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A 24/7 psychiatric care center in Tulsa has added a dedicated police entry port and treatment beds to help law enforcement get people in crisis to appropriate help faster.
The Police One Stop is at Family and Children’s Services downtown CrisisCare Center. Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said up to now, officers have often been default mental health responders and have had to decide whether to take someone in crisis to jail, an emergency room or somewhere else. It changes the dynamics of how we used to do things, where officers were driving from one location to another, attempting to find space for an individual in mental health crisis. This stops all of that and allows our officers to get back on the street quicker, and it allows people to get the services they need in a more expeditious manner, Franklin said.
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Though Oklahoma received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, it didnât arrive in Norman until Thursday, when both Griffin Memorial Hospital and Norman Regional Hospital administered the vaccine to some of their employees.
Employees of Griffin Memorial came flooding to the hospitalâs clinic as soon as the vaccine was offered. Within the first hour, over 75 employees of the hospital had already received the vaccination, said Henry Hartsell, executive director of Griffin Memorial.
âThis is wonderful â we are so fortunate here in Norman, Oklahoma to be among some of the first people on the planet to get this vaccine that is going to protect our staff, our patients, their families and the community,â Hartsell said. âItâs an amazing day.â
Mental Health Group Announces New Initiative To Address Tulsa s Meth Addiction Crisis bigcountry995.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bigcountry995.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
TRANSCRIPT:
Katelyn Howard: “Finding Carlos” is based on “Hip Hop Nutcracker,” a production by the RACE Dance Collective in Oklahoma City, which puts a modern twist on Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it from going on the stage this year. What led you to adapt this story for the screen?
Lance McDaniel: So the founder of RACE Dance is Hui Cha Poos, and she created the “Hip Hop Nutcracker.” Every year, they would go into Oklahoma City Public Schools and teach free dance classes, and then the performance at the end of the semester was the “Hip Hop Nutcracker.” So it s a little different every year because they would learn different dances at the different schools, but the main story was instead of Clara, it s a boy Carlos meeting his father for the first time and going on the adventure. She came to me and said, “Lance, we cannot do our ‘Hip Hop Nutcracker.’ Will you do a movie”? And I m like, “100%, I m in no matter what.”
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More than a dozen partners are behind a new treatment program in Tulsa for meth addiction.
During a virtual news conference on Monday, leaders in the plan described meth addiction as a crisis in Tulsa. Interim State Mental Health Commissioner Carrie Slatton-Hodges put it in perspective: In 2013, roughly one in 10 local treatment admissions were for meth. Today, one-third of all Tulsa County substance abuse treatment admissions are for methamphetamine. That is just staggering, Slatton-Hodges said.
The new model, dubbed the Tulsa Methamphetamine Treatment Continuum, involves partners like the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Servies, OSU Center for Health Sciences, 12&12 and the City of Tulsa. It includes steps like increasing the number of beds at treatment provider 12&12, offering gender-specific addiction treatment, and providing sober living support and job services after treatment.