Brittany's post:

This assignment was amazing to me. To see a map filled out with all the organizations around the world, and to see common interests in the organizations was beyond profound. It was difficult for me to even fathom. Reading everyone's different locations and seeing the goals and missions of other organizations really just restored my energy in wanting to work in this field.

My pins:

I pinned Devereux in Mass. in my first post. I have had some contact with this organization. They serve children and adolescents that experience mental illness, learning disabilities, and behavioral disorders. It functions below a hospital level, however it is a residential treatment organization. There is such a lack of placements in Vermont currently for adolescents. There is Brattleboro Retreat, which has it's own Bennington school and ARC programs connected, and there are residential homes, but there are few residential treatment facilities. Devereux is across 12 different states and contacts with out of state facilities in order to better transfer and serve adolescents in states like Vermont where there is a lack of services. Further more, they are highly collaborative with other systems such as DCF and disabilities such as seeing and hearing. Having contact with this organization was an amazing experience, and I feel it should get recognition.

On the global perspective I pinned two different organizations in Australia:

The first one is head space, which advertises itself as helping adolescents with "difficult times." I spent a lot of time on their website and reading their services, and I would say they is no better way to phrase what they do. They literally accept all ranges of experiences such as mental health, LBQT, bullying, etc, all served under one organization. The inclusion of this astounded me- that they serve so much of the population with even seemingly small "problems" that don't carry diagnoses. Today there is such a push to have an "extreme" problem or "hit rock bottom" to be able to be served with the small number of providers. I really felt it created a sense of community and creates a model to replicated.

My last link was the International Early Psychosis Association. This is an association of different PhDs and MDs and social workers in Australia that research, treat, and educate about early psychosis. They create a multifaceted model and they really push global collaboration, holding conferences and printing articles in hopes to draw a global discussion. I thought this was unique because often there are cultural beliefs about mental health diagnoses- but they encourage this conversation to take place, to see all the perspectives and then say "where do we go from here?"