CALM WATERS

PROJECT PURPOSE

The Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact every aspect of our lives, creating mental health challenges that range from minor (lethargy, ?the blahs?) to severe (depression, toxic grief, suicidal ideation). For those of us with pre-existing mental health issues, the last three years have been unbearable. Our hearts are breaking for our children, whose emotional, social, and educational development has been damaged in yet unknown ways. Whether you lost a loved one to COVID, or just lost years to the shutdown, the pandemic has created immeasurable levels of grief in our community. As central Oklahoma?s only grief center, Calm Waters is the only organization positioned to address large scale casualty tragedies. Through the funding support of ARPA, Calm Waters will provide six one-hour COVID-focused grief counseling sessions for 200 individuals. The project will also provide FREE COVID-focused support services to about 125 individuals, including FREE grief support groups for students and families, as well as FREE COVID Grief and Trauma Workshops for teachers/school staff and frontline workers.

EVIDENCE

Calm Waters has served Oklahomans experiencing grief and loss for 30 years, providing support groups and grief counseling to nearly 55,000 children, teens and adults. Our programs have proven success as the only grief center in Central Oklahoma serving the entire family. With the support of ARPA, Calm Waters will expand its programming to serve individuals, families, frontline workers and educators struggling with anxiety, stress, and depression related to living in the age of COVID. We are all affected by the pandemic, but those seeking our services will likely be directly affected by a COVID-related death, divorce, job loss, housing loss, family issues, and/or underlying mental health issues exacerbated by COVID. We anticipate serving about 325 total individuals with support from ARPA funds: ? 125 individuals will participate in FREE COVID-focused grief support groups and workshops for teacher/school personnel and frontline workers. ? 200 individuals will participate in six one-hour COVID-focused grief counseling sessions. (Each counseling ?client? could represent one child, one individual, one couple, or one family). Last year, Calm Waters served a total of 311 counseling clients, a 65% increase over 2020. 60% were families; 5% were couples; and 35% were individuals. 70% were under age 18. Clients pay for services on a sliding scale determined by income with some paying as little as $5/session. Last year, 94% of patients qualified for reduced counseling fees, with nearly half (47%) paying less than $20/session. The average client paid $40/session. The actual cost is $150/session, so Impact Oklahoma would subsidize $90/session on average. The purpose of the project is to help our clients manage their COVID-related grief and trauma in a positive way to improve family functioning and quality of life, and help them feel less overwhelmed, more hopeful about the future. Calm Waters counseling services, support groups, and workshops/trainings help prevent traumatic stress from becoming a chronic, lifelong burden, and promote health, hope, and healing for the whole family.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

David* died last December, just three days after his COVID diagnosis, leaving behind his beloved wife Teresa* and three children, including infant twins. To protect others from infection, Teresa grieved at home alone for more than a week. This past year during the holidays, Teresa was struggling, but she tried to hold it together for her three children. She is all they have. COVID created thousands of COVID widows and widowers in our community; many are young parents like Teresa ? mourning her husband and the future she and David had planned, overwhelmed by the sudden burden of raising her children alone. It also created tremendous mental health challenges for frontline workers who witnessed so much death as well as educators and school counselors who fought daily to continue educating and serving our youngest population - children. Think of all the people David?s death has affected ? his parents who are now childless, longtime friends, dozens of co-workers, his church family. Long-term, David?s death is likely to shape the way his children form relationships and navigate the world. Oklahoma has lost nearly 14,000 people to this pandemic. Each death represents a life gone too soon; a family forever changed. Nurses and doctors who lost a patient, a workplace or senior center that lost a valued member. Our mission is to support individuals on their grief journey by providing the services they need to recover from traumatic loss. Free Grief Support groups are the foundation of our mission, but some clients need more intensive, personalized counseling to prevent their grief from becoming chronic, or evolving into serious mental health issues like persistent complex bereavement disorder. Traumatic loss can be death or divorce, but in this case, it is a shared loss of ?the way things were? pre-COVID that manifests differently for each person. Calm Waters is central Oklahoma?s only grief center, and we specialize in mitigating the negative impacts of grief, whether that grief is personal or communal.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Evaluation is an invaluable tool in providing Calm Waters feedback about all programs. Calm Waters utilizes this data to measure individual and program outcomes, and to assess whether community needs are being met. Counseling: All Calm Waters counseling clients are administered a survey at intake and termination (when services end). Clinicians measure the client?s ability to use healthy coping skills in physical, cognitive, social, and emotional domains as well as their level of symptomology (anxiety, depression, conflict in relationships). Clients will complete a client service questionnaire at termination to assess the overall quality and efficacy of services received. Parents complete these surveys for their children. In 2021, 90% of adult clients who completed treatment reported significant improvements in their emotional and mental health, quality of their relationships, ability to cope, and performance at work. Additionally, 100% of child clients who completed treatment demonstrated positive changes in the quality of their relationships and in their ability to cope, as well as a decrease in mental health symptoms (such as anxiety and depression). Support Group clients participate in an intake with a clinician/school counselor before joining a support group to evaluate their coping skills. Clients are allowed to participate in groups as long as they feel they need to. There is no time limit. Once clients are ready to leave the support group, evaluations for each family are completed at the end of group, three months, six months, and nine months to track if families still feel equipped to cope with grief.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma