The Social Diary – March Madness has begun, Timken, Forsyth’s, and the cutest Frosted Faces

Mix a little stellar comedy, a silent auction, and some devoted Frosted Faces Foundation friends, fans and really fun funny comedians, and you’ve got a winning night. Mike Vinn helped coordinate The Comedy Store fun and funny stand-up performances by Jason Lawhead, Monty Franklin, James Schrader, and Lisa Gilbert. Event committee members Angela Rowe, Rosie McAuliffe, Courtney Olinger, Christina Orlovsky, