Raksmey Castleman, Ph.D., is administrator of and , both in San Joaquin County. Born and raised in a refugee camp in Thailand for survivors of the Cambodian genocide, she is passionate about serving the Southeast Asian community, where trauma and PTSD are common experiences, but engagement in mental health services is low. Raksmey's experiences have inspired a life -- and career -- of passionate service, and incredible impact.

ɫ��ɫ is honored to have Raksmey as part of our diverse team of dedicated, creative, compassionate, and effective staff and leaders.

Raskmey Castleman, Ph.D., ɫ��ɫ Program Administrator

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As mental health service providers, we can get lost in the jungle trying to navigate complex systems and symptoms to deliver care to our most vulnerable populations. Sometimes it’s hard to harness motivation to keep pace while at the same time maintaining a semblance of self-care, but Raksmey Castleman, Administrator of or ɫ��ɫ’s and in Stockton, California has some advice: "We don't stop. If we hit a roadblock we will make a detour, and we will create a path to where we find whatever we can, any resources, to make sure that individuals that we serve are able to meet their needs, if they're willing."

Moving Through the Jungle

For nine years, the jungle was Raksmey's reality. In the 1970s, Raksmey was born and raised in the Sok San Tai camp in Thailand along with 60,000 survivors of the Cambodian genocide. Raksmey’s father was the camp doctor and worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and the International Red Cross to advocate for health care services and support for refugees. Her mother was a midwife and a teacher.

“Providers and prescribers kept on telling us, ‘stress is a normal part of life, go outside, go shopping,’��but they didn’t understand the historical context or the implications of how history can impact a community. For many Southeast Asian communities and especially the Cambodian communities, there are no words to describe PTSD.”

"I remember going along with my dad from one hut to the next to provide treatment or to assess the villagers. That was a part of my life. I really liked being part of the community and learning from my father at a young age of the importance of making sure that peoples' needs were taken care of," she said. "As for my mom, I saw her always giving back."

As Raksmey got older, she became captivated by the stories of her fellow Cambodian and Southeast Asian villagers. Many would tell her about the war and how they lived in a constant state of fear. Some had trouble sleeping. Others had nightmares. The more she listened, the more she wanted to better understand why the people she loved were experiencing such distress.

"For my family, at first, nobody wanted to go get help because they didn't know what to say. They were afraid…ashamed that they were feeling the way that they were feeling. Providers and prescribers kept on telling us, ‘stress is a normal part of life, go outside, go shopping,' but they didn’t understand the historical context or the implications of how history can impact a community. For many Southeast Asian communities and especially the Cambodian communities, there are no words to describe PTSD."

Continuing Education

Raksmey moved to Stockton at the age of nine after her grandparents sponsored her family's entry into the United States. Her early college career was nursing, but after one year into the nursing program she re-directed her path to cultural anthropology and public health.  After working with diverse communities for many years and witnessing the health disparities among individuals with mental illness, she strengthened her advocacy to address the stigma surrounding mental health and access to mental health services, especially among Southeast Asian Communities. She eventually went back to graduate school and earlier this year graduated with a Ph.D. in public health with a focus on community health education, and disease prevention.

"Mental health found me, and I’m so grateful. I realized that if we don't start to integrate our mental health with our overall health, the whole dimensions of health, we're not going to be healthy," said Raksmey. 

As a big advocate of ɫ��ɫ’s and the , Raksmey uses those approaches and her unparalleled resilience to deliver services to Transition Aged Youth at TEIR and crisis residential services at Jeremy House.

"With the knowledge in community education and disease prevention and, thank goodness, with the Whole Person Care, I'm able to understand where people are coming from. I don't look at a person for their symptoms. I usually ask people, ‘How can I support you? How are you doing medically? How are you doing physically? How are you doing mentally?' We have to be able to see a person as a whole, using a holistic approach, to fully serve them and meet them where they are."

Community Connections

The city of Stockton has the fifth-largest population of Cambodians in the nation and the second-largest in California. To create a space for healing, three years ago, Raksmey, her husband, and community leaders, started the as a way for the community to honor their ancestors and come together for a moment of healing.

