MHIAA ROC

08/16/2021

MHIAA is looking for a Social Media Administrator who can help us spread the word about MHIAA and other crisis response happenings/news in our community. Please send us a DM if you are interested in learning more about this!

07/07/2021

Reach Out Response Network, in collaboration with City of Toronto staff and community responder teams from Denver, Portland, Olympia, Rochester, and San Francisco, will be hosting a virtual panel discussion on Monday, July 12 from 5:30-7:30 pm, open to the general public, to discuss crisis response models across Canada and the US. Each team will present on their model, and then we'll have approximately 45 minutes of Q and A.
I have attached the poster publicizing the event, and here is the eventbrite link for folks to sign up: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/virtual-panel-discussion-tos-new-non-police-crisis-response-pilot-program-tickets-161536970427
Please feel free to sign up, and to share with your networks! Everyone is welcome to attend

Join our panel of local and international experts to learn more about non-police crisis responses from across North America!

06/30/2021

One of the organizations MHIAA is proud to be part of is the international mobile crisis team. We are learning what cities around North America are doing for emergency mental health. Many cities are doing a lot of mental health response WITHOUT police presence. We have a lot to learn Rochester.

06/30/2021

Check this latest development

A majority of Council members agreed to push on to the Court of Appeals.

06/28/2021

Check out this event hosted by PEEEEEK. Learn more at www.positivestepsny.com

06/22/2021

Today is the day Rochester! Get out there and VOTE! And don’t forget to make mental health support a priority on your ballot🙏🏾🖤

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06/21/2021

Tomorrow is Rochester’s election. We are looking at voting in those who are interested in changing the systems that are broken. Let’s rebuild them with the community of Rochester’s mental health in mind.

06/18/2021

Meet Vince. He’s a part of the MHIAA leadership team. He’s sharing more with you on what MHIAA is all about.

06/17/2021

Shared via Police Accountability Board Alliance the budget has been passed. This is the next battle.

06/15/2021

Check out this proposal for police reform. So needed and long overdue.

Requiring all police officers to have college degrees, a professional license and liability insurance are among the many innovative recommendations included in the comprehensive report.

06/11/2021

One of the organization that MHIAA is involved in is the PABA (Police Accountability Board Alliance). They put out this important information today. Scroll through these slides for city council members stance on the Police Accountability Board. Knowledge for this upcoming election. Follow here and on facebook for more detailed info.

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06/11/2021

Really important information from a group we support⬇️⬇️⬇️

06/09/2021

We are a grassroots group. We are all volunteering our time to make moves in the mental health community through this group. The members of MHIAA are mental health providers or mental health advocates in the Rochester community. Our only purpose here is mental health reform.

This group’s main function is supporting/offering clinical feedback to the following organizations:
👊🏾PABA (Police Accountability Board Alliance)
👊🏾PIC (Person In Crisis) Advisory Team
👊🏾PEEEEK (Breaking the stigma and silence in communities of color)
👊🏾International Crisis Team

06/07/2021

A mental health spin on voting. Who you vote for can have a big impact both for the good and for the harm of the Rochester community. Do your research on who supports emergency mental health response and mental health support!

05/27/2021

A mental health emergency deserves a mental health response. By mental health providers. Make sense right?

RPD has been responding to mental health calls until our community demanded change. We have a long way to go still. The Person In Crisis (PIC) team needs more independence. Less police responding with them. More funding. More supervision for their clinicians. And more clinicians on the team to respond to the citizens of Rochester in mental health crisis. We will celebrate these wins but we will not settle for less than the Rochester community deserves.

Remember if you have feedback for the PIC team please email: [email protected] Your feedback is going to make the change. If you don’t feel safe doing so, you can DM us here. We are collecting responses and passing them on anonymously to the PIC team.

05/25/2021

Mental health is part of your overall health. It needs time and attention and care, just like your body. Why is a mental health crisis being treated like a crime when it’s another aspect of health? Rochester continues to see those in mental health crisis being treated like they are criminals. It’s leading to fear, isolation, and not getting help. We need to start treating mental health like a part of our full body health. And just like we need doctors to attend to our medical emergencies, we need mental health providers to attend to mental health emergencies.

05/24/2021

We fully support the efforts of Rochester’s Police Accountability Board (PAB). This is a long overdue change to the system and it needs our support. We wanted to amplify what’s happening with the PAB by sharing some of their latest challenges. Check out what they said below and follow along with them here on IG and they’re over on facebook too.

- The PAB is looking to hire a highly qualified and experienced local Black woman to run its communications and engagement work
- The City of Rochester will not currently meet the PAB's requests for a competitive salary of $86,000 that meets that level of experience and is instead settling for $69,000 which is substantially below market rate
- The City currently pays other current senior-level mid-career comms employees (who are not black women) MORE than what the PAB is requesting for their one position

- Whether it is through the refusal to give the PAB hiring authority, provide PAB with internal police documents, allow PAB to attend RPD trainings, or respond quickly to PAB requests for help, the PAB's work is being obstructed.
- The City can fix this by (1) hiring the PAB’s candidate at the requested salary point; (2) changing City hiring rules to ensure equal pay and erase priority towards prior pay and (3) allowing PAB to act as an autonomous entity within City government, free from obstruction and micromanagement and with the FULL budget requested and demanded by both the PAB and Alliance member organizations.

