Thread: Pastor wants more mental healh services for illegals

Monday, January 05, 2009, 10:36 AM

Group focuses on increasing support for Hispanic residents

By Stephanie Creech | Daily Times Senior Writer


The Rev. Michael Bell is more convinced than ever that there is an enormous need for mental health services for Wilson's Hispanic residents.

"They are trying to find services and are not able to find services because of their (legal) status," Bell said.

Bell, who is the pastor and outreach ministry director for St. John AME Zion Church, is interested in finding ways to fill that service gap.

Bell learned firsthand about the need for mental health services when he hosted a roundtable discussion in May with local Hispanic leaders.

Bell is one of 10 representatives from Wilson County who spent a week in Mexico last February learning more about immigration issues and the effects of immigration on people and communities here and there.

As a result of the trip, Wilson's Latino Initiative formed a mentoring partnership with some key leaders in the Hispanic community. Since May, roundtable discussions have been held in an effort to build trust, to help answer questions and to guide people to services they might need.

As a result of the mentoring program, Bell said he was able to identify and serve several residents through counseling and help them find the right avenue in order to go get needed mental health treatment.

"Out of that, we still see a few Latino families," Bell said. "They are deeply in need of someone to be their advocate."

The mentoring program will continue this year.

This month, the focus will be on real estate resources. In February, Wilson County Schools will host a session on education, and in March the focus will be on the city of Wilson's Human Relations Office.

"It was a good start," said Elisa Suarez, city human relations specialist. "We hope to expand the program and hope to continue it. It certainly has opened the channels of communication and trust. ... I would have to say the Hispanic community partners are helping to disseminate information into the community about the organizations the leadership represents."

Since returning from Mexico, Bell said he's learned more Spanish and pushed to increase the number of Hispanic children attending the church's summer camp. Bell said at least 20 percent of their campers were Hispanic. The camp also featured four bilingual staff members. Bell said St. John is also helping more Hispanics with food, clothing, utilities and medical needs than it has previously.

"I don't think we did as much as we do now," Bell said of previous years.

Bell said he would like to see the community develop a strategic plan in 2009 to address some of the problems facing the Hispanic community. Bell said government agencies' hands are tied because of restrictions on serving undocumented residents. But he thinks Wilson's nonprofit organizations and churches can make an impact and provide some of the needed services.

"In 2009, I think we have to engage the Latino community," Bell said.

"I think there has been a lot of hard work on trying to improve the Latino Initiative in our community," Mayor Bruce Rose said. "During the new year, I certainly hope we all can come together more in our community, including the Hispanics and Latinos and other people. We've got a very diverse community. We want to treat all people good so we hope they can have a good, productive life here in the city of Wilson."

Rose was part of the travel team.

"It was a wonderful trip," Rose said. "My eyes were opened. The whole group's eyes were opened. I think we all came back with a desire to do our very best to make life beneficial for all Latinos here in the community."

Last year's trip to Mexico was organized by the Center for International Understanding. The cost of sending Wilson's team was covered through donations from local businesses. The trip also included representatives from Pitt and Greene counties and North Carolina State University. Since the trip, each group has developed a game plan for ways to better serve and educate the growing number of Hispanics moving into their communities.

The Wilson Latino Initiative Strategic Plan developed after the trip has three main goals:

* Create opportunities to inform the Hispanic population about available services and resources needed in order for them to thrive and positively contribute to the Wilson community.

The mentoring program was one of the steps taken to try to meet that goal, for example.

* Identify and minimize barriers for Hispanic children to receive early childhood education and secondary education that is needed to stay in school and successfully graduate.

* Inform the Wilson community about myths versus realities of immigration and needs of the Hispanic community.

This year's work will include planning and holding some community-wide presentations. None have been scheduled yet. The Latino Initiative will also work with Wilson 20/20 because the two groups have some shared goals. Suarez said the decision to work with Wilson 20/20 was made to avoid duplication of efforts to collaborate to save time and money and to work more efficiently.

The Center for International Understanding is talking with leaders from Barton College and Wilson Community College about taking some local educators to Mexico at some point in the future.

"I would say the Latino Initiative has progressed significantly since it started," Suarez said. "Everyone in the leadership is fully committed to bringing the community together."

creech@wilsontimes.com | 265-7822

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"They are trying to find services and are not able to find services because of their (legal) status," Bell said.

Then go home and get it!

"Out of that, we still see a few Latino families," Bell said. "They are deeply in need of someone to be their advocate."

They have enough advocates! The Race is there to help. They have money
Send the mental health bills to them.

Thank god this whackjob isn't in my community giving away our services to illegals.
We'll see how it's going for this guy in 6-months when things are really bad.

Maybe that guy, Fabian from Peru, (mentioned in another thread) will be the psychologist! That's his goal---we just need to put him through school!