“I don’t look at a person for their symptoms. I usually ask people, ‘How can I support you? How are you doing medically? How are you doing physically? How are you doing mentally?’��We have to be able to see a person as a whole, using a holistic approach, to fully serve them and meet them where they are.”

Beyond Stockton, Raksmey has her sights set out on informing communities across the United States of the impact of PTSD and trauma. She recently came back from a Overseas Khmer Summit 2018 in Minnesota where she and discussed the issue of PTSD in the Cambodian community. After posting the presentation on her Facebook page, a Cambodian professor contacted her and requested she does a virtual presentation for his class at the University of Phenom Phen.

“He said, ‘I don’t think people are aware, or people are afraid to talk about it.’ And he’s right. After the summit, a person came up to me and said, ‘Thank you for bringing this up, I am done hiding, I am done suffering silently alone, I want help, we all need help, and we need to come together as a community to explore this topic even more."

Using Life as Inspiration

As you can probably tell, Raksmey rarely stops moving (but regularly meditates). In addition to being an administrator at two ɫ��ɫ programs, she is a mother of five, a wife, a yoga instructor, a kickboxing enthusiast, and much more.

"I don’t know what it is, I'm just so grateful for life. I always say I am literally from the jungle. Not the concrete jungle, I mean the actual jungle. I am like Tarzan’s sister, you know?" said Raksmey. 

In mental health, her life experience translates to joy in helping people connect and engage in services that inspire hope when all feelings are lost.

"We encourage, we educate and we help people explore ways to allow for them to find their own journey to health and recovery," said Raksmey. "Our own individualized recovery journey is a journey that only the person who is going through it can understand. It doesn't matter how old we are, where we're from or what color we are. Regardless of whichever mental health challenges we have, each one of us deserves to feel appreciated, accepted, respected, and cared for."
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At ɫ��ɫ, we believe that a person's environment plays a significant role in his or her recovery journey. Of course, there are many factors that contribute to a person's overall environment, including physical, social, and natural. When a person is going through a crisis, it is essential that the program environment they walk into is one based on healing so the recovery can begin the second they walk through the doors.

This summer, ɫ��ɫ partnered with  to open three new crisis programs to meet the needs of their community and use the physical environment, RCCS-practices, and personal compassion to transform the crisis experience into a healing opportunity.

"This project highlights the vision and elements of public safety," said Third District Supervisor at the July 19 open house for . "No longer will those community members have to suffer in silence. No longer will they have to travel to an emergency room. They can receive services right here in their own community, where they can knock on the door, walk in, and get the services they need because we came together as a community, as a county, and a state to make sure that they know that they are not alone in their journey to move forward—that we are standing side by side with them to see that change come forward in our community because no one should struggle or be alone with it comes to health and wellness."

Now Open:  (San Bernardino, CA)

Open house for Windsor Center

 is a 20-chair Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) serving residents of San Bernardino County aged 13 and older, 24-hours a day, 7-days per week.

"People feed off energy. If you go into toxic environment, you’re going to feel it. If you go into a healing environment, you'll feel that as well," Theresa McKinley, Administrator at Windsor Center said. “When you create a healing environment, it makes the statement to members that they’re worth being treated well."

Individuals in crisis can access CSU services on their own or by referral (walk-ins welcome). Referrals to the Windsor Center will be accepted from the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) outpatient clinics, full service partnerships (FSP), DBH Community Crisis Response Teams (CCRTs), law enforcement and first responders, hospital emergency rooms, mental health assessment teams, and other county medical clinics and departments.

Now Open: Merrill Center (Fontana, CA)

Open house for Merrill CEnter

is a 20-chair Crisis Stabilization Unit serving residents of San Bernardino County aged 13 and older, 24-hours a day, 7-days per week.

“This experience here is an expression of an incredible partnership,” , President and CEO of ɫ��ɫ said. “We’ve been in San Bernardino County for 15 years, and we’re delighted to have the opportunity to create an inpatient environment for people that really reflects shared values.”

Individuals in crisis can access CSU services on their own or by referral. Referrals to the Merrill Center will be accepted from the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) outpatient clinics, full service partnerships (FSP), DBH Community Crisis Response Teams (CCRTs), law enforcement and first responders, hospital emergency rooms, mental health assessment teams, and
other county medical clinics and departments.

