and the people of san francisco. and i just want to say a couple of things. i don't speak as a mental health expert, but more than a lot of the tools that we use, whether it's sfgtv or medication and all those sorts of things, but i've often seen at the root of mental health issues the lack of care and compassion that we show both in the services we provide and in our policy making. and i see this every day when i walk through tenderloin, when i walk through sixth street and south of market and in the mission. and i think it's incredibly important that when we as policy makers think about how to best address a lot of these issues that we come from a place of compassion of policy making when we approach these things. people ask me why shelter reform is a priority for our office, why i spent a night in our shelters, why it's so important for me to represent sro tenants in our district. it's because i know so many

people that have been impacted by mental health. and nobody in this chamber ever wants to see their grandmother, their cousin or brother or father in one of our shelters, or even in some of our worst sor buildings here in the city where often individuals who don't have a family or group of friends to support them land because of the challenges they face with mental health. and i think for that very reason we have to fight for all of these individuals in our neighborhoods like they are our family members. and when i spent a night at our shelter, you really saw that it wasn't economic challenges, although that is often why they end up in our safety net, but it's really a lot of the mental health challenges that i think we as a society really, you know, develop and exacerbate here in this country. and i think that we must work hard to address these issues. otherwise they'll never be able to address the issue of homelessness and pourv pi that we see here in san francisco.

[speaker not understood] that i often hear from our residents that address that very issue, but the love and compassion that many of our social service providers here provide. so, thank you, seth. you will be greatly missed and we appreciate your service to the city and county. (applause) thank you, supervisor kim, board of supervisors. maybe i shouldn't retire with all this approval. just to echo our poet laureate who spoke early on in this section, i couldn't do this, i wouldn't be worthy of this award without the people i've worked with at conard house for 18 years and the mental health community in san francisco and you guys. and been so supportive to social justice issues, and to the whole social justice community. i have really soft spots in my heart for the coalition on homelessness and a number of

other organizations. so, thank you all. (applause) >> thank you. supervisor kim. why don't we now hear from supervisor mar. >> thank you, president chiu. i wanted to thank [speaker not understood] and the mental health board members. alisa landy is my appointment and she's been wonderful educating me so much about the need of our richmond district to create a healthier richmond. and i know that there is an acknowledgment of the death in the officemax parking lot a few years ago when i first started as supervisor. so, the issues are very real

for me. in 1984 i was a receptionist for an exceptional multi-cultural, culturally competent agency we used to call it richmond nazi center, [speaker not understood]. my two honorees i asked to come up are alison chin and yuka [speaker not understood]. so, alison and yuka. i also wanted to just state -- yes, please come forward. (applause) >> i would also like to say that president chiu and others acknowledged that it takes a village to really support a healthier community, and i think they come out of, in many ways, the wellness center from washington high school in addition to rams and the community-based mental health services that rams represent. alison chin is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over 15 years of experience in community and human services. she began as a research

assistant intern for one of the first u.s. studies on hiv, substance abuse in asian american populations and ms. chin has since worked with a range of culturally diverse communities of children, youth and families providing clinical assessment, hydrotherapy and health education. she's worked with rams since 2006 as a behavioral health counselor for teens and families providing culturally competent assessment therapy and crisis intervention services, especially for students on-site at washington high school in the richmond district and also lincoln high school in the sunset district. and she previously served at burton high school through the wellness initiative. and i'd just like to give tremendous props to our city's wellness initiative and wellness center throughout the city as well. ms. chin serves with passion and dedication working with culturally diverse youth and families while demonstrating tireless advocacy providing

mental health services. thank you so much, alison chin, for being here. also we have yuka hachiuma who is a marriage and licensed therapist with 10 years in the mental health field. she is a bi-cultural, buy -- bilingual japanese speaking therapist. [speaker not understood]. she especially serves students and family with limited resources and youth that receive special education services while providing consultation to school faculty and administrators and i'd just like to thank erica and the washington community high school also for their support of the wellness center and the great partnership with rams as well. while at rams she previously served as the first coordinator for the agency's launch of the summer bridge program, summer mentoring program for high school students designed to

promote awareness of psychological well:and fostering desire in the helping profession. she serves the diverse san francisco community of children and youth while modeling compassion in the mental health care field. i also want to acknowledge we had i think the president and ceo of rams. he's here and angela tang the director of operations. i think i saw christina shad, the leader of richmond multi-area services. if you could come forward and join our two honorees that would be great. i wanted to say that in many ways rams and washington high school are creating a new model of mental health services really involving young people to really understand themselves, but also that support each other as well. * shea thank you so much to alison and yuka and rams for being here. i wanted to ask if alison and

