Behavioral Health News & Events
Volume 2, Issue 2 | April 2014
available for individuals hospitalized after receiving referral from one
of Centerstone’s Crisis Services professionals and veterans who are at
high-risk for acute psychiatric crises.
Today and tonight there will be homeless people sleeping beneath
bridges and in back alleys. They will huddle in junk cars in Lebanon,
Murfreesboro, Franklin, Dickson and all across Middle Tennessee.
“Follow-up services and community collaboration are equally integral
to preventing hospitalizations and suicide. Isolation is the enemy of
those at acute risk for suicide,” said Becky Stoll, Centerstone’s Vice
President for Crisis Services. “The depth and breadth of support can,
literally, be a life saver.”
A great number of those who are homeless in Tennessee - and for
that matter throughout the nation - are veterans. They are men and
women of varying ages who served our country in uniform during
peace and war. And, frankly, they deserve better.
“Cost is the number one reason people with mental illness forego
treatment,” said Dawn Weber, Manager, Community Relations and
Foundations. “We’re proud to support Centerstone and its efforts to
provide not just initial treatment but the essential follow-up services
necessary to ensure the well-being of the Nashville community.”
This project will include collaboration among parties in both
behavioral health and healthcare communities aimed at assisting
clients at-risk for suicide by providing cost-effective, life-saving
alternatives to hospitalization, such as safety plan development and
ongoing support for linkage to effective community mental health
services and other needed resources.
The "Crisis Services High-Risk Follow-Up Project” is an extension of
Centerstone’s overarching suicide prevention initiative. Centerstone’s
goal is to reduce symptoms while promoting recovery. It is anticipated
that this project will show, through research and analysis, a reduction
in the need for crisis services and hospitalizations, and most
importantly, help in the organization’s goal to decrease suicides
among its clients to zero.
For more information about Centerstone or its Crisis Services, please visit
www.centerstone.org or call our initial appointments line at 888-291-4357.
Grant Provides Housing for Homeless Veterans
REPRINT — The Tennessean | February 1, 2014
The Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System can help many veterans
who are homeless in this region, but to do so, we need your help, too.
VBHCS, a nonprofit agency based in Murfreesboro with centers of
service throughout Middle Tennessee, has been awarded a grant to
provide permanent housing to veterans who are homeless.
Our challenge is to spread the word and to make it known to this
demographic that help is available and we, VBHCS, are ready to
provide the necessary assistance.
In the very near future, we plan to launch an awareness campaign in
which we will rely on area media and a very special relationship with
country music's Charlie Daniels and his organization headed by David
Corlew, a past president of the Academy of Country Music and a
person who has a driving passion to help America's veterans.
While their efforts will be significantly meaningful In the days ahead,
my heart today is filled with "what can we do now.”
Please help us disseminate this important message. We have money
available right now to get homeless veterans off the streets, out of the
cold and into acceptable, safe and protected permanent shelter.
If you know of a veteran who is homeless and in need of housing or of
an agency that may help identify and direct veterans to this
assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our offices.
Your attention to this effort may very well be a life-saver for someone
most deserving.
While temperatures are finally beginning to
moderate, a hovering Arctic air mass recently
kept mercury readings in Middle Tennessee
well below the freezing mark, with many areas
seeing single-digit temperatures for several
days.
While many of us were mostly concerned
about frozen pipes, stalled cars and several
other inconveniences associated with or
caused by the weather, I would suggest our
first concern should be for those who find
themselves without shelter and exposed to
these deadly winter elements day in and day
out.
Their lives should not be at risk because they don't have the means to
provide themselves with adequate shelter.
Chris Wyre is CEO of the Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System, a
nonprofit with headquarters in Murfreesboro. It serves 31 counties in
Tennessee as a leading mental health provider. Wyre is president-elect of the
Tennessee Association of Mental Health Organizations; [email protected]
Chris Wyre
Chief Executive Officer
Volunteer Behavioral
Health System
Please don't misunderstand. This is not a Nashville problem, but
rather it is one of regional concern.
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