Now Open: Wellspring Center (Fontana, CA)

Open House for Wellspring Center

 is a 16-bed Crisis Residential Treatment (CRT) center serving adult residents of San Bernardino County. Wellspring Center offers short-term, recovery-based treatment options, as well as services and interventions in a home-like setting for up to 90 days. 

“The goal is to get the members motivated to start a recovery journey. To believe that they can engage in a recovery journey,” Larry Lawler, Administrator at Wellspring Center said. “The environment needs to be such where pretty much everything we do is related to trying to get them to understand that they can recover.”

Referrals to the Wellspring Center will be accepted from the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) outpatient clinics, full service partnerships (FSP), DBH Community Crisis Response Teams (CCRTs), law enforcement and first responders, hospital emergency rooms, mental health assessment teams, and other county medical clinics and departments.

The RCCS Tidbit of the Month is part of ɫ��ɫ's Recovery-Centered Clinical System curriculum to reinforce a culture of recovery in mental health service programs. For more information, .

Our lives are filled with connections. Our loved ones, family members, friends, co-workers, neighbors, our pets, our community, our spirituality, and more. At ɫ��ɫ, we believe connections are also a key component of a person's recovery. Connections are an important part of living a healthy, happy life. Research indicates connectedness reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety, and increases resiliency and hope. In fact, loneliness is now being considered as a new social determinate of health. Recognizing the importance of connections to a society, the United Kingdom has even created a Minister of Loneliness to assist citizens who are feeling disconnected.

In ɫ��ɫ's Recovery-Centered Clinical System (RCCS), we view connections on multiple levels: Connection to Self; Connection to Others; Connection to Community; and Connection to Something Bigger.

• Connection to Self involves understanding your values; creating internal boundaries; and being aware of our feelings.

• Connection to Others are those relationships you have with close friends, family, partners, and pets.

• Connection to Community refers to your living environment and relationships in your neighborhood, clubs, church, work, and school.

• Connection to Something Bigger refers to the meaning or purpose in your life, your spirituality, or your recovery journey.

Below is a simple exercise that strengthens connections to your self, others, and your community. Click here to download a PDF version to use at home or in the office.

Practice:

1. In a group of any size, have everyone sit in a circle with a blank piece of paper and pen.

2. Have everyone write their name on the top of the paper.

3. Now, everyone passes their paper to the right and writes down one thing they appreciate or admire about the person whose name is at the top.

4. After 15-20 seconds, everyone passes the paper they have to the right and repeats the exercise.

5. Continue until the papers go full circle and everyone ends up with the paper with their name on it.

6. Review what others wrote about you. Are you surprised? What stands out to you? Do they see things that you don't? What strengths of yours do they see? Consider how you are connected to this community of people.

7. Practice with clients or members of programs, groups, or however you'd like. This practice is geared to help individuals connect to Self, Others and Community.
   

Read More About the RCCS

RCCS Tidbits of the Month

Downloadable Resources

In May, Cigna health insurance released a on loneliness, declaring it an epidemic in the United States with nearly 50 percent of respondents reporting that they sometimes or always feel alone or left out. As research professor at the University of Houston and author Dr. Brené Brown points out in her 2017 book, Braving the Wilderness, "To combat loneliness, we must first learn how to identify it and to see that experience as a warning sign." The best response to that warning sign? Finding and making connections.

At ɫ��ɫ's , a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) in Hayward, California, the feeling of loneliness can be a significant part of the people they serve. Unchecked, loneliness can lead to hopelessness, isolation, and despair. Staff commonly hear that it isn't so easy to make friends, and therefore individuals feel discouraged in their recovery. In Morton Bakar Center's treatment settings, they use a guided conversation taught in ɫ��ɫ's Recovery-Centered Clinical System (RCCS) to inspire hope and resiliency through building connections.

"Some of the most powerful connections happen with fellow consumers," said Julia Egan, Clinical Director at Morton Bakar Center. "Finding another like-minded soul who helps them feel loved and cared about can turn around their life. The power of friendship is universal and something to be treasured."

To read more about building connections to your self, others, and your community, check out our latest RCCS Tidbit of the Month: Connections [link to final blog here] and find a simple practice to try at home or in the office.

For more information on ɫ��ɫ's RCCS, .