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4 Bullycide: Cyberbullying Epidemic

CONTACT Listens Launches

Volunteer of the Month

sync. Leadership Program

Suicide: An Act of Communicati on

Speaker Series- Dr. Cooper

Breaking Point To Turning Point June 2010

States are facing record budget shortf alls in 2010 and with a budget defi cit well over one billion dollars, Texas is no excepti on. No one denies that hard choices must be made and programs, expanded under economic boom ti mes, cut back. Unfortunately, it seems that mental health care may be headed for the chopping block.

Historically, Texas has suff ered from an underfunded, overburdened mental health system. In 2006, the Kaiser Family Foundati on released a study which ranked Texas 50th in per capita spending on mental health care. Texas spends only $34.57 per person on mental health care; well below the nati onal average of $103.53.

According to the Austi n-American Statesman, in 2003 Texas legislators set out to revamp the mental health system by standardizing care and “triaging” treatment, focusing on those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. Individuals suff ering from diff erent, but equally severe illnesses, such as post traumati c stress disorder were oft en denied treatment.

These measures have also caused waiti ng lists to skyrocket, with nearly 7,000 individuals currently waiti ng

for treatment. Additi onally, reports of individuals being dropped from the program for missing an appointment, even in cases of emergencies, have become common.

Though Texas has recently infused the mental health system with $55 million in emergency funds, this is only a drop in the bucket for a state of over 24 million people.

Like most health care, mental health care can be prohibiti vely expensive.

According to the Nati onal Mental Health Informati on Center, “The high cost of health care makes treatment out of reach for many people. Those who do not have health insurance

— more than 38 million Americans — oft en avoid treatment enti rely, because

costs can be staggering.” Many insurance plans off er only limited or no coverage for mental health care.

With so many individuals unable to access care, nonprofi ts are being forced to fi ll the gaps. In 2009 alone, CONTACT advised nearly 6,000 individuals on mental illness concerns. We conti nue to strive to fi ll a gap which is only expanding.

Filling the Gap:Supporting Texas Mental Health By: Amy Nelson

Executi ve Administrati ve Assistant

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Page 2 www.contactcrisisline.org

CONTACT Listens, an innovati ve fundraising and awareness campaign, has launched at www.contactlistens.org!

Everyone can get involved with CONTACT Listens. This is a great opportunity to become an advocate for CONTACT by creati ng a personalized page, setti ng a fundraising goal and encouraging others to donate to your cause. Supporti ng CONTACT has never been easier, as we are deploying new technology to help you reach out to friends, family and your social network.

The fi rst $4,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to generous donati ons from Stacye and Mike McIntyre, CONTACT Connecti on and Robert Pollock.

We need your help to reach our goals of:• Raising $ 20,000 to help support our essenti al Crisis Help Line

program• Spreading awareness of CONTACT’s vital services to the

community• Uti lizing social networking (Facebook, Twitt er, Stumble, etc) to

share the CONTACT story

You can help us by:• Setti ng up a CONTACT Advocacy page.

Visit www.contactlistens.org/becomeAdvocate.html to sign-up and create a personalized page. You can also allow others to read about how their donati on will help, learn more about CONTACT, and make a gift . When one of your friends makes a donati on on your personalized page, you will receive an e-mail noti ce of their contributi on. It is so easy! Sign-up now.

• Spread the Word.Help raise awareness of the CONTACT Listens campaign. Email friends, post updates about CONTACT Listens on Facebook, Twitt er and just talk about CONTACT Listens.

• Forward CONTACT Listens details to 10 of your friends today!

CONTACT Listens Launches

• Visit www.contactlistens.org

• Set up a personalized advocacy page in just one minute

• Link your page to your social networks (Facebook, Twitt er, etc)

• Set a fund raising goal as litt le as $100

• Support CONTACT with a donati on as small as $10

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Volunteer of the Month

Virginia Clarke is someone who is familiar with tragedy. Widowed twice, in March 2006 Virginia also lost her sister aft er her three year batt le with breast cancer. While others might have been defeated by these loses, it only made Virginia want to help others more. She began reaching out. “I was searching

for somewhere with substance to volunteer for,” says Virginia, “and I have found that with CONTACT.” She has been volunteering at CONTACT since 2007.

Virginia says the most rewarding part of volunteering at CONTACT is the knowledge that, at the end of the day, she has helped someone. She also credits Thomas Hutt er, director of volunteer services, and Marco Galvan, call center manager, as a huge infl uence on her. “CONTACT is a great organizati on and it has given me such joy to volunteer here,” says Virginia.

