good morning, and welcome to "mosaic." i'm rab i-eric weiss. this morning i'm happy to introduce you to two people and later on a third person to talk about mental illness in the jewish community. i'd like you to meet diana, she's a member of temple isaiah in lafayette and also the cofounder and cochair of an organization within the context, it's a hebrew term that means open our hearts and it's a cluster of synagogues and organizations in contra costa county that works with mental health issues within the jewish committee. i'd also like to introduce you to pam wrightman who is a

member here in san francisco and she's the chair of a similar group, a hebrew word that means mental illness and works within her synagogue. she's also the director of a jewish meditation center program for the center of jewish peoplehood at the san francisco jccc. welcome diana and pam. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you. >> i'm so thrilled. i think we should say from the very beginning we know each other because of the work of the bay area jewish healing center and we have at the healing center particular outreach on mental health issues and in particular, a half day synagogue conference that works on spiritual care issues for folks with mental illness. and both of you were the chairs and driving forces in your particular synagogues for those conferences and then we've moved forward from there. so i'm so happy to have you here with us this morning. so why is mental illness such an important issue for us to look

at in the jewish community and in particular spiritual care issues? >> well, i think that mental illness and certainly in our synagogue is the item that is not talked about. people are very hesitant to share or reveal their personal situations with mental illness, and frequently it's so severe, the stigma that people leave synagogues and/or certain fade into the background as a result. >> and also i think mental illness isolates people, so in terms of a community reaching out and being inclusive, a special effort has to be made with people who are mentally ill and their families, and also because the tora tells us that we need to take care of each other, in particularly the widow and the orphan and the stranger. and i think sometimes, you know, we can put people who are

mentally ill in the category of stranger because often people think that way. that's not a way we want people to think, but until they become not a stranger, i think maybe we need to treat them that way. >> i think maybe that makes sense because i think that in general illness in and of itself is an estrangement. we usually typically know ourselves and others best when we're well, but we don't particularly know ourselves or each other very well when we're ill. so it is an estrangement. >> i think this community has come a long way, well, community in general, has come a long way in supporting people with illnesses. you know, we have caring committees of one name or another in every congregation or church for that matter. but when it comes to mental illness, the stigma is so great that if you do reveal the situation in your home or family or in yourself, people don't know how to respond, including our clergy.

and frequently it becomes just a situation of, as you said, isolation and suppression. >> and why is the stigma there? what is that all about for us in the jewish community? >> i have thought about that a lot, rabbi, and i don't think that i fully understand it. but, you know, i have a few thoughts that i've had and that i've shared with other people, you know, jewish people have great pride in their brain function, in their intelligence and their functionality, and i think that it may be a point of shame for somebody to admit that they or a family member has anything wrong with their brain. and also because -- we were talking this in our group yesterday that our survival as a people has depended upon our wits, and did that play a role?

>> i think also there's another piece about mental illness. for years and years there was sort of an assumption that the family didn't raise the child correctly and therefore the mental illness evolved because of something that the parents did. and even though science has proven that that is not the case in most cases, or at least not 100% the case, it still is there, and so if your son or daughter, you know, on that age where they go out into the world, you know, was diagnosed with a mental illness, you feel you causedded it somehow or failed and that is huge shame in the jewish community. >> we're off to a wonderful start arks robust start of conversation about mental illness in the jewish community. we're going to take a break. please join us back here in just a moment on "mosaic."

[thunder] did you buy the flashlight and the batteries? yes. did you make sure we're not missing anything in the first aid kit? yup. did you go through the plan with the kids again? yes. announcer: the more you prepare today, the more you'll be able to reduce the devastating effects of a tornado, an earthquake, a power outage, or any other disaster. get a kit, make a plan, be informed. visit ready.gov.

good morning, and welcome back to "mosaic." i'm rabbi eric weiss and happy to be your host this morning. we're in the midst of a robust conversation about mental illness in the jewish community and we're joins by diana keys who is the cofounder and cochair of a particular group that deals with mental illness issues in contra costa county within the context of the jewish community. it's called open our hearts and pam wrightman who is a member of congregation beth shulman san francisco and the share of the comfort that deals with mental health issues at congregation beth shulman. we were talking about stigma and how there might be an element of shame involved with a challenge to brain function the way our brains function within the context of just being human and that impact on us as jews in the jewish community and also issues that have to do with how people

were raised which used to be an idea about why people got mental illness which, in fact, has proved not to be the case. so we have this wall of stigma. what is it that you do that we can do to really break down the wall of stigma to reduce the sense of shame, to bring people and welcome them into the not so estranged? >> well, first, at beth shulman in our network group we have two things we focus on, one is education because we think that people don't really understand mental illness and until they do, the congregation can't really create a caring community where people will be willing to come out of their isolation. but the other thing we do is we have a support group, and it's ongoing. it's a drop-in group. last year we had an eight series group and this year we may do another eight-week series. but right now it's drop-in. and it's for people living with

