MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN PASSAIC
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Mission Statement
The mission of the Mental Health Association in Passaic County is to serve children, adults and families affected by mental illness through support services, education, and advocacy. We are dedicated to increasing public awareness and understanding of mental health issues and enhancing mental health services in Passaic County.
About This Cause
The Mental Health Association in Passaic County strives to ensure that every person in Passaic County with a mental illness receives prompt and appropriate treatment in the most therapeutic, least restrictive setting that is closest to home. For the past MHAPC has assisted individuals with mental illness and their families develop skills, knowledge and awareness that helps them manage the challenges of mental illness. We have helped hundreds of people improve their lives by providing high quality, free services that restore order, wellness, and confidence to their lives through following services: The Outpatient Counseling Program provides comprehensive individual, couples, group and family therapy for adults, teenagers and children. Confidential, professional services are provided by licensed clinical professionals and supervised by a Board Certified Psychiatrist. We provide individual, group and family therapy services. We offer help for life’s challenges such as relationship issues, family conflict, couples issues, divorce, school or work issues, bereavement, behavioral issues with a child or teen, depression, anxiety, trauma and persistent mental illness. Services are available in English, Spanish, and Arabic. Caring for a person with a serious mental illness can be stressful and lonely. The Intensive Family Support Services provides support, education and advocacy services family members need to effectively cope. We educate them about their loved one’s particular mental illness, how to use the mental health system for support, and self- care techniques, including stress reduction and problem solving skills. Parents with mental illness face the same challenges that all parents face - housing, employment, money management, transportation, childcare and more. But parents with mental illness also have to deal with additional challenges – the daily characteristics of their illness, medication, hospitalization, the fear of loss of custody of their children, and the social isolation created by the stigma of mental illness. Through a unique partnership with St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center we have created the Family Advocates Program. We employ people who have a family member with mental illness to provide support to families whose loved ones are being screened at the psychiatric emergency room. When the parents become overwhelmed by challenges, their children suffer. The Consumer Parent Support Network reduces the risk of child abuse and neglect by providing services that support clients as parents and promotes the healthy functioning of their families. Mental illness can be a highly frustrating cause of social isolation, loneliness, and dependency. Our Peer Outreach Support Team and Community Advocate Program promotes independence by linking individuals with mental illness to mental health, medical, housing, employment, and self-help groups in the community. The employees are individuals who have a mental illness and who serve as mentors and peer counselors for adults with mental illness who do not have a strong support network in the community. Involuntary Outpatient Commitment is court ordered mental health monitoring, intensive case management and treatment for mental health consumers who have been resistant to and have had difficulty engaging in outpatient treatment. The goals are to insure that they are stay stable and in the community. Passaic County Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)- For the past 8 years, the Mental Health Association in Passaic County has spearheaded a task force of police officers and mental health professionals with the goal of bringing CIT to every municipal police department in Passaic County. So far, we have trained over 500 law enforcement officers in this 40 hour nationally recognized best practice model of police based crisis intervention with individuals with mental illness. MHAPC created the Clifton Stigma Free Task Force which is a coalition of concerned citizens, business leaders, local government, and school officials as working to build a community that supports training, education, and dialogue about mental illness. Among its many achievements has been to institute a mental health curriculum in all levels of public school, train community leaders in Mental Health First Aid, and to have the city and state governing bodies to pass resolutions creating Stigma Free Zones. MHAPC has an active Board of Directors which provides oversight to the policies and financial management of the organization. They also organize fundraising events and provide guidance to the Executive Director. Joanne Green, a licensed social worker, has been the Executive Director since 1995.