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Organization aims to help behavioral health network building in the CNMI
The importance of providing a stable network for behavioral health was one of the main topics during a counseling retreat at the Center for Living Independently last Aug. 28.
Dr. Jeremy Richards, a psychiatrist who is part of the Chalan Hinemlu, briefs conference participants on the importance of providing a stable network for behavioral health. (Contributed Photo)
Dr. Jeremy Richards, a psychiatrist who is part of the Chalan Hinemlu (Healing Pathways) organization, discussed with CLI employees and their patients that developing a behavioral health network in the CNMI is needed.
Chalan Hinemlu is a non-government organization that aims to build a grassroots behavioral health network in the CNMI by developing community integrated behavioral health systems and linking to local systems already here in the CNMI.
Richards said that global partners can help create a sustainable system and partnership with specialists, program developers, and education centers, among others, for peer support.
“The conference was about safe harbor, which we try to reach out to patients with behavioral needs and it is part of the safety and emergency for chronic stress that people are exposed to,” said Richards, a former psychiatrist with the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Community Guidance Center.
“Especially if you have low funding and resources. A lot of these programs are kind of learning as they go and they don’t have a lot of the tools to prevent some of the stress and the training programs really emphasizes the need for this kind of programs,” he added.
Due to lack of resources for small programs such as CLI, psychiatrist, specialists, social workers, and any peer support specialist are sometimes unaffordable.
“We can help them develop programs and help direct them to talk to the parent organization that they came from. The idea for a safe harbor is to start a dialogue to reach out on peer counseling. We’re trying to work with the communities, something we’re developing as a way to address behavioral health concerns,” Richards said.
“With this we can find funding for programs and create a stable behavioral health network here on the CNMI,” he added.
The benefits of preventing and overcoming mental and substance use disorders are significant and valuable to individuals, families, and the CNMI community.