yuka would make a few remarks. i just want to thank you, supervisor mar and the board and rams for the initiative. it's such a great honor and especially with all the honorees here who have dedicated so many years. i'm just -- i'm so humbled to receive this. and i just want to share this with all of the wellness staff who work so hard not only from rams, but from the school district. it's just such an incredible initiative. maria martinez is also a staff through wellness and just -- i'm just always inspired by the youth and families that we all work with. they're just so incredible, search such incredible people in san francisco working so hard together. so, thank you very much. goodness, i didn't think i'd be speaking. thank you very much for this

commendation and just wanted to say that i appreciate your acknowledgment of the importance of mental health services in the city. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. thank you. our next commendation will be

provided by supervisor christina olague. >> i just want to thank all of you for being here today. mental health is an issue that i had prioritized in my own life. and i believe that one of the reasons it's so critical here in san francisco is because it emphasizes healing instill of criminalizing people in our communities. and too often i think that this society takes the easy way out and chooses to throw people in jail or to criminalize young people even at an early age. often young folks suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, who are exposed to a lot of trauma in their lives are immediately placed in special education classes instead of given the -- even though they have the aptitude of not even higher aptitudes than a lot of their

contemporaries, because they're having behavioral issues, in many cases i believe it's related to the environment. and some of the issues that they're exposed to. and, so, i think it's critical that we start to look at people who are struggling in a more compassionate way. so, since i've been supervisor, one of the organizations that -- community-based organizations that i've been very impressed by is the west side community services. i think that the -- (applause) >> there are a lot of communities, communities of color. they still have stigma attached to that name, mental health. so, it's really incredible that these individuals in this agency that's run currently by dr. jones who does pretty incredible work in the community in the western addition. (applause) >> that, you know, that they provide culturally competent services. and, so, the person that we're

honoring today is it a willis. she's the program coordinator from west side community services in the western edition. tia wallace has been faithfully and compassionately working with children youth and their familiesates west side community services for 12 years. * as the program coordinator for both their team core and [speaker not understood] case management programs. these two very important programs focus on serving at-risk youth ages 0 to 25 in the western addition. * 10 in this capacity, kia has touched the lives of young people and their families ask has made a significant difference in our community. can i ai provides valuable support to other community-based organizations * in the western addition so the west side services has partnered with other cbo providing these services to young people there. and on her own time continues

to mentor and provide general counseling and life skills education groups and recreational activities to at-risk youth ages 14 to 17. so, it's not just her job, it's her life. she does this all the time and they are grateful for that. her dedication to her at-risk youth is inspiring and it is my honor today to recognize tia wallace for her outstanding community services in the mental health field and also to really just observe the fact that you have a wonderful attitude. so, it's clear that you -- (applause) >> [speaker not understood] what it means to live a really fulfilling life. so, we're grateful to give this to you. please say a few words. thank you, thank you. first i would like to thank supervisor olague for acknowledging the work that we do in the western addition. i would like to thank dr.

marianne jones for allowing me to bring creativity and thoughts outside of the box into the work that i do. and lastly, i would like to dedicate this award to the youth that i serve and also my team stacy, sierra and anita, because without them i wouldn't be here to accept this honor. thank you. (applause) (applause) >> our final commendation today will be provided by our district 8 colleague, supervisor scott wiener.

>> thank you very much, mr. chairman. -- mr. president. today i am thrilled to be honor sergeant kelly dunn from the police department who has been patiently waiting. sergeant. [speaker not understood] appointee to the mental health board where she provides invaluable insight. prior to becoming a police officer about a little more than a decade ago, kelly already had a long history of working in the mental health field. she worked at the mobile crisis treatment teams in both san francisco and oakland, [speaker not understood] psychiatric institute at ucsf, at the time substance abuse treatment center and mount scion crisis clinic. she also previously worked at malcolm state hospital. through the years kelly has become the expert within sfpd in terms of police interactions with mentally ill and we've had

a long, a history of trying as a city and as a department to grapple with the issue of how do we respond appropriately to subjects who are mentally ill and may not really be in a right state of mind and making sure we use alternatives other than deadly force. kelly has really been instrumental in sort of moving that training program forward and making sure all of our officers know how to respond. kelly, you've been just an amazing public servant in san francisco, and i'm thrilled to have appointed you to the mental health board and honor you today. congratulations. (applause) thank you, supervisor wiener. i just want to thank you for honoring me and thank you, all the board of supervisors. i really appreciate this because we all have been coming together for mental health in the community, trying to

