June 4th, 2011

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

On behalf of the Board, please accept my heartfelt gratitude for all the warm and wonderful comments that have been made about our inaugural Psychologically Healthy Community Awards Event that took place on May 21st, 2011. What a great experience for all of us! It truly was inspirational - and educational - to hear about the extraordinary things people are doing, day in and day out, to help our beautiful Hudson Valley community become even more psychologically healthy.

For those of you who were unable to join us that evening, you can read my welcoming remarks by opening the attachment to this letter.  Even more importantly, however, was Dr. Rebecca Rooney's closing remarks.  She challenged all of us to contribute something on a regular basis to our community's psychological health.  Let's take up the gauntlet:  By May 21st, 2012, let's donate 1,000 community service hours!

With the Association being 75 members strong, we're looking at only about a 14 hours a year per person. Are you already doing volunteer work in your community? If so, start logging! If not, are you willing to share your talents and skills for about an hour a month? Are you up to the challenge?

Any kind of volunteer work that promotes psychological health counts! As many of us already do, we can continue to provide pro-bono professional services.  Other ideas include writing newspaper articles, giving talks, and serving on the HVPA Board of Directors.

And speaking of Board service, now is the perfect time to nominate yourself or a fellow member for a position on the HVPA Board for the 2011-2012 term. Details on how to nominate someone are forthcoming.

Imagine - one year from now, we could say proudly that HVPA members are doing their part to engender psychological health in the Hudson Valley.

Imagine the ripple effects of that!

Cheers,
Lenore Strocchia-Rivera, Ph.D.
HVPA President

From the 2011 Psychologically Healthy Community Awards Reception & Ceremony - 5/21/2011

Good evening Distinguished Guests.

We have all been focused these days on ways to resurrect and improve the economic health of the Hudson Valley.  Let's shut that screen down for a few hours.

Tonight, in a month busy with celebrations of all sorts, we have come together to imagine and celebrate psychologically healthy communities.

We already know what a psychologically healthy community is not.  A psychologically healthy community is NOT a community where a desperate person jumps from one of the bridges that connect our shores OR a community where bullying stalks the halls of our schools OR where alcohol and automobiles speed our roads.  A psychologically healthy community is NOT a community where family members hurt one another.  We also know what a psychologically healthy community IS. And we know that because all of you have dared to imagine it.

A psychologically healthy community IS a community that builds SYSTEMS, systems of psychological helpers automatically activated when emergencies happen. Some of you have thought about this and have joined your specialties and your energies to build new paradigms for such systems.

A psychologically healthy community IS a community that COLLABORATES, collaborates to look out for the psychological health of all of its citizens, the abused child, the solitary elderly, the veteran and his or her family, the mentally ill. Most of you are part of that collaborating energy.

A psychologically healthy community IS a community that ANTICIPATES, anticipates that emotional problems will creep up on, stealthily overtake and surely overwhelm the patient or family dealing with a major physical illness. Some of you have anticipated and carefully planned for your patients' emotional needs.

A psychologically healthy community IS led by CREATIVE AND COMPASSIONATE crafters of the law AND enforcers of the law. Some of you have taken the law lead.

A psychologically healthy community has a media that reports the community's problems AND becomes an activist for solutions to those problems.

A psychologically healthy community UPLIFTS PEOPLE, STRENGHTENS FAMILIES, AND ENGENDERS THE WELL-BEING OF ALL ITS PEOPLE. It applauds the efforts of those who work together to make the world a better place.

A psychologically healthy community FLOURISHES, individually and collectively.  In the Hudson Valley, you have begun to imagine a psychologically healthy community. I want to extend my personal thanks and the Hudson Valley Psychological Association's respect and deep appreciation to each of you for helping to make Orange, Ulster, and Dutchess Counties a GOOD place to call "home."

Lenore Strocchia-Rivera, Ph.D
HVPA President