Counseling & Mental Health
“It was one of my worst times,” says Gloria (identities changed for privacy). The interview takes place in the dining room of her small, freestanding home. There are signs of love all around—lots of green plants in the windows—but dust piles on the flat surfaces, and the curtains are faded. We are talking about when she finally fought free from addiction to pain medicine. (This interview occurred pre-COVID-19; at the end we share how Gloria is faring during the pandemic.)
“With the decision to move to working from home, we only had a short amount of time to change how we deliver counseling services,” said Leslie Brody in regards to Jewish Family Service’s COVID-19 response. “Overnight we had to pivot to phone counseling with most clients, and audio/visual telemedicine for those clients who had access to the technology.”
Brody is the Director of Care Management and Counseling & Crisis Intervention at JFS.
When Barry Strum’s children were little, he didn’t spend much time thinking about his family lineage or his Jewish legacy. However, he does remember one day, in particular, when the strong familial connection from his father, Benjamin Strum, to his son, Benjamin Strum, came through in a profound way. Like any memory, it would come to soften and lose clarity with time. That is, until years later, when the younger Benjamin unexpectedly died in his sleep at the age of 38, and that day from decades
Cincinnati, OH: A new women’s group, designed to empower women and their families who experience mental health issues, held their kick-off event on Tuesday, July 9th at the home of Arna Poupko Fisher. Chaya Spetner, of Cincinnati, created Tikvaseinu (which means “hopeful”) to provide a forum for women in the Cincinnati Jewish Community to discuss mental health and how it affects them and their loved ones. The goal for this first event was to learn about and explore mental health awareness...