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner rather than a mental health clinician, although they would also benefit from being in therapy.

For those struggling with conditions affecting the body and mind, such as chronic pain and low mood or energy, the AFI-ic provides clients the option of choosing either a comprehensive mental health evaluation, a traditional Chinese medicine assessment, or both - for a uniquely integrated approach. The health care providers at the AFI-ic clinic are distinctively qualified and experienced in treating Asian & Pacific Islander American individuals, approaching care collaboratively and with an open mind.

For more information, please contact AFI's Intake Coordinator at (415) 668-5025.

Peer Wellness Center Now Welcomes You

RAMS Division of Peer-Based Services is extremely pleased and proud to announce that our Peer Wellness Center is now open. We are located at 1282 Market Street (Market & 9th Streets), San Francisco, CA 94102. Hours and days of operation are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.

RAMS Peer Wellness Center is an early engagement Center for adults seeking peer-based counseling services and peer-led activity groups. The Center serves as a safe place for peer participants to gain empowerment skills within an environment that utilizes empathy and peer support to help promote and inspire recovery. This Center supports consumers of San Francisco Behavioral Health Services that may face mental health and/or substance abuse issues.

The Peer Wellness Center offers activities, facilitated by Peer Counselors, that include but are not limited to: Peer-to Peer Support Groups, Healthy Living Workshops, Creative Arts Expression, Skills Building Classes, Community Social Events and On-Site Recreational Activities.

We welcome consumers, clinicians, and community partners to call, email or visit us during our Walk-In times to learn more about the Center. Below is a flyer that you can freely share as well as a referral form to assist us with establishing eligibility for services. Please note that the referral form is optional and assists us with the process of accepting participants into the program and developing an individual wellness plan. Individuals are welcome to enroll on their own. Click HERE to download the referral form.

We are excited about this new program and we are very much looking forward to the promotion of wellness and recovery services within our Peer Community!

The Center is open to consumers of Behavioral Health Services (SFDPH).

Peer Wellness Center Open House and in celebration of Mental Health Awareness Month

From Baghdad To The Bay

The extraordinary journey of Mr. Ghazwan Alsharif, the Chef at RAMS Broderick Street Adult Residential Facility, is the subject of the upcoming documentary From Baghdad to The Bay. For the past eight years, Erin Palmquist, independent filmmaker and director of the documentary, has been capturing on film the compelling story of Ghazwan’s life.

When Ghazwan was growing up, he dreamed of being a painter and artist. Born in Baghdad, he shared that is from a wealthy and well-known family of diplomats. Becoming an artist was not a path his family approved of. He learned to enjoy cooking at home from his parents, but cooking was not seen as a career path. In line with his family’s wishes, he pursued a degree in Office Management.

In 2003, while still in Iraq, Ghazwan became a translator for the U.S. Military. However, the Iraqis did not trust translators for the U.S. Army, and after a month in the position, Ghazwan’s family told him to quit. But, as he explained, he did not quit and subsequently his family disowned him. During that time, he camped out at the U.S. Army base. That December, the U.S. Army became suspicious of him and threw him in jail, where he was then reportedly tortured for 75 days. “I have patience. I’ve learned to be patient,” Ghazwan shared.

In 2005, Ghazwan went into exile and moved to Jordan; it wasn’t until 2008 that he was granted refugee status and sent to Oakland, California through the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC introduced Erin Palmquist, Jennifer Huang, and Karena O’Rirodan to Ghazwan, who was excited to share his story with the filmmakers.

Photo from www.frombaghdadtothebay.com

From Baghdad to the Bay captures the drama in Ghazwan’s life. Upon moving to the United States, he thought he was in a safe country, but one night, random people jumped him and knocked him down. His roommates called an ambulance and Ghazwan was then in the ER overnight. Afterward, his mental health declined and he went through a period of depression. “I had depression. I’ve been mugged,” Ghazwan shared.

“When you are in depression, you want to talk to someone and let it out,” Ghazwan shared. As a very social person, he started building a family in the Bay Area. “I have a son [in another country], and had to leave him, but I cannot see him. When I came here, I started building a family. I’m very social; I’m very friendly, so I have tons and tons of friends. I’m very loving to them, and they are very loving to me.” One of his friends took him to a therapist to talk and alleviate the depression. “Depression can cause a lot of harm, some people even kill themselves. For me, I knew I could get over it. I have patience,” he shared.

 “The documentary basically talks about how I grew up and survived in the jungle; about how you can get over things, with the tough life that you have. I started here from zero and now I have a successful story,” Ghazwan explained.

The documentary also talks about Ghazwan coming out. He didn’t come out when he first arrived to the United States. “One day I looked online and I saw people getting killed because of their sexuality, so I thought it was time for someone to do something and step up and step out, so I said I am a gay man.” He began supporting the Middle Eastern LGBT community in the Bay Area by starting the group Asheq, which means “love” in Arabic. “I support them and do a lot of activities with them,” he shared. Every two months, they have a dance party with fun music and it helps them build the much needed sense of community and belonging.

