Mended #17
Oklahoma's Mental Health News Roundup 🚬 QUIT / 🗳️ VOTE / 👨⚕️IMMUNITY / 👧🏾 UPTICK / 🧠 2022 / 🚓 EMERGENCIES / 🤰 INCARCERATED
Our Wish for 2022…
🚬 It’s “OK To Quit” week in Oklahoma, a.k.a, a great time to stop smoking.
Excerpt: “Tobacco kills thousands of Oklahomans every year. In an effort to save lives, Gov. Kevin Stitt has declared Jan. 19-26, 2022 as Quit Week in Oklahoma. The decree kicks off OK to Quit, a campaign to help people quit using tobacco products. Dozens of hospitals, businesses and organizations across the state participate in the annual mission. Their goal is to make sure tobacco users know about the free resources available to help them quit.”
Continue reading on the Alliance’s Mental Health Blog.
🗳️ Annual Report Released by State Election Board Shows Increase in Voter Registration
Excerpt: “The Oklahoma State Election Board released its annual voter registration report today showing 2,218,374 Oklahomans are registered to vote. Oklahoma’s official voter registration statistics are counted every year on January 15.”
Continue reading on the Alliance’s Mental Health Blog.
📰 Editorial: Use surplus revenues to shore up mental health, education and other state services
Excerpt: “Lawmakers need to fully implement the provisions of State Questions 780 and 781. The savings realized through SQ 780 — criminal justice reforms that reclassified several nonviolent crimes as misdemeanors — need to be passed on as directed by SQ 781 so we can more adequately tackle mental health and substance abuse issues that weigh the state down.”
Continue reading in the Tulsa World.
👨⚕️ OU Health Chief COVID Officer: “Oklahoma is nowhere near herd immunity.”
Do the record-breaking numbers from the omicron variant mean Oklahoma might be headed for herd immunity?
One of the state’s top COVID-19 doctors says it’s doubtful.
Continue reading on KOCO-TV.
🧠 Column: Good mental health in 2022: This is how we do it
Excerpt: “This is the painful truth, and we must make good mental health a priority on the community, state and national levels, or the devastation will grow and intensify.”
Continue reading on the Norman Transcript.
👧🏾 Oklahoma psychiatrist warns of uptick in children suicide attempts during the continued COVID-19 pan
KFOR recently interviewed Oklahoma City psychiatrist Dr. Willis Hollway about the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and youth.
👮 Family Says Man Killed By Wagoner Authorities Struggled With Mental Illness
Excerpt: “She believes his death could have been avoided if her son could have been placed in a long-term mental hospital.”
Continue reading on Tulsa’s News 6 website.
🤰 Pregnant Women Facing Incarceration For Drug Abuse
“These misguided policies disproportionately target low-income women and women of Color, and women who represent communities with limited access to medical care, among other factors contributing to worse health outcomes of them and their children. Studies of drug use in pregnancy suggests that other issues—such as poverty, poor diet, and tobacco use—are at least as harmful as drug use itself.”
Continue reading on Addiction Center.
👩🌾 Grants for Oklahoma Farm Stress
“Life in agriculture is sometimes tough and isolating,” said Blayne Arthur, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture. “Producers are certainly some of the most resilient people, but natural disasters, disease, retailer demands, ceptions, and a seemingly growing list of other issues wears on everyone.”
⚖️ Bennie Edwards' family files federal lawsuit against Oklahoma City, officers over his shooting death
Edwards’ family says the officers used unnecessary force and did not offer any aid after they shot him. The family also says Edwards suffered from bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. They are now suing the city and the officers for $75,000.
🦠 OCPA: "Child Harm From COVID Shutdowns Evident in Suicide Data"
“In our hospital, we see suicidal teens every shift that we work,” said Robyn Cowperthwaite, chief of Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. “Now the pandemic has increased this problem pretty significantly…”
🚓 OKC’s New Plan For Mental Health Emergencies Still Includes Police
The new program, called Champions, aims to provide social services during a crisis rather than after-the-fact.
Continue reading on Oklahoma Watch.
🏛️ Deadlines & Commitments
No Name Calling Week
Before you attach a label to someone, ask yourself three things: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? If the answer to any of the three is NO then don't say it. #SafeToBe