The Village Dispatch: CMHRC's May Newsletter
Topic: The Importance of Childhood & Its Milestones

Wednesday Webinars: Children’s Mental Health Awareness Month: The Unique Lived Experience of Adoptive and Foster Families
Clinical Seminar for Professionals: Temperature Dysregulation, Fear of Harm’s Biological Marker

Book Club: Gorilla and the Bird, by Zach McDermott

Dear ::subscriber.first_name::,

As we begin our celebration of Children's Mental Health Awareness Month, and officially launch our annual fundraiser, I want to express my deepest gratitude to you for your ongoing support as an integral part of our community. You may wonder why it's so important for us to be able to continue the work that we do, and why we turn to you for support.

The shocking truth is that the average treatment delay for childhood-onset mental illness is 10 years. And put simply, that’s 10 years too long. Childhood is an important business, and we shouldn’t let mental illness take that away.

"I didn't think Jessica would ever experience the usual high school milestones because her depression and anxiety were so uncontrollable. But, this spring she went to two proms! I'm so proud of her, and the pictures of her smiling fill my heart with joy."

- Leah, mom of a 17 year old with bipolar disorder

With your gifts we are able to provide the guidance, resources, and systemic support families need to gain access to an accurate diagnosis and effective treatment interventions they can implement immediately, not 10 years from now. Together we will rewrite the story for children facing mental illness. Click the link below to donate now and empower children and families to reclaim their lives and thrive.

Thank you for your unwavering support and dedication to our mission. We couldn’t do this vital work without you.

Thank you,

Jana Cupp

Director of Development

Children's Mental Health Resource Center

P.S. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about how you can get involved, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at jana@cmhrc.org or 949-336-2941.

Children in foster care have significantly higher rates of mental illness, and the challenges in accessing mental health care, psychoeducation, and family support can be unique.
Join CMHRC in celebrating Children’s Mental Health Awareness Month with this powerful conversation amongst adoptive and foster parents.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear the day-to-day struggles and triumphs of adoptive and foster families as they’ve searched for solutions to the mental health challenges their children face. 

This seminar is a follow-up to our May clinical seminar explaining the new phenotype of bipolar disorder, Thermoregulatory Sleep Dysregulation Disorder, which researchers refer to simply as FOH. The groundbreaking feature of FOH is its temperature dysregulation symptom.

We’re taking a deep dive into this biological

marker and examining how to understand it, how to manage it, and how to use it to promote better mood stability and overall mental health.

Join us for an in-depth look at this paradigm shift in the process of diagnosing mental illness and how its roots in the biological.

Zack McDermott, a 26-year-old Brooklyn public defender, woke up one morning convinced he was being filmed, Truman Show-style, as part of an audition for a TV pilot. Every passerby was an actor; every car would magically stop for him; everything he saw was a cue from “The Producer” to help inspire the performance of a lifetime. After a manic spree around Manhattan, Zack, who is bipolar, was arrested on a subway platform and admitted to Bellevue Hospital.

So begins the story of Zack’s freefall into psychosis and his desperate, poignant, often hilarious struggle to claw his way back to sanity. It’s a journey that will take him from New York City back to his Kansas roots and to the one person who might be able to save him, his tough, big-hearted Midwestern mother, nicknamed the Bird, whose fierce and steadfast love is the light in Zack’s dark world.

Before his odyssey is over, Zack will be tackled by guards in mental wards, run naked through cornfields, receive secret messages from the TV, befriend a former Navy Seal and his talking stuffed monkey, and see the Virgin Mary in the whorls of his own back hair. But with the Bird’s help, he just might have a shot at pulling through, starting over, and maybe even meeting a partner who can love him back, bipolar and all.

Introducing an electrifying new voice, Gorilla and the Bird is a raw and unforgettable account of a young man’s unraveling and the relationship that saves him.

*CMHRC Book Club sessions have a non-refundable $10 registration fee, which supports both the Book Club staffing as well as our other free programs and services.

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