mental illness but also their family members. it's a place they can come, sit down with each other, and they know that they can talk about what it's like to live with this without feeling any sense of judgment. and it has been an amazing thing. what's great about it particularly when families come together is that they are then in a setting in the synagogue which is a spiritual setting and the spirituality of the place supports the unfolding of a really good dialogue between people in an openness of the heart. it's not a psych ward, that's how families often meet or in the conflict of the home. it's in a place where they can just be people together and also beyond the family with other people of mental illness, they can socialize. we have cookies and coffee, and we have social time and it allows people to practice their social skills which is hard when you live a really isolated

life. so i think, actually, it's more moving to me and does more for me as the leader than i think for the people who attend, but we get really good feedback. >> your group that's constructed is actually a peer-led, congregation-led group. >> it is. there are five people on it and some people have mental illness in our family, like me, i have a son who's an -- an adult son who has severe mental illness and then there are people on the committee who don't, but have professional background and really interested in the topic. >> and it seems to me that what's so interesting about having a group like that is that part of the stigma, i think, of mental illness is the way we perceive it. and i don't really know why, but for some reason i think mental illness at this point in our culture is kind of like expecting somebody with a broken leg to actually walk themselves

to the hospital to get a cast on, and nobody in their right mind would let that happen to a family member, but somehow we don't understand that when we say to somebody go some place and get help, they may not be able to go there. they need to be taken, they need to be helped. and when you have something in a synagogue like a group, i think that there's a much lower threshold for getting help, for being with people, for talking, for socializing, having a sense of spiritual support as you move through whatever the issues are around the mental illness. >> i think it's one of the things a group like yours that really help the community is just the conversation, the fact that we write articles in our temple newsletter about mental illness, that we send e-mails to the entire congregation, notifying them of our support group or different speakers that we're bringing in to the congregation to talk about

mental illness. and, you know, the more that people begin to openly have dialogue about mental illness, with those that are not touched by it, i think the more we're breaking down those barriers of shame and significant ma. -- stigma. and it takes a long time. i know we were talking earlier that after we had our conference back in 2009 it was so fabulous and so wonderful and so many people came, and i thought there would be an immediate change and that stigma would be gone, and it just doesn't happen like that. but you have to keep working on it, little steps at a time, and keep talking. keep being there and listening to those people that do tell their story to you. very important. >> thank you so much. we're going to take a break. we're going to actually say good-bye to pam wrightman, but diana is going to remain with us. i want to say thank you to pam.

she, again, is the director at mcí corbore, she's also a leader at congregation beth shulman where she's a member of the group doing in particular what she knows to do to bring the wall of stigma down around in the jewish community. thank you so much, pam, for being with us. and please join us in just a moment when we return here to "mosaic." >> thank you. ,,,,,,

welcome back to "mosaic." i'm rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host. we're in the midst of a robust conversation about mental health issues in the jewish community. we're joined by barbara keller. she's a licensed clinical social worker, she's been for over 30 years working in the mental

health field and she also has her own company that is called bmk and associates which among other things deals with complex psychiatric case management and also is a member of congregation beth jacob in redwood city, a conservative synagogue in the peninsula which did the second synagogue-based healing conference many moons ago and was a leader on that particular planning committee. welcome, barbara. >> thank you. >> and welcome back, diana, a member of temple isaiah in lafayette and cofounder, cochair in contra costa county. barbara and diana, we're taping this program the week of the tragedy in arizona, and what's come to be known at this point in the media is that the gentleman who is the alleged shooter both killing and injuring any number of people, in fact, was somebody -- is

somebody with mental illness, and it's not clear at this juncture to what degree those issues were known or not known, to what degree he was given or refused treatment or anything of the kind. but it seems pretty clear at this juncture that mental illness was, in fact, a part of the constellation of this tragedy. and so i think it just causes all of us to think, well wharks in the world happened and what could have prevented this, i'm wondering what your reflections are in this moment given what we know about all of that. >> i'm not sure how it could be presented. what i understand of this individual is it was identified that he had mental illness issues at school, with family, with friends, and he was identified and did go through the system to the point where he was asked to leave school, but nothing happened after that.

the safety net in the community didn't identify him further for -- as far as we know at this point -- to receive either treatment or be in a hospital. >> you know, i think it's curious as to what happened. i'm sure his parents knew that he had issues, but, i mean, when i think about raising my teenaged son and his -- the fact that they have some very different behavior and we hope that it's a phase that they will get through, even the drug use that is alleged to have taken place which may have been his self-medication, you know, we just don't know. but, you know, the parents can't commit a 22-year-old boy. they don't have that power. and it is a very difficult thing to figure out how to deal with something like this. i mean, what does a parent do?

