On March 24, 2020, our club had its first virtual meeting via Zoom.  The meeting was a great success! We had 52 attendees.  We will continue to use this platform going forward and will provide additional information to members about these meetings going forward.  Feel free to watch the meeting by clicking the link below.

 

 

    

Julie Bluhm is the former Director of Clinical Innovation for Hennepin Health and specializes in working with youth. She joined Guild, Inc. 2 ½ years ago, an organization that serves 900 persons 16 years old and older living and coping with serious mental illness in the Twin Cities metro area. Guild, Inc. has a staff of over 200 people and is mostly funded through Medicaid reimbursement for their services.

 

Julie began her talk with an illustration regarding the stigma of mental illness. If someone found something physically off or wrong in their body, they would openly go to a doctor seeking diagnosis and treatment. Mental illness is often kept in the shadows, and when it comes to getting help it is hard to know what to do, where to get help, and how the services are paid through health insurance. This is a crisis—in 2019, 782 Minnesotans died of suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people.

 

The number of people homeless and living in the streets is another crisis associated with untreated or inadequately treated mental illness. There were 1272 Minnesotans living outside, without shelter, in January 2019. When the Hastings State Hospital closed in the 1970’s, with the belief that treating people with mental illness in less restrictive community settings would be better, the Guild of Catholic Women formed to help provide services to fill the gaps. Today, known as “Guild, Inc.” a residential treatment program with 66 beds is operated to help people living with mental illness. Julie provided several examples of the difficulty of obtaining treatment –private insurance often has very limited networks of outpatient therapists in their coverage, inpatient therapy is only for those very acute patients, and a system of community care was never really built after the state hospitals closed.

 

Guild, Inc. works to see people with mental illness as people, first and foremost. What are they like? What are their strengths? Working to get the homeless off the streets and into treatment is part of their important mission. Julie estimates that 90% of the homeless persons they work with have a serious mental illness. Living on the streets ages people quickly, as the homeless are often victimized. A new residential treatment center will be opening soon in Savage, MN, which is a much-needed addition to the current resources available.

 

Diagnosing and treating mental illness right away is important, and to do that we need to break the stigma. More young people and celebrities are talking openly about their struggles, which gives people permission to tell their stories. Bringing mental illness into the open is the first step to seeing people’s strengths, creating solutions, and restoring health. 

 

*Edvard Philipson, a Rotarian from Mexico City, joined the club for our meeting today. Edvard just joined Starkey Hearing in Eden Prairie, and has been in Minnesota for training. His grandfather was a Rotarian and last December, Edvard joined the first English speaking Rotary Club in Mexico City—they have 25 members, currently.
* Nathan Nyren asked Rotarians to include Ricky (RYE student from Brazil) in their activities March 30-April 3rd, during EPHS’ spring break.
* Aaron Orwick was back with us after a business trip to India. While there he visited the Bangalore Indiranagar Rotary Club for a meeting, and exchanged flags.
* RYE student Clementine enjoyed seeing a production of My Fair Lady with Jane McGinty and family.
* NOTE: Several meetings and fellowship opportunities were announced, but subsequently cancelled due to the physical distancing directives stemming from the COVID 19 pandemic.

 

One of this year’s new club members, “DD” began his short vocational by explaining how to pronounce his name. “Repeat after me—Dave Joe Tea—that is how you say my first name. My last name is Dee-Way-Dee. Easy!” He went on to explain that all names in India have a meaning, and his birth story (hospital losing power for an extended time, coming on when he was born) led to his name. “Deb” means God, and “Jyoti” means light. “DD” came to the U.S. in 2010, attending NDSU where he received his Master’s degree in computer science. He joined the U.S. Army on August 13, 2015, becoming a commissioned officer in November 2019. Debjyoti filed to run for the Eden Prairie School Board --also on the 13 th , a significant number in his life--and was elected last fall, sworn in and began his service in January of this year. In addition to his public service, Debjyoti is an active volunteer for Immigration Voice where he services as Senior Vice President for Policy and Strategy. He is also a volunteer for Compete America, an immigration advocacy group, and part of the American Enterprise Institute’s Leadership Network. Prior to running for school board, “DD” served on the Eden Prairie Conservation Commission. Professionally, Debjyoti works for Code 42, a local IT company. Fun fact: Debjyoti and President John Crudele are now neighbors in Eden Prairie, living in the same townhouse development near Eden Prairie Center. DD shared his love of family, showing pictures of beloved relatives in India and expressing gratitude for their sacrifices, support, and inspiration.

March 10 th marked the induction of yet another new member to the Eden Prairie A.M. Rotary Club. Tim Connors, sponsored by Frank Sherwood, was officially welcomed into membership. Tim and Frank worked together at Rosemount/Emerson years ago and Frank heartily recommended Tim for the fellowship and service of Rotary. Tim, recently retired, is an engineer who received his degree from the University of MN and went on to attain his MBA from MIT. Cars are one of his hobbies, and he owns 5 including 2 Porsches that he races at Brainerd. Tim is also a philanthropist, serving as President of an organization titled “Camp Rising Sun”, and he has a keen interest in Rotary’s international service.

Austin Link - Prospective Member

Edvard Philipson - Rotarian

Mary Jo Sherwood - Guest of Frank Sherwood

Eric Wessels - Prospective Member

Kayla Keddie and Kevin Gao - Student Interns

Their generous support helps sponsor all that our club does in our community and around the world! This includes the Above and Beyond Awards Dinner, the Golden Eagle Awards, the Ethics Lunch and STRIVE scholarships and much more. Interested in becoming a Rotary Sponsor? Click here