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www.starnewsgaonline.com StarNews November 12, 2023 Page 27
MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATES from page 6
homelessness, and mental illness. I can honestly
say support groups like the ones we offer saved
my life!”
The innovative Crisis Response Team was
established in 2021. When there is an incident
that may involve a resident in a mental health
crisis, a licensed professional counselor rides
with a law enforcement officer and after a law
enforcement has cleared the scene, the response
team immediately reacts. The law enforcement
officer who cleared the scene leaves and moves
on to his next assignment. The response team
also tries to call off any additional help like the
fire department, to save the taxpayers money.
Goodman said, “The goal is to de-escalate
the situation and get them to a stabilization unit
without going to the ER if there are no injuries,
and do that within 50 minutes. To date, we have
responded to more than 700 calls in two years.
Only two people have been arrested: one for
family violence and another for an outstanding
warrant.” This year, a second team was added.
Goodman shared some history of the inoova-
tive program, “Carroll County Mental Health
Advocates, a private non-profit organization,
started in 2008 as an idea from then probate
judge, now Carrollton City Mayor Betty Cason
who saw case after case of people with mental
health issues come before her and then, like a
revolving door, returned to her. A stakeholders
meeting was held in 2008, which I attended,
and out of that meeting a group of volunteers
became Carroll County Mental Health
Advocates.” It was determined from that meet
ing that there was a “missing link” in the mental
health treatment plan: an Advocate who would
RIVER RAMBLES from page 20
ground impacts run-off. Dry soil is too dense
and impenetrable to absorb water; wet soil too
saturated to take more in. What doesn’t get into
the ground heads for the river and a sea. A
region’s basic topography will help or hinder,
but water is determined. It seeks out those
places where it can flow most easily toward the
ocean and it doesn’t care if it mns through your
backyard, your basement, or the front seat of
your car.
When great amounts of rain meet oceans
whose sea levels are rising from melting gla
ciers and the thermal expansion of water as it
heats, coastal areas - the heavily populated
urban zones like New Orleans and New York
City - are especially vulnerable. The nature and
experience of flooding in a particular area is
also shaped by focal land use plans, disaster
management programs, government action or
inaction, and the amount of investment in effec
tive climate-change infrastructure. These latter
have more to do with the response to flooding
rather than its causes. Apparently we’ve
reached the moment where all we can do is
respond, as if there is no longer time to wonder
why. Although we must wonder, if we are to
have any hope of reversing this fatal trend.
Sometimes writing a River Ramble teaches
me things I don’t want to know. In general, I’m
an optimist. Maybe it’s a survival mechanism.
Or maybe I just prefer warm and fuzzy as a
lifestyle. But I’ve made it to age 73 and I still
have this congenital inability to believe, despite
all appearances, that we are doomed. Will the
cabin flood in my lifetime? Guess that depends
on how long I live.
I do know a certain phyical sensation of
anticipatory dread has picked up with the
weather. Lately, I find my mind going to the
foothills around the cabin, the 110 acres that
were clearcut two years ago. Seeing them eve
ryday I’m aware firsthand that they are still too
fragile and denuded to slow any runoff racing
toward the river. And that does make me won
der what the rest of this lifetime might look
like.
work with the individual facing mental illness
to provide information about the disease and
the treatment, as well as connecting them with
other available resources. Initially, CMHA
acted as a volunteer board with no paid staff. In
2018, the organization established a Board of
Directors and hired a part-time Director and
Case Manager. CMHA received SAMHSA
grant funds in 2020 to expand programs and
staff, which now has ten paid staff members.
The Recovery Spot of West Georgia opened
in 2022 which is a safe space for individuals
whose lives have been impacted by addiction.
Just recently they held their annual fundraiser -
the Masquerade Ball and raised $150,000 - a
testament to how the community feels.
ccmhadvocates.org. Tracy Stallings
Building, 118 South White Street in Carrollton.
770-830-2048 or cmhadvocacy@gmail.com
Come be a part of the missing link in fight
against mental illness!
Annual Open House
Thanksgiving Afternoon 2pm-llpm
www. AllensFlower sGifts .com
175 Head Avenue Tallapoosa
770-574-2482 U
“Greater love has no
one than this, that
someone lay down his
life for his friends.”
John 15:13
^({ankyoii,
Weheram
PIONEER
' Expedience the 'Difjjjetence"
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