>> besides worry. motivate treatment if it gets really bad to notify the authorities. i do think there was one place in the system that could have identified this individual, and that's when he went to buy a gun, that -- from what the reports were, that they did perceive that he was mentally unstable, but he had no documented history, so he was sold a gun. so that is a hole in the system between i guess the police and the psychiatric system and the gun vendors. >> how do we, in that particular case of being careful of the alleged shooter and these particular facts, but talking on the level of an adult with mental illness and the way our

systems work both federally, on the state level and the local county level, and without moving into the political issues of gun ownership or not or constitutional rights, what about something like identifying somebody with mental illness that whatever juncture they enter into the system, in this case it was purchasing a gun, it could have been some other incident where he had interaction shoplifting in a store, for example. so how do we understand i guess issues around jurisdiction and ways laws work because these kinds of situations have different laws at work and policies in different counties in different states across the country. >> there is -- there has been a movement that's been funded in various local counties for

people who have had a series of in-patient psychiatric hospitalizations over a year period. the state has realized that get the best treatment and those funds have been shifted to management so the people that are in the community and the funds that would go to pay for higher level of care are now being paid to manage people in the community, basically to offer them whatever it takes, whether it's therapy, whether it's housing in various different settings. and it's been fairly efficient. the problems are going to continue because we will most likely have more state mental health cutbacks and it was really heartening to see that it was recognized that perhaps having people stay in the

community, shifting the dollars to pay for them in the community is more effective than other settings where people are essentially warehoused sometimes. but funds will be cut. with healthcare reform, those funds might shift to the federal government, more people on medicaid rolls will be picked up, but we don't know what that's going to look like right now. >> we should take a quick break. please join us when we return here to "mosaic" to continue the conversation with barbara and diana.

24,000 children every day. they die for reasons we can prevent. like not getting enough food... or medicine... or clean, safe water to drink. 24,000 children... every day. but we are gaining ground. a generation ago, twice as many children were dying. still...24,000? every day? they do not have to die. but they do. they die because they are young and vulnerable. they die because, through no fault of their own... they are poor. 24,000 children... 24,000 children... 24,000 children... every day. my name is tea leoni. my name is joel madden. my name is orlando bloom. my name is salma hayek.

my name is laurence fishburne and i believe... i believe... believe... i believe... believe... my name is liam neeson, and i believe that number should be zero. believe in zero. join the effort. visit unicefusa.org. welcome back to "mosaic." i'm rabbi eric weiss and honored to be your host this morning. we're talking about mental illness issues in the jewish

community. we want to give you a couple local resources. if you are interested in the comfort dealing with mental illnesses group, please call 415-221-8736. it's congregation beth shuleman san francisco and you can simply say you'd like to have some information about the group at congregation beth shuleman. >> you can reach me directly by e-mail at diana@openourhearts.net and you can also call temple isaiah at 925-284-9191. >> do you want to say the numbers again? >> sure. it's diana@openourhearts.net and

temple isaiah at 925-284-9191. >> and, barbara at beth jacob? >> at beth jacob, what our experience has been is most people come to the rabbi and want to speak with the rabbi, mental illness, whether you're affected by it yourself or you're a family member, it is something that people tend to really want to be confidential, and then what happens in the shuleman in general is rabbis who are trained do wind up spending a lot of time with congregants and what happens at beth jacob is rabbi ezray does have a group of congregants and people in the community he will refer to. and as a mental health professional myself and a lot of my colleagues, we do our fair share for the jewish community

and see people at no cost or lower cost where there are needs when we do get referrals from the shuls. >> i think we should say from the bay area jewish healing center we know that every single rabbi in the entire community is concerned about this issue. so feel free to call your rabbi in your particular congregation and i know that every rabbi in this community deals with mental illness issues and continues to be concerned and supportive of those issues in general. the last we want to let people know before we continue our conversation is that the bay area jewish healing center and also the synagogues that we've worked with for this half day conference are cosponsoring a sunday matinee january 30th of the broadway musical "next to normal" at the current theater in san francisco and you can find tickets and in fact on our website -- and information on our website, jewishhealingcenter.org.

we have a few minutes left and we want to say thank you so much for diana and barbara and pam wrightman for bringing us around mental health issues in the jewish community. thank you so much for being with us and have a wonderful day. >> ow! >> can you read my number? >> announcer: attention, those on medicare with diabetes. you may be eligible for an upgraded meter. >> i am tired of stabbing my fingertips to test my blood glucose. there has got to be a better way.

>> if you're on medicare with diabetes, then you need to know there's a new method for checking your blood glucose. you don't need to stab your fingertips anymore. this new embrace meter is easier to use and nearly painless. and the best news is that diabetes care club will send you one of these new meters. >> this new method hurts less and i don't have to stab my fingertips anymore. >> woman: not only can i see my number, i can hear it too. >> woman: your blood glucose reading is 89. >> they have my number. >> find out why nearly a quarter of a million patients have joined diabetes care club. >> woman: call diabetes care club. >> shipping is free, and so is the call. [♪...] >> i'm glad i did!