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December 12, 2006

A new television production that airs this week will show voters how a ballot initiative they approved two years ago will increase access to mental health services in Contra Costa County.

Get Ready, Get Healthy, a 30-minute community education show, will air the new program on Thursday, December 14 at 10:30 a.m. and will repeat the following week December 18 at 7:30 p.m. and December 21 at 10:30 a.m. Guests on the show are Scott Singley, Contra Costa Mental Health Commissioner, Donna Wigand, Mental Health Director for the County and Sharon Kuehn, Coordinator for the Office for Consumer Empowerment. (The show will air on Contra Costa Television, channel 27 for Comcast viewers and 32 for those with Astound Cable.)

"We want to let the community know that new mental health programs have been created and will be implemented in early 2007. These new services are the outcome of an extensive planning process that included consumers, family members and mental health provider," said Donna Wigand, Contra Costa Health Services Mental Health Division Director.

Wigand said the program explains the MHSA, the planning process and why there was a need for new services. "The Mental Health Services Act gave us an opportunity for new funding for a system that had been grossly under funded for years. It also gave us a change in how we deliver services and it gave consumers and family members and opportunity to be involved in a higher level of planning," said Wigand.

According to Wigand, the show will include interviews with two people who were involved in the planning process, one a consumer survivor and the other a mental health provider.

"The interviews show how important it was for those involved in the planning process to have had a voice and to have been able to include their insight in the creation of the new services," said Wigand.

Get Ready, Get Healthy is a 30-minute community education show produced collaboratively by Contra Costa Health Services and Contra Costa Television. The program airs every Monday at 7:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m.

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