For Virginia, like many of our volunteers, the most challenging part of volunteering on the crisis line is not counseling. CONTACT uses an acti ve listening model. Referrals may be off ered but volunteers refrain from pushing a specifi c course of acti on. This leads callers

to come to their own resoluti ons and provides both ownership and empowerment.

However, listening by itself is powerful tool. When a caller is “hurti ng and in crisis,” says Virginia “and he knows I’m listening and I care, I’m aware of his mood changing. When he sincerely thanks me for taking the ti me to hear him, it’s very rewarding.”

Listening is powerful away from the crisis lines as well. In 2007 Virginia’s brother was diagnosed with a rare and

deadly form of Merkel cell cancer. Virginia talked every day with her brother about the wonderful life they had. When he died on January 6, 2008, Virginia says she “promised him his legacy would be a fund established with Dr. Anderson for research.” She is also helping with the crisis line funding.

Virginia has received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for 100

hours or more of service in a year four ti mes. Outside of CONTACT, Virginia has also served on Ursuline’s board of governors and on the Dallas Athleti c Country Club’s board of directors, and volunteered with Cub Scouts and Camp Fire Girls.

She enjoys traveling and has been to no less than 28 countries and fi ve conti nents. History is Virginia’s passion and she hopes to eventually move to her family’s farm in historic King William County, Virginia.

“I was searching for somewhere

with substance to volunteer for and I

have found that with CONTACT.”

Page 4 www.contactcrisisline.org

March and April became known as the cyberbullying and bullycides months due to the amount of media exposure about teens bullying other teens online and at school, which resulted for many in death.

As a response to the media and local bullycide tragedies, the Teen CONTACT Program and Bully Suicide Project joined together to create a Bullying Coaliti on. We invited others agencies and coaliti ons, such as Dallas ISD, Youth First Texas, and I AM H.E.R.E Coaliti on, to help build a solid defense and support for teenagers and their families as they batt le online and school yard bullying. The goal is to raise the social awareness against bullying, cyber-bullying and to equip parents, schools and students to stop all sorts of violence and harassment. The Bullying Coaliti on will also promote advocacy for stricter and stronger laws on bullying, bullycide, and cyberbullying in the state of Texas. According to Bullypolice.org, Texas has a grade of a “C-” for bullying which is well below the organizati on’s recommended grade.

Aft er a few meeti ngs, the committ ee for the Bullying Coaliti on brainstormed on ten proacti ve guidelines for parents as they monitor and support their children online and at school. The fi nal ten guidelines are listed below:

1. Set Google or Bing alerts for your child’s name; that way you will know immediately what is being said about him or her by others.

2. Tell your kids that technology is a privilege, not a right. If they do not use it ethically, there are consequences.

3. Put your computer in a viewable public place. Check the history regularly to see what sites your child is visiti ng.

4. Know your child’s password to his or her social networking sites and check it regularly.

5. Say “No” to Formspring and other applicati ons that allow anonymous posti ng. Remind your kids that the internet is a worldwide billboard and they should never post anything that they would not want a college recruiter or future employer to see.

6. Know the terms and conditi ons of the websites and social media your kids regularly use, e.g.,

MySpace, Facebook, Twitt er. Report any att acks immediately as these sites will shut down perpetrators’ accounts if they know individuals are being harassed.

7. Know the terms and conditi ons of your cell phone provider and monitor your child’s text and data usage. If they abuse it, disconti nue service.

8. Know the laws in your state as they relate to cyberbullying and your local school district’s policy on bullying and cyberbullying. (Bullypolice.org)

9. Talk to your kids about the dangers of sharing personal informati on on their social media sites. The more informati on available, the more your child can become a victi m or a potenti al predator.

10. Treat others the way you want others to treat you. Report abuse to a parent or trusted adult.

For more informati on on this subject:

• Bully Suicide Project.com• Teen CONTACT at Facebook.com/TeenCONTACT• Bullypolice.org

Bullycide: Cyberbullying Epidemic

By: Missy Wall, M.Div., MSWDirector, Teen CONTACT Program

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sync. 2010 “Stand Up, Speak Out!”

The 2010 sync. leadership program’s theme is “STAND UP, SPEAK OUT”. We want to educate our sync. students about, among other topics, cyberbullying, bullycide, violence in relati onships, and phone safety. We want these students to be ambassadors for the Teen CONTACT program by standing up for what they believe and speaking out about these topics.

We hope to have ti me every day to allow students to think creati vely about bullying, dati ng violence, suicide, healthy friendships, and career and high school plans. Each small group will be divided according to how students best express themselves: art, rap, poetry, acti ng, singing, reading, photography, and/or video. We hope to use these student projects to help create awareness for these topics as well as for our Teen CONTACT program at CONTACT.

