No Wrong Door: Connecting Residents to Mental Health and Substance Use Support

Rebecca Elwell leading a No Wrong Door session

Where do we turn when we or someone we love needs help addressing a mental health or substance use condition? Often, people in need of help with these challenges don't know where to turn. Rhode Island's No Wrong Door initiative addresses this crucial need by connecting Newport County residents with a continuum of care best suited to their recovery.

No Wrong Door RI is a strong, substantive network of behavioral health and community organizations that links a wide array of services across Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Little Compton, Tiverton and Jamestown. The initiative ensures that if someone asks about getting help from any organization in the network, they are never in the wrong place. They will receive the information and care they need from the best resources available.

Throughout this program, Newport County residents are connected with a diverse group of professionals, including licensed social workers and substance use specialists. This comprehensive approach ensures that individuals can access the specific support they need, regardless of which organization they initially contact.

The underlying concept behind No Wrong Door's model has been practiced in communities throughout the world in recent years. In Newport County, the idea emerged from collaborative brainstorming among local healthcare leaders. Dr. Jon Brett, a clinical psychologist at Newport Hospital, along with Linda Hurley from CODAC and Jamie Lehane from Newport Mental Health, recognized the absence of a continuum of care for residents of Newport County and saw the need for such a model in his own community.

In a 2018 conversation, Dr. Brett described this need to Diana Oehrli, Trustee of the Gruben Charitable Foundation. Diana shared this information with then-Salve Regina President Sister Jane Gerety, who saw an opportunity to convene local nonprofits and discuss the need for increased collaboration. Sister Gerety invited a handful of organizations to a small lunch to explore ways to best address our community's needs.

"During that lunch, it became clear that communication between organizations could only be in the best interest of Newport County residents," Diana Oehrli said. "If there is a perception of a waiting list at one organization when there isn't one, that's a problem."

That convening and subsequent planning conversations with the van Beuren Foundation yielded No Wrong Door RI as a program of Strategic Prevention Partnerships, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing community health led by Rebecca Elwell, who was involved through her role as Director of the Newport Prevention Coalition. Rebecca now leads the No Wrong Door program. In describing the impact of No Wrong Door, she says, "Our greatest achievement has been to bring community members with genuine lived experience to the table - providing an opportunity for them to shape and guide behavioral health services based on their own experiences within the system. We seek to amplify the voices of folks that for too long have been unheard."

We encourage you to visit No Wrong Door's web site and their program descriptions to become more familiar with the network's scope. And we encourage you to share this information with family, friends, and colleagues so all of our community members know that there is a wide, accessible network of supports available for everyone who needs it.

Bike Newport Unveils 'Traffic Garden': Innovative Space Teaches Road Safety to Young Cyclists

Bike Newport’s  new Traffic Garden.

Bike Newport is committed to encouraging the switch from cars to bicycles, enabling a more complete appreciation of Newport's beauty. The organization fosters an environment conducive to increased biking for both transportation and recreation. Their efforts are instrumental in transforming Newport into a bike-friendly city through education, advocacy, and community engagement.

Recently, Bike Newport unveiled the Traffic Garden, a vibrant educational space at Miantonomi Park's edge on Hillside Avenue. This reimagined parking lot now features a mini streetscape with painted roadways, where young cyclists learn about road markings, crosswalks, and traffic signs in a car-free environment. This initiative not only improves road safety education but also promotes respect among all road users.

Located near several community hubs, including Pell Elementary School and the Florence Gray Community Center, the Traffic Garden is easily accessible, especially for those without cars or reliable transit.

During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Newport Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong highlighted the project's contribution to the city's health, safety, and well-being. He commended Bike Newport for transforming a vacant city space into a valuable community asset.

For more information on the Traffic Garden and other Bike Newport initiatives, visit their website. Don't miss experiencing the Traffic Garden in person!

RISHM: Unveiling Rhode Island's Hidden History Through Medallion Markers

Charles Roberts, Founder of RISHM, with Reverend Bishop Nicholas Knisely and Reverend Canon Timothy Watt at the dedication of the medallion marker at Trinity Church in Newport.

At the core of Rhode Island Slave History Medallion's (RISHM) mission lies its commitment to nurturing healthy communities where medallion markers promote recognition of the lives and contributions of people of color in our nation's founding and for nearly four centuries. RISHM conducts research and collaborates with historic sites to install bronze medallions. They also organize public ceremonies that unveil the little known stories of the enslaved, honoring their lives and contributions through multicultural performances and humanities programs helping to inspire understanding and foster racial healing.

These medallion markers highlight Rhode Island's rich and diverse cultural heritage, extracting documented stories of Black and Indigenous people from dusty history archives and placing them squarely in the light for all to access. In doing so, these medallions challenge the prevailing, exclusive narrative of white-only history by providing an inclusive lens through which our diverse population can engage with history, explore their heritage, cultivate deeper empathy, and foster a healthier, more inclusive environment.

The first maker was installed at Bowen's Wharf in Newport, a site that witnessed the arrival and departure of enslaved individuals on sailing ships during the 18th century, as well as their labor in trades related to maritime commerce. Since the installation of this first marker, the project has expanded significantly, with additional markers finding homes in Barrington, Bristol, East Greenwich, Jamestown, Newport, North Kingstown, Portsmouth, Providence, and Warren.

RISHM's ambitious goal is to install at least one medallion in each of the 25 Colonial era cities and towns linked to slavery, thus creating a comprehensive Medallion Map of Remembrance. This map, a vital component in Rhode Island’s Heritage and Cultural Diversity program, will serve as both a physical and a virtual roadmap, guiding residents, students, researchers, visitors, and particularly families of BIPOC descent toward an inclusive understanding of our state's history.

In addition to their medallion installations, RISHM offers a breadth of related programming, including walking tours, speaking engagements, events celebrating Black History Month and Juneteenth, anti-bias training, and curriculum development.

We encourage you to visit the medallion sites, scan the associated QR codes, and delve into the important stories anchored in these locations. RISHM offers us a vital opportunity to deepen our understanding of Rhode Island's history and heritage. For more detailed information about the sites and programming, please visit https://rishm.org/.

Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute Launches Groundbreaking Psilocybin Study for Treatment-Resistant OCD

The Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute has embarked on an innovative research project investigating the therapeutic uses of psilocybin for a wide range of psychiatric disorders. With multi-year support from the Gruben Charitable Foundation, the hospital is currently preparing for a five-year pilot study of psilocybin for patients with treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Rhode Island Hospital psychiatrist Mohamed Sherif, MD, PhD, will lead the study. “In depression, psilocybin and ketamine seem to work by triggering brain changes much faster than with current treatment,” says Dr. Sherif. “In addition, psilocybin effects seem to be lasting longer. It is encouraging to examine psilocybin’s therapeutic potential in OCD as well.”

You can read more about this cutting edge research in a recent Lifespan article. We are delighted to support this work, and we look forward to learning from the results of the study.