ACCOGLIENZA:
LESSONS FOR AMERICA
Exploring how lessons learned from the Trieste, Italy mental health system could be transformative in the US.
Three fresh impressions from my week in Trieste
I am sitting here in Schiphol International, on a five hour layover heading back home to Los Angeles. My team and I just spent a fast-paced week in Trieste – reconnecting with old friends and forging new connections. We were here to do the advance planning for a study visit that Heart Forward is planning for 20 people in October of this year.
Can We Commit to a Net Zero Loss of Board and Care Beds?
Soon I will be recording a podcast interview with a delightful couple who have operated a board and care home in the San Fernando Valley for the past 22 years. I visited the home last week and met the residents who would be impacted if this husband-wife team elect to close the facility. The human cost of losing of a stable, family-style living arrangement . . .
Radical hospitality is not a new idea
Thank you to Mary Schleicher who responded to my invitation to provide a “guest blog” for Accoglienza. She, too, is deeply interested in the history and application of Radical Hospitality.
What exactly is Radical Hospitality?
This will be a four-part blog. First, I will define Radical Hospitality. Second, I will describe places where Radical Hospitality is evident . . .
Listen and Learn
Tens of thousands of people launch podcasts each year. Many do not survive past three or four episodes. As I bring to a close Season Three of Heart Forward Conversations from the Heart, I completely understand the burden…
For Every Bed Lost a Person is Displaced: California's Continuing Board & Care Crisis
The CORO Fellowship program is a 79-year old, highly respected nine-month public affairs leadership training boot-camp based in five cities…
We Are All Friends of Trieste: Your Help Needed to Save Mental Health System [Update as of 6.22.21]
Several weeks ago, I received alarming news from our friends in Italy. As a result of changes in their regional…
Mothers of Loved Ones with SMI are Tied Up in Nots
Last month, I had the privilege to sit in the Zoom room with yet another group of heroic women who…
How the IMD Exclusion Connects to Our Homeless Crisis
Driving east on Hollywood Blvd two days ago, as my car was stopped at Vine, there was a young man…
A Podcast Borne of the Pandemic
As we put this year to bed, I am highlighting quotable quotes from the ten podcast episodes which comprise Season…
Why Is No One Talking About This Housing Crisis?
What would drive two moms to go on a 3,170-mile journey looking for the housing options available to the most…
RIP DJ Jaffe
During the first month of my two-year Stanton Fellowship in 2016, I stole away to Montana with books to read,…
You Can't Change a System You Never Had in the First Place
The screensaver on my computer is a picture of Sisyphus pushing his rock up hill. That’s what this feels like…
In America We Let People Float Away
I have never watched a single episode of Breaking Bad. I know it won multiple Emmys and other prestigious awards…
The Revolving Door of Jail
I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about a young man I met last July who had…
Imagine Your Smart Phone Was Taken Away During a Global Pandemic
The global pandemic shines a spotlight on the Great Digital Divide. While many of us wax poetic about the wonders…
What Would Basaglia Do?
This virus is the great equalizer, spreading through the earth with impunity and not discriminating as to wealth, class, ethnicity…
Solidarity With Our Italian Friends -- i nostri amici di Trieste
What good could possibly come from a global pandemic? I know we are very early on this journey and the…
Housing + Beds = Meeting Human Needs
Caption: this is a chart our Hollywood Top 14 committee created in 2016 to document the multiple ways in which…
My Year of Learning About Suffering and Hope
I write on January 31, the eve of the one-year departure from my job of 22 years. I left the…
Meet Kerry
Welcome to my blog! I’ve stepped into a new chapter of my life. I am prepared, passionate & inspired to take action on providing accoglienza to America’s mental health system.