Date:

The 2nd Annual sync. summer leadership program is just around the corner.

We kick off Monday, June 7, with a parent orientati on meeti ng from 5:30-7:30 PM.

The high school week (*9-12 grade students only, 2009-2010 school year status) starts:

Tuesday, June 8 – Friday, June 11; 12:00-4:30 PM each day.

The following week will focus on middle school students (*7-8 grade students only, 2009-2010 school year status).

Monday, June 14- Thursday, June 17; 12:00-4:30 PM.

High school students who parti cipate in the program will have the opportunity to volunteer as mentors during the middle school week.

We will wrap up with a family celebrati on, Friday, June 18, from 5:30-8:00 PM.

Both high school and middle school groups and your families!

Locati on:

Life in Deep Ellum (Mokah Coff ee Bar) 2803 Taylor St. Dallas, TX 75226

Map:

htt p://www.mokahcoff eebar.com/

(go to left bott om corner of website)

Thank You Maverick Capital

April

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Page 6 www.contactcrisisline.org

Our crisis line specialist volunteers are confronted with every manner of confl ict, but one of the more intense will be the suicidal crisis. A suicide call has commonaliti es with all crises, and is explored in much the same way. The focus—suicidal ambivalence—is more obvious than the focus in many other calls, and the assessment of lethality and probability of att empt give you explicit areas for explorati on that are unique to suicide calls. The central issue of suicide—death—arouses more fear, more confusion, and a stronger sense of responsibility, than does any other type of problem call. For this reason, we single it out for special att enti on.

One fact that is easy to overlook is that suicide is an alternati ve, a way of coping, and is available to each of us every day. Most of us do not make a conscious decision each morning to conti nue to live, but the person in a suicidal crisis must do exactly that. Suicide as an alternati ve must be explored as an alternati ve, a decision that can be reached logically. A strong moralisti c sense of responsibility oft en leads volunteers to explore living as THE ONLY alternati ve, ignoring death in the suicidal crisis. A desire to both live and die exists in a caller. This is the heart of suicidal ambivalence. Let us explore further our inability to accept death as an alternati ve one can pursue, and then we will see how anyone may arrive at such a crisis point in his life.

Imagine for a moment that you are intensely depressed and have lost all moti vati on for conti nuing in your daily routi ne. For a fl eeti ng moment you think, “it would be nice to go to sleep and not wake up tomorrow.” At fi rst, you dismiss the idea, but as your depression conti nues, the thought persists, and the att racti veness of anything that would ease your pain becomes an all-consuming fantasy. You reach the point where you reason “the pain in my body is so intense that the only way to rid myself of it is to kill my body.” You may even rati onalize that decision by observing that you are already emoti onally “dead.” Your depression prohibits you from responding to others who are meaningful to you. Therefore, suicide IS a viable alternati ve because the desired goal—removal of pain—would be accomplished.

Finally, you have approached the breaking point. You try to overcome your distorted percepti on in order to approach

someone for help. Turn to one person and you may get moralizing—that to take one’s own life is to become subject to eternal damnati on. Turn to a loved one and you receive a fear response and pleading—“Don’t do it, you have so much to live for!” Drop hints to others and you may fi nd your messages ignored or rebuff ed. Their message is clear in all cases—“It is not okay to kill yourself.” Also, “it is not okay to TALK about suicide.” Thus, even thinking about self-destructi on must be wrong and to do so is a sign of weakness, which is exactly how you already see yourself. Your distorted percepti on of yourself has been confi rmed by those closest to you, and you are logically left to believe that “nobody cares” and “nobody will miss me when I’m gone.” If someone stops you or responds to your clues, then someone cares and your faith is rekindled; if no response is received and you complete the suicide, your pain is gone and you are not around to know whether your

percepti ons were correct or not.

This scenario is very real and tells us a great deal about suicidal behavior. Most importantly, the overwhelming majority of people contemplati ng suicide give clues about their intenti ons which oft en go unnoti ced or ignored. Secondly, the suicidal person can be helped because of his moti vati on to seek help, which is born of the intense life/death struggle that is the core of the suicidal crisis. Thirdly, the process one goes through to reach the point of despair is characterized by distorted percepti ons and distorted logic, but to the person in crisis it is real. Lastly, the need to talk about suicide is criti cal

because to discourage talking is to confi rm the person’s “bad” feelings about himself. His subsequent anger and guilt may not fi nd expression except through the suicidal act. Thus, crisis interventi on can provide the non-judgmental atmosphere in which the aspects of a very intense crisis can be explored and resolved.