Photo from www.frombaghdadtothebay.com

Ghazwan has been working for RAMS as the Chef at the Broderick Street Adult Residential Facility for just over a year now, and he loves it. Cooking is his passion. “It’s the easiest job I’ve ever done. I tell them all the time that I love it. I like the clients; the coworkers are amazing, and the staff.” He is also a party promoter and runs his own catering business called Plates.

What makes Ghazwan happiest in the Bay Area is that he gets to be himself. He said, “I’m being myself. I’m not lying to myself. I’m in San Francisco, and that’s really a nice place to stay. I’m working at RAMS and I’m happy here. I love cooking. It’s something to make me happy. They call me, even if I have a phone call at 5 a.m. or 4 a.m., I come here to see the clients/residents. Cooking makes me happy. When I wake up, I’m blessed, because I get to work on something that I love and I’m getting paid for it,” he said.

From Baghdad to The Bay has just launched its fundraising campaign on February 25th, in order to raise money for post-production. The trailer has been released, along with the link for the donation page. The campaign has match funding by Beacon, who is matching the first $10,000.

“We have been doing this for 8 years. It’s very stressing. When I see myself I’m like, ‘Wow!’ The trailer shows some dramatic things that have happened to me, but I’m survivor. I’m happy and healthy.”

When asked about his future, Ghazwan said, “My goal is to have my own restaurant, and to see my son, who is in the United Kingdom, with my ex-wife.” Ghazwan has been on competitive cooking shows three times, including Guy’s Grocery Games on the Food Network and a show called Food Chain. “I’m still trying to [get on the] show Chopped. If I win the money, I’m going to see my son.”

For more information about the film and to donate, please visit:
www.frombaghdadtothebay.com
www.facebook.com/frombaghdadtothebay
https://twitter.com/baghdadtothebay   #TellGhazwansStory


From Baghdad to The Bay Teaser from Erin Palmquist on Vimeo.

RAMS is honored to receive the 2015 Grant from The Sophia Mirviss Memorial Fund

This summer, the Child, Youth, and Family Program at RAMS, Inc. was awarded a grant from the Sophia Mirviss Fund. The Fund was established in 1957 to honor Sophia Mirviss, M.D., a child analyst and pioneer in bringing psychoanalytic thought and practice to everyone who worked with children. She was particularly dedicated to reaching out to those who worked with children from economically disadvantaged communities.

Our grant proposal was to explore how to bring psychoanalytic ideas to work with children in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). RAMS clinicians are involved in the SOAR (Success, Opportunity, Achievement, Resiliency) Academy program, a classroom for students with severe emotional needs. Additional support, including on-site mental health services, and resources are provided with the goal of helping these students be able to return to a regular classroom. There are myriad challenges to a traditional therapeutic model in this setting. Students often have mixed feelings about being in the program in general, much less in therapy. Teachers tend to prioritize education. The schools themselves are not set up to promote a confidential, self-enclosed space to explore internal worlds.

We applied for the grant in order to provide a space for our clinicians to grapple with the challenges to the model, and to consider what psychoanalysis can contribute to clinical work in a school.

Once we were awarded the grant, the first task was to find a consultant who would be a good fit for the project we had proposed.  We were fortunate to find Audrey Dunn, LCSW, a proverbial needle in a haystack.  She has both provided mental health services in various collaborations with San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) for decades (in an adolescent day treatment program, on-site at middle school, etc.) and is actively involved in the psychoanalytic community.

We began the program in September, two monthly meetings held throughout the school year (Sept 2015- June 2016):  a reading group facilitated by the project coordinator and a consultation group.  Dr. Loong Kwok, a supervising psychologist who is part of the CYF team at RAMS, assigns readings in advance of his group (with input from Ms. Dunn based on what comes up in the consultation group) and discusses the readings with the clinicians.  Ms. Dunn provides a space for the clinicians to apply the readings to their experiences of running groups in the SOAR Academy classrooms and have clinical discussions with their colleagues.

Clinicians participating in the training series have observed that they are incorporating the ideas they’ve been reading when running the groups.  In addition to attending to behaviors, they  have also been paying attention to how the individuals interact with each other in the therapy group, and how the group itself fits into the school.  We have come up with some answers to specific questions about how to incorporate psychoanalytic approaches to our school-based groups. We are still working on joining these together into a cohesive plan. In the coming months, we will be considering the specific contributions of ethnicity and trauma in this work. By this summer, we believe that we can create a list of questions that need to be answered as we continue group therapy within the school system, and a list of preliminary answers.

Photo credit - Noel Z Gondek on Flickr

RAMS co-presenting at CAAMFest 2016

RAMS will be co-presenting a feature film, Please Remember Me, at CAAMFest 2016, held by Center for Asian American Media.

