Sarah Lawrence

Mental Health Resources from NAMI (Online!)

NAMI Connection Recovery Support Groups

– Now over Zoom!!!

See Zoom Schedule

NAMI Connection is a free recovery support group for people living with any mental illness. NAMI Connection provides a place that offers respect, understanding, encouragement, and hope. You don’t need to register to attend. For more information about Connections, please call us at 401-331-3060 or email us at info@namirhodeisland.org.

NAMI Connection is a recovery support group program that offers respect, understanding, encouragement and hope. NAMI Connection groups are:

  • Free and confidential
  • Held weekly for 90 minutes 
  • Designed to connect, encourage, and support participants using a structured support group model
  • Led by trained facilitators living in recovery themselves

Currently NAMI Connections is being held over Zoom. Click here for the latest schedule (updated September 2020).

See Meeting Schedule

MAKING CONTACT: A TRAINING FOR COVID-19 CONTACT TRACERS

This is a free training

Introductory online course for entry-level COVID-19 contact tracers, for use by health agencies in rapid training of new contact tracers. The training will be augmented by state/local specific training required to orient individuals to jurisdiction-specific protocols. This training focuses on building knowledge for remote contact tracing; a subsequent release will include a module on field services.

Disinfectant Vouchers and PPE Orders

Healthcare practices, agencies, or facilities with 50 or fewer employees can request a disinfectant voucher when ordering PPE through the already-established Rhode Island Department of Health webforms. Most healthcare providers are able to now order surgical masks, face shields, and, if applicable, the disinfectant voucher through www.health.ri.gov/masks. Hospitals, EMS, nursing homes, assisted living communities, home health and hospice agencies, health centers, urgent care centers, and healthcare practices that are serving as respiratory care clinics are able to order PPE from www.health.ri.gov/ppe. Further, SupplyRI has put together a list of local Rhode Island businesses that sell PPE, sanitizing supplies, medical equipment, and cleaning services. If you’re interested in doing business with these companies, you can download the list here.

RI Department of Health

HHS Announces Partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine to Fight COVID-19 in Racial and Ethnic Minority and Vulnerable Communities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 23, 2020

HHS Announces Partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine to Fight COVID-19 in Racial and Ethnic Minority and Vulnerable Communities
$40 Million Initiative Will Help Communities Hardest Hit by the Pandemic 
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) announced the selection of the Morehouse School of Medicine as the awardee for a new $40 million initiative to fight COVID-19 in racial and ethnic minority, rural and socially vulnerable communities. The Morehouse School of Medicine will enter into a cooperative agreement with OMH to lead the initiative to coordinate a strategic network of national, state, territorial, tribal and local organizations to deliver COVID-19-related information to communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

“The Trump Administration has made it a priority to support and empower Americans who have been most impacted by COVID-19, including minority, rural, and socially vulnerable communities,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “This new partnership between the Morehouse School of Medicine and our Office of Minority Health will work with trusted community organizations to bring information on COVID-19 testing, vaccinations, and other services to the Americans who need it.”

The initiative – the National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities (NIMIC) – is a three-year project designed to work with community-based organizations across the nation to deliver education and information on resources to help fight the pandemic. The information network will strengthen efforts to link communities to COVID-19 testing, healthcare and social services and to best share and implement effective response, recovery and resilience strategies.

“Underlying social determinants of health and disparate burdens of chronic medical conditions are contributing to worse COVID-19-related outcomes in minority and socially vulnerable communities, and this partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine is essential to improving our overall response,” said Assistant Secretary for Health ADM Brett P. Giroir, M.D. “We’ve made important strides over the past few months in fighting the pandemic, and with Morehouse School of Medicine as our partner, we are ready to advance our efforts to support our most affected communities.”

These social determinants of health are the conditions in which we live, work, grow and age, that can include working conditions; unemployment; underemployment; access to essential goods and services such as water, sanitation and food; housing; and access to quality healthcare. Such conditions may reflect inequities experienced by disadvantaged communities, leading to poor health status and adverse health outcomes and requiring community- and systems-level responses.

“We know the power of partnerships to help us solve our most pressing public health challenges,” said U.S. Surgeon General VADM Jerome M. Adams, M.D., M.P.H. “This initiative has at its core the community-based organizations who know their people best and who are committed to working collaboratively to reduce health-inequities and make them healthy and safe.”

OMH announced the initiative through a funding announcement on May 1. The NIMIC initiative is expected to begin in July and the first award is for $14.6 million.

“Communities throughout the country have already done a lot of hard work to adapt and respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on racial and ethnic minority, rural and vulnerable populations,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health RADM Felicia Collins, M.D. “OMH and the Morehouse School of Medicine look forward to continue working with our communities to link them to the information, resources, healthcare and services needed to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides public health and science advice to the Secretary, and oversees the Department’s broad-ranging public health offices, whose missions include minority health, HIV policy, women’s health, disease prevention, human research protections and others. OASH also includes the Office of the Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

The Office of Minority Health (OMH) is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities.

For more information about the Office of Minority Health, visit: www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/.
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Age Friendly RI Virtual Community Center

Announcing Rhode Island’s Virtual Community Center!

Keeping our bodies healthy, minds sharp and spirits high.


The Age-Friendly RI Virtual Community Center is the place to go to connect, learn, and play online when in-person
community experiences are not possible.

Take part in a wide array of online activities – fitness and wellness, cooking and gardening, tech help, information and how-to sessions, classes, entertainment, games, social and cultural events, trips and tours – wherever you may be.


Visit us at https://agefriendlyri.org to find a full schedule of free, engaging activities every day. Click and enjoy!

Brought to you through a grant from the Tufts Health Plan and support from our many coalition partners.

CHW Training in Cardiovascular Health/Diabetes

Community Health Workers Association of Rhode Island Logo

Community Health Worker ONLINE Training:
Specialty Certification in Cardiovascular Disease/Diabetes Management

Topics include Motivational Interviewing and Social Determinants of Health, Stroke, Heart Disease, Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Atrial Fibrillation, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, Pre-Diabetes, Diabetes, Healthy Eating and Weight Control, Lifestyle Interventions

This training fulfills the educational content hours requirement for the Rhode Island Certification Board’s application for Cardiovascular Health/Diabetes specialty endorsement. There are other components of that application.

July 15, 2020 – September 19, 2020

Wednesdays 5pm-7pm (ET) synchronous instruction
plus weekly 1-hour asynchronous lessons

This training is for certified
Community Health Workers only

Cost: Free
Apply by: July 10, 2020

To apply, link to application and please email your interest to David Zuleta at dzuleta@ric.edu

The training is presented by the
Community Health Worker Association of Rhode Island (CHWARI)
*Funded by the Rhode Island Department of Health