revirginiavv l our latest training and have [speaker not understood] where things have to go to the use of force. and, so, i appreciate you guys honoring me and we're going to continue that work together and try to make it as good as possible. so, thank you. (applause) >> thank you, supervisor wiener. i want to thank all of our colleagues and all the members of the public who have come

today in celebration of mental health appreciation month. before we continue, i do understand that there has been a little bit of an unorthodox request to reopen up public comment. i'd like to ask our clerk what the procedure would be if we were to reopen up public comment. >> mr. president, a request to reopen public comment must be unanimous. a motion, grant a motion and a second in order to suspend the rules to allow for further public comment. >> so, colleagues, at this time is there a motion to reopen public comment? motion by supervisor avalos. is there a second to that? second by supervisor kim. we reopen public comment. ma'am,. two minutes -- you have two minutes. i'd like to dedicate this to people who have been victimized. i myself have been victimized on a regular basis. since i ran for office, horrendous bruising, horrendous

taking away, my seizures that i get are a result of having been run over by a car suspiciously two blocks from my house when i [speaker not understood] breaking my back [speaker not understood]. no i have done what no one in this world has done, recovered from organic brain damage. [speaker not understood]. as a six-year old i twisted an ankle. when i seizure, i cannot walk. i am treated mercilessly by the paramedics, by the police. when i was in bus accidents as a result of the carnival of the giants game, people getting on the bus, there is no accommodation for me. there is no help for me in your society. where do i get anything? nothing. my possessions are being taken away on a regular basis. i live in a society where communist, fascist slop is expected to be served.

i can't live with that. i am a sensitive person and as a reasoning disabled person i should not have to be going to jail where the bruises are covered. there is not a care, not a [speaker not understood]. and you say that this is a mental health society that helps people? i have cured my brain. i have cured my childhood disfunction. people who have emotional problems are not diseased. they have problems that can be fixed. and i say that this society needs to find people like myself who want the solutions. they want to know what people are experiencing, and they want to fix it [inaudible]. they should be working for the [inaudible]. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. [inaudible]. >> mr. deputy sheriff, could you please? -- get into position? thank you very much. thank you very much. i love this country more

than anybody in america -- >> thank you very much, ma'am. [speaker not understood]. >> thank you very much, ma'am. thank you very much. deputy sheriff? next speaker. i'm from bayview hunters point. it was really a pleasure just to see this day, to see you honoring the people in the community, you know, [speaker not understood] acknowledge myself as the woman of the year in bayview hunters point and i just wanted to know this was very refreshing and up lift totion me. i also want to acknowledge that my mother, my actually best friend is the mother of karim [speaker not understood]. thank you, christina, for acknowledging him. [speaker not understood] mayfield who is bringing the [speaker not understood]. he was fighting for a lot of young men who have died and a lot of young men that are trying to stay alive.

the bayview can help, come to see if anyone can assist in getting him to be in the parade tomorrow for the giants because he is also adding to san francisco. does anyone have any advice, i will leave my number with whoever is appropriate to do. thank you very much. have a wonderful evening. >> thank you. any other member of the public wish to speak in public comment? last but not least, david elliott lewis. i knew almost everyone you honored today and almost every, every person was well deserved to receive that acknowledgment so i wanted to thank you for acknowledging these people and mental health awareness month. mental health often gets edv brushed under the carpet with so many other pressing issues, but we see the consequences when we ignore it. the cost of behavior sort of unrespond to can be costly to society. i'm thankful we have proposition 63 that lets services upon being provided. and thank you as a board of supervisors for acknowledging this important issue. thank you. my name is david elliott lewis. thanks. >> thank you.

any other members of the public want to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. let's go to the adoption counter. >> item 20 to 24 is being considered without committee reference. these items will be acted upon by a single roll call vote. a discussion can occur, the matter will be separated and considered separately. >> colleagues, would anyone like to sever any of these items? the house has changed. roll call vote. >> supervisor campos? aye. president chiu? aye. supervisor cohen? aye. supervisor elsbernd? absent. supervisor farrell? aye. supervisor kim? aye. supervisor mar? aye. supervisor olague? aye. supervisor wiener? aye. supervisor avalos? aye. there are nine ayes. >> these resolutions are adopted. >> madam clerk can you please read the in me nor gym? -- in memoriams? >> yes, these will be

supervisor avalos paul. mar, the late mr. alan farley. on behalf of president chiu for the late ms. marta. >> madam clerk, is there any other business in front of the board? >> that concludes our business, mr. president. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, we are adjourned? . [adjourned]