05/18/2021

MHIAA believes that change is going to come from dismantling the system. The police system is built on oppressing black and brown bodies. That’s why it was created and that is what it is still doing. Our city lost another life at the hands of this system: Mark Gaskill.
We know we need change. We know change is not going to come easy. But what we’re doing now? The systems we hae were designed to oppress black bodies. Lives continue to be lost with this system. Particularly black lives. We’ve got to try something different. And we believe it comes with bringing the whole system down and starting again. We will continue to say, black lives still matter. And we will continue to talk about this, advocate for this, show up with our voices, our dollars, our votes until we see the change our community deserves🖤

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05/13/2021

CALL TO ACTION! We do not want police at mental health calls. We know that police escalate tension. There is no trust between the Rochester community and police. WHY are police coming to mental health calls with the Person In Crisis (PIC) team? This is not what this team was intended to be and the leadership of PIC does not want police coming along with them. We are up against another form of government called RPD. They have a lot of power. They are fighting mental health tooth and nail. They are trying to turn the Person In Crisis team into a co-response model where police come with the mental health team on EVERY mental health call. This is not what we want. This is not what the community wants. This will not keep those in crisis safe.

Tell YOUR story. EMAIL THEM. BLOW IT UP. Let them know you do not want a co-response model. You want mental health providers at mental health calls NOT police. Take action now. Email: [email protected]

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05/11/2021

The mental health of black children matters. And again, matters is the bare minimum. We will not forget the 9 year old CHILD who was handcuffed and pepper sprayed by the RPD this February. We wanted to share numbers to call in a child’s mental health crisis that are not 911. The children of Rochester deserve better and we want more for their mental health. Please save and share this with those who need it🖤

05/10/2021

Black mental health matters. And matters is the minimum. We will not forget Daniel Prude. His need for mental health support. And how he was met only with violence and neglect at the time he most needed help. Because of Daniel Prude and countless others, when our community has a mental health crisis it feels like there is nowhere to turn. The Person In Crisis team is one way the city of Rochester is trying to solve this dilemma. But there is no guarantee this team doesn’t show up with the police. As this team works out how to support the community without police presence we wanted to provide other crisis mental health contacts that are available 24/7.
These are numbers to call other than 911 in a mental health crisis. If you or someone else is NOT in immediate danger but urgently needs to talk to someone these resources are for you. These resources are Rochester/Monroe County specific. It’s been a long-standing issue in our city that folks do not feel safe calling 911 but don’t know where else to turn. We have mental health support in Rochester but it can be overwhelming to find especially in a crisis. We hope this makes resources more accessible🖤

05/07/2021

Mental health providers are used to being behind the scenes. One on one sessions. Confidential conversations. We’re not used to the spotlight being on us. But if this past year has taught us anything it is this: we cannot stay silent any longer. We’re speaking up, we’re speaking out. We need mental health providers showing up to mental health emergencies. Not police. We need a fully funded, well trained group of mental health providers who KNOW the community of Rochester. Who will listen to the community. Not more police training.
🖤Call to Action: If you’ve had an experience with a mental health call to the new person in crisis (PIC) team, 211 or 911 ...good/bad/anywhere in between you can email [email protected]. They want community feedback. This is a pilot program. The more they hear from the community, the more push they will have to change things to what they community ACTUALLY wants.

Photo Credit: .jay

05/05/2021

We are tired. Tired of decisions for the community being made in closed door meetings. Tired of empty promises. Tired of billboards promoting half truths. And most of all we are tired of the Rochester community being emotionally and physically harmed. We need to keep our eyes on city of Rochester officials, to keep them in check and ensure they are making decisions for the community.
On this platform our goal is to spread information to Rochester community members. We want justice. We want accountability. We want equity and inclusion. What’s happening in mental health reform should not be kept behind closed doors. Our community deserves to know and deserves a seat at the table. We want to share what we know about what’s happening when you call 911 or 211 for a mental health emergency. We want you to know who to call, who’s going to show up and what will happen next when you have a mental health crisis. And we want to hear from you. When we know more, we can advocate more. We have seen how powerful this community is. Continue to use your voice and continue to bring about change for our city.

05/04/2021

The Rochester community has been relentless in their fight for emergency mental health response. We KNOW this is what our community wants, needs and deserves. This fight is still an uphill battle. There has been progress. It’s not enough. We will keep pushing. We will keep advocating for the changes that keep our community safe. This change needs to happen and it needs to happen now. MHIAA wants to bring information to the community through this platform. So that ALL of us can fight for the change we want in Rochester. Are you with us?

05/03/2021

MHIAA was formed in response to the death of Daniel Prude. We saw in horrifying detail the need for drastic change in the city of Rochester. A mental health emergency deserves a mental health response. It should not be a death sentence.
Our founding principles are:
👊🏾responses to mental health crises MUST be immediate and equitable across all genders, races, ethnicities and cultures
👊🏽the police department funds should be reallocated to create and expand programs that are FOR THE COMMUNITY
👊🏼these services accommodate individuals with disabilities
👊🏾Hold organizations and agencies accountable for gaps in the mental health system
👊🏽 Training MH professionals in racial and cultural diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, from the lens of the BIPOC community . We support destructing and dismantling the current system that is racist and is rooted in white supremacy.

05/03/2021

We are MHIAA. The Mental Health Immediate Action Alliance of Rochester, NY. We are a group of mental health professionals, peer support specialists and mental health advocates. Our mission? We are advocating for 24/7 immediate responses to mental health crises by mental health professionals dedicated to the needs of the entire Rochester community. In other words: a mental health crisis DESERVES a mental health response👊🏾👊🏽👊🏼 We support our BIPOC community. Their calls to action are MHIAA’s calls to action.
Mental health calls, do not need a police response. And we are here to advocate for that change in the Rochester community. We will be bringing information to this platform of what support we have AND what support we need in our community to make these changes happen. We will be giving you ways to support this mission, calls to action to keep those in power accountable and community events so YOU can be informed. We want to use our voices to educate, advocate, seek justice and bring about the desperate change this city needs, we hope you join us.