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4 WE HAVE HEART — 2021-2022 REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY <br />NYFS’s mission is founded on access to critical <br />services and acting as a safety net for our <br />community’s mental health needs. We have seen <br />the multi-layered effects of the pandemic on mental <br />health care and are dedicated to meeting current <br />and emerging needs. Because of this, our efforts are <br />increasingly culturally-responsive and trauma-informed <br />as we continue to evaluate and expand our services. <br />Trauma-informed care is all about serving our <br />clients in the context of their lived experiences. <br />Many individuals in our community have chronic stress <br />and histories of trauma. Often these experiences <br />cause mental and physical health concerns. At NYFS, <br />we believe that it is our responsibility to ensure <br />that our services don’t cause further harm to any of <br />our clients, not just those that have trauma. This is <br />ongoing work that continues to evolve as we learn <br />more over time. Because of this, our physical clinic <br />spaces in Shoreview and White Bear Lake, the organization’s culture, and the program services, policies, and practices <br />themselves are developed to be trauma-informed and are reviewed regularly to reflect current best practices. <br />To be truly trauma-informed requires being culturally responsive — the deep integration of our client’s culture into their <br />care. We partner with our clients to provide services in the ways that our clients say best support their healing and <br />growth. This means understanding the context of oppression that many of our clients experience due to their intersecting <br />identities and attending to that in therapy. It also means integrating an understanding of historical and intergenerational <br />trauma on mental health. Many of the reasons people suffer are not due to their own psychology or relationships, but <br />rather, due to the larger socio-cultural context of oppression experienced every day. <br />As Tara Hjelmberg, NYFS Director of Mental Health <br />shares, “Trauma-informed and culturally-responsive <br />care allows a space where each individual is seen, <br />heard and understood in their context. It is only within <br />this space that we can assist in the clients’ healing <br />and overall wellness.” <br />This responsiveness recognizes that there is no “one size fits all” <br />version of healing. What each of us needs is different — and not everyone benefits from a western mental health model <br />of individual weekly therapy sessions. NYFS has been expanding our services to offer different culturally-responsive <br />trauma treatments across the lifespan, including art therapy, and we look forward to expanding our play therapy <br />and horticultural therapy offerings. For those healing services we do not offer at NYFS, we continue to build referral <br />relationships to cultural and community healing practices that serve the whole person. We believe this partnership with <br />our clients encourages creativity and an expansive perspective on healing and recovery. <br />Clinic-Based Mental Health Program <br />Trauma-informed and culturally-responsive care recognizes that there is no “one size fits all” <br />version of healing. <br />Healing Happens in Many Ways <br />empower <br />support&