Please Remember Me

Octogenarian couple Feng and Lou have been married and inseparable for over 40 years. Ever since Lou was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Feng has utterly dedicated himself to her care. As he witnesses his wife’s mental decline and his own propensity to illness, Feng considers moving them to a nursing home — much to his wife’s disapproving bewilderment. How does one manage the care of an ailing life partner, all while dealing with the intractable march of old age?
Executive produced by award-winning filmmaker Ruby Yang (MY VOICE, MY LIFE, CAAMFest 2015), PLEASE REMEMBER ME is a tender portrait of a longtime couple who, like many elderly Chinese today, live alone as their children have settled overseas. Director Zhao Qing follows her great-uncle and -aunt over three years as Feng works pragmatically to remedy his beloved wife’s increasing dependence and loss of memory. Told with great tenderness and sensitivity, this documentary evokes the importance of personal histories and pays tribute to navigating the joys and troubles of old age with quiet courage, love and dignity.
— Chanel Kong

RAMS will be co-presenting the screening to be held on Saturday, March 12th at 1:00PM, at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 2550 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94110.

Click HERE for info & to purchase tickets.

Click HERE to read about the true-life love story behind the film, described by the filmmaker as a "story about memory, love, and dignity".

Please join us at the screening and the following discussion, and check out the exciting line-up of events in this 11 day celebration of film, music, and food! CAAMFest 2016 runs from March 10-20. We hope to see you there!

Peer Specialist Mental Health Certificate -- Now Accepting Applications for Spring 2016 Peer Specialist Mental Health Certificate Entry Course

RAMS, in collaboration with San Francisco State University (SFSU) Department of Counseling, is excited to announce that the Peer Specialist Mental Health Certificate Program is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2016 Peer Specialist Mental Health Certificate Entry Course!

Funded by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), the Peer Specialist Mental Health Certificate Entry Course provides a 12-week long training for consumers of behavioral health services or their family members who are interested in becoming peer counselors/peer specialists in the field of community behavioral health. Having already successfully completed 11 cohort cycles, this course has had 150 graduates, the majority of whom are actively engaging in work, volunteer, and educational opportunities as a direct result of taking the course. This program is free of cost for the attendee, with books and materials included, and a modest stipend is provided upon completion of the course.

We are looking for individuals who:
• are at least 18 years old residents of San Francisco
• have completed at least a high school level education or GED
• are current or past consumers of behavioral health services and/or family members of consumers
• are interested in helping others in the community behavioral health setting

Application and course timeline is as follows:
• Thursday, January 14th - Application Release (click HERE for the application)
• Wednesday, January 27th & Monday, February 1st 10am-12pm - Optional Informational Open Houses (see FLYER HERE for details)
• Friday, February 19th @ 5:00pm - Application Deadline 
• Week of March 1st - Notification of Application Status
• Friday, March 11th - Registration Forms Due for Accepted Applicants
• Tuesday, March 22nd – First Day of Class
• Thursday, June 9th - Graduation Ceremony

Please feel free to contact us at (415) 579-3021 x102 or certificate@ramsinc.org should you have any questions. Materials are also available for download at: http://www.ramsinc.org/peer.php.

We look forward to receiving applications for the Spring 2016 class, and beginning another great cohort!

To view the flyers below, right-click and select any option to "Open".

How to Raise Independent Children with Great Social Emotional Skills

Today's guest post is from Yi Zhao, LMFT, who serves as Mental Health Consultant at the RAMS Fu Yau Project which provides prevention and early intervention mental health services to the family resource centers and childcare community that cares for children, ages 0-5 years old.

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The book “How to Raise Independent Children with Great Social Emotional Skills” was born on SF MUNI. I was approached by a publisher in China to write a parenting book to address the concerns by Chinese parents— young children nowadays are very dependent and have poor social skills. Over the past four-years at RAMS Fu Yau Project, I have been working with young children in Chinatown and having weekly conversation with my mentor, Christina Shea, LMFT (RAMS Deputy Chief and Director of Clinical Services) about parenting, early childhood education, immigration and acculturation.

Thanks to these inspiring conversation and the precious experiences of working with young children and their families provided by Fu Yau Project, I actually have a lot to think, process, talk about and write about. Somehow, I am very productive when I am in movement, maybe because of my educational background in Somatic Psychology, so writing on the go- on MUNI- became my hobby. What I wrote, I believe many of my RAMS colleagues know very well, so in a sense, I am writing down the collective wisdom of Fu Yau Project. I also integrated Drama therapy, Play therapy, Somatic Psychotherapy, Expressive Art therapy, and Mindfulness practice into my writing. To me, the process of writing this book, is an embodied process. This book is written in simplified Chinese. I welcome critiques and reviews. You can feel free to purchase the book and/or share your comments on Amazon.com.cn and Dangdang.com. Thank you!

-Yi Zhao, MA, LMFT