By Ginny Nyholm, Mental Health Outreach Coordinator
Happy New Year to you all! 2011 went and the New Year 2012 just came in front of us. Now, we have a clear slate to focus on the New Year!
For the month of December 2011, we were on a hiatus from the community education workshop for the deaf and hard of hearing community and the communication workshop for the parents. We distributed the Mental Health Outreach brochures at the local deaf and hard of hearing events such as the Deaf Pizza Night at Topper Pizza in Oxnard and the Deaf Coffee Night at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Ventura. At those events, people asked questions about what the Mental Health Outreach project and I provided the pertinent information from the brochures. They also gave great raves on the brochures which had very colorful backgrounds with relevant statistics and the pictures of the individuals signing the mental health words in American Sign Language (ASL).
On December 17, 2011, we had a successful run with our Mental Health Outreach project booth at Tri-County GLAD’s Holiday Party for the deaf and hard of hearing children and their families at the Oxnard Elks Lodge in Oxnard. We passed out the press releases, the brochures, and the flyer for the January 25, 2012 communication workshop’s featured presenter.
Speaking of the featured speaker for January 25, 2012, please come to the communication workshop from 6-8 pm in Room 123 at Camarillo Christian Church in Camarillo! The featured speaker will be Ms. Hayley Lemmer who is hard of hearing and works for the County of Ventura and the theme of her presentation is “Just One More Chance.” Spread the word to the other parents who will benefit from this presentation!
Life is full of surprises which can be bad or good. It comes with the stress which everyone goes through. Some of the people can deal with the stress in positive ways while the others cannot. Some of the warning signs and symptoms of stress can be recognized such as:
too much worrying
feeling overwhelmed
sense of loneliness and isolation
eating more or less
sleeping too much or too little
These signs and symptoms can be reduced with the help from therapy, medication, and/or a lifestyle change such as a strong support network, a keen sense of knowledge and preparation, and a positive attitude and outlook towards life.
Empower yourselves with a clean slate for 2012 --- Happy New Year!!!
