Ohana providing new mental health resources for Monterey County youth and families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Monica Sciuto (831) 622-2756
Communication and Marketing: (831) 625-4505
Ohana is building healthier communities and brighter futures for youth with innovative mental health resources including free in-person and online classes, resources, and a comprehensive new website.
MONTEREY, CA. — As Mental Health Awareness Month wraps-up, Ohana, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula’s center for adolescent and child mental health, announced the launch of a comprehensive new website and online classes with key mental health resources, tips, and tools. These free classes and helpful resources are designed to help Monterey County youth and families improve their mental health and help promote social, emotional, and cognitive well-being to develop our youth’s minds to be mentally fit for the future.
The online and in-person classes, which can be found at montagehealth.org/ohanaclasses, aim to help youth and families build mental fitness through topics including Family Nutrition for Mental Health, Healthy Habits for Mental Fitness, Raising Resilient Children, and Building Mental Fitness During Pregnancy.
Ohana’s new website also offers a vast library of online mental health resources with article topics ranging from preventing youth alcohol and drug use, supporting children’s emotional development, relaxing and recharging for mental fitness, and raising resilient teens. These resources can be found at montagehealth.org/ohana.
With one in five young people in the United States suffering from some form of mental health disorder, many Monterey County families are in distress with no place to turn — a crisis compounded by a lack of quality, affordable, and accessible mental health resources. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that in 2021, 42 percent of U.S. high schoolers experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, while 22 percent seriously considered attempting suicide — the highest levels ever recorded.
Ohana operates on the belief that mental illness is always treatable and can often be prevented. Putting prevention into practice, Ohana partners with schools and educators, pediatricians, and parent groups throughout the community, teaching families and teachers to recognize the early warning signs of mental health challenges before they develop into a crisis by providing compassionate guidance for raising emotionally healthy, resilient children.
"The Ohana model is about providing families with mental health treatment, resources, and support that is tailored to their specific needs. We're meeting families where they are and standing with them through every step of their mental fitness journey," said Dr. Susan Swick, Executive Director of Ohana.
Coming this fall, Ohana will open a new campus, designed to provide a calming, supportive environment to help young people and their families feel safe, welcome, and comfortable, and will provide outpatient mental health services, crisis support, group and individual counseling, a family resource center, and in-person community workshops, among many other features. A residential program will open at the facility in early 2024.
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ABOUT OHANA
Ohana is a child, adolescent, and family psychiatry program of Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Created in 2018 after a landmark gift from Bertie Bialek Elliott, Ohana’s vision is to create a community in which every child can flourish because they and their families have the knowledge, skills and support they need in order to grow into healthy and resilient adults. Ohana, a Hawaiian word, meaning family, is a family-centered program that provides access to high-quality diagnostic and evidence-based treatments for youth who are experiencing mental illness and focuses on helping youth and families develop mental health to prevent illnesses before they start.
ABOUT COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF THE MONTEREY PENINSULA
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, established in 1934, has grown and evolved in direct response to the changing healthcare needs of the people it serves. Its parent company is Montage Health, the umbrella for entities that work together to deliver exceptional care and inspire the pursuit of optimal health. Community Hospital is a nonprofit healthcare provider with 220 staffed acute-care hospital beds and 28 skilled-nursing beds, delivering a continuum of care from birth to end of life, and every stage in between. It serves the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding communities through locations including the main hospital, outpatient facilities, satellite laboratories, a mental health clinic, a short-term skilled nursing facility (Westland House), Hospice of the Central Coast, Montage Wellness Centers, and business offices. Find more information about Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula at chomp.org.
ABOUT MONTAGE HEALTH
Montage Health is the nonprofit parent company of a family of organizations dedicated to improving lives by delivering exceptional care and inspiring the pursuit of optimal health. Through its subsidiaries and its partnerships with doctors and other clinicians, healthcare and community organizations, and, most importantly community members, Montage Health is dedicated to care that is coordinated across all care settings to meet each person’s goals and needs. Montage Health’s family of companies includes Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Montage Medical Group, MoGo Urgent Care, Aspire Health, Montage Health Foundation, and Montage Wellness Center.