As stated earlier, when suicidal clues are ignored or condemned, the suicidal gesture becomes both a statement of anguish, anger or despair and an att empt to eliminate those feelings. In emphasizing the communicati on aspect of suicide, we do not minimize the seriousness of anyone’s suicidal intent. People who verbalize suicidal intenti ons are choosing an alternati ve form of communicati on that they hope will reduce their pain. This consti tutes the “cry for help” which allows us to intervene.

Suicide: An Act of Communication

Reprinted and Adapted from Baton Rouge Crisis Interventi on Center Arti cle

“Most importantly, the overwhelming majority of people

contemplati ng suicide give clues about their

intenti ons which oft en go unnoti ced or

ignored.”

Benaye Y. Rogers President

Deana AlbrechtDirector, Finance & Administrati on

Thomas Hutt erDirector, Volunteer Services

Bob MunroDirector, Development

Missy Wall, M.Div., MSWDirector, Teen CONTACT Program

Carol CasmusGrants & Development Associate

Maria EspinosaMarketi ng & Public Relati ons Manager

Marco GalvanCall Center Manager

Alex GarciaAssistant Director,

Teen CONTACT Program

Lynda LinebargerVolunteer Training Coordinator

Amy Nelson Executi ve Administrati ve Assistant

Staff

Page 7www.contactcrisisline.org

AlbertsonsUse the temporary scan card below the next ti me you shop. Contact Bob Munro at 972-233-0866 for a permanent card.

CONTACT HAS SCAN CARD

KrogerPresent the below barcode the next ti me you shop along with your Kroger Plus card.

SCAN IT ONCE

Tom ThumbLink CONTACT to your Tom Thumb Rewards card by completi ng the Good Neighbor form below. Return the card to CONTACT offi ce or Tom Thumb Service Desk.

12011

Tom Thumb, Kroger and Albertsons will all donate to CONTACT through their individual Neighbors Partner Programs. It is easy,

free and a great way to raise additi onal funds for CONTACT.

Help Us GROW While You Shop

CONTACT is looking for runners to race the Dallas White Rock Marathon on December 5, 2010. We need your help to raise funds and spread awareness of CONTACT’s vitals programs and services.

Be part of a marathon with a cause and join us as a runner, a volunteer, a corporate sponsor, or a corporate relay team!

For more informati on contact Bob Munro at 972-233-0866 ext. 312 or bmunro@contactcrisisline.org

Run to Erase the Silence of Depression

Don’t Forget What The Doctor Said…

CONTACT was proud to kick-off the 2010 Speaker Series: From Breaking Point to Turning Point, with feature speaker Dr. Kenneth Cooper in, Connecti ng the Dots: Physical and Mental Health.

Dr. Kenneth Cooper not only proved to be proof of his teaching, but an inspirati onal and moti vati onal presenter. The one hour lunch presentati on held at the Cooper Guest Lodge on Tuesday, May 18 was truly an eye-opening experience on living longer and healthier!

Special thanks to Dr. Kenneth Cooper and The Cooper Aerobics Center.

Doctor’s Orders:

• Take daily multi vitamins containing 2,000 IU vitamin D

• Or, a standalone 1,000 IU vitamin D tablet

• Suggested daily Healthy Body Vitamin Pack, the pack is a canister of 30 individually wrapped packets of daily multi vitamin and mineral supplement (containing 2,000 IU vitamin D) plus 2 advanced omega-3 fatt y acids (fi sh oil)

2010 Speaker Series SponsorsPRESENTING Dr. Kenneth Cooper The Cooper Aerobics Center

SPONSORSCONTACT Connecti onCONTACT Presidents ClubCarol and Jeff HellerThe Hersh Foundati onLaura J. MinafeeErrika Flood-MoultrieSusan Odom

Making CONTACT is published monthly for volunteers, board members and other supporters of CONTACT.

Your efforts have enabled our agency to be the empowering link for Greater Dallas since 1967. Nearly 42,000 people reach out for our help

each year.

2010 Telephone Volunteer Training Course Schedule

If you know anyone who might be interested in volunteering, please have them contact us!

From Breaking Point to Turning Point

From Breaking Point to Turning Point

P.O. Box 800742Dallas, TX 75380-0742

CONTACT provides crisis prevention and resource services that are:

• 24/7• FREE• Confi dentialAdult Help Line

(972) 233-2233

Youth Help Line (972) 233-8336

Spanish Help Line972-233-2428Friday 6 - 10 pm

Saturday 11 am - 3 pm

Fall (September/October)Tuesday and Thursday Evenings6:30 - 9:30 PM 9/14, 9/16, 9/21, 9/23, 9/28, 9/30, 10/ 5, 10/7, 10/ 12

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