b"T h e m e n t a l h e a l t h t e a m s t r e n g t h e n s r o o t sEarlier this year, Puentes Community Mental Health and Wellness team began discussing the idea to survey communitymembers to explore barriers to accessing mental health treatment and what support groups the community wanted to seeoffered within Puentes Community Mental Health and Wellness Program. These questions hadnt been asked for some time. And while Puente was seeing strong demand for one-on-one therapyand support groups in local schools, attendance in community support groups had dropped off. We needed to knowwere we working from the same definition of mental health, or did people have different needs?says Director of Programs Arlae Alston. Co-creating a vision with the community is the Puente way. And this past year haspresented a perfect opportunity to ask fresh questions amid a team restructuring and program review.The Community Mental Health and Wellness Team andCommunity Promoters visit farms and ranches to promote Were really reaching out to the community and saying, what are your needs? We want to meet them where theyre at. Wetheir services. want to provide groups and services that are meaningful to them, says Clinical Supervisor Diana Bonner.El Equipo de Salud Mental y Bienestar Comunitario y losPromotores Comunitarios visitan granjas y ranchos para The CMHW team values requests for support originating with the community, such as a newcomer's student support group,promover sus servicios. which Puente facilitated in 2024 after a request from the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District.Were trying to work with our community to provide culturally appropriate therapy, and to provide services that are meaningful to them, explains Alston.To that end, a fresh survey was launched recently, with questions about what kinds of groups might be of interest. Responses ranged from a parent support group specifically for parents whohave children with mental health needs, to a grief and loss group, to a mutual support group for female farmworkers. The Community Health and Wellness Team joins the Community Health Promoters during their visits to local farms, to introduce themselves to people after a wave of new hires in thedepartment.Were going out to the ranches every other Tuesday to help the community get to know our new team, says Laura Rodriguez, who took on the role of Community Mental Health andWellness Director in 2024 and now co-directs the department with Bonner, who supervises the clinical staff. This past year, Diana and I really focused on restructuring our department since we recently joined the team. So now we can really focus on the deliverables of services and programming.This supports how we go about mental health and reducing the stigma [for mental health services] within our community, adds Rodriguez.The department now has a registered associate marriage and family therapist, a registered psychologist associate, and two registered associate social workersmany of whom are bilingualand bicultural. The time is ripe to broaden Puentes vision to match the communitys. Weve grown this year by rooting down and letting those roots grow. And then thats allowed us to expand and reach out, says Bonner. Its an exciting time.T h e C o m m u n i t y M e n t a l H e a l t h a n d W e l l n e s s t e a m p r o v i d e d 1 , 5 5 1i n d i v i d u a l t h e r a p y s e s s i o n s i n f i s c a l y e a r 2 0 2 3 - 2 0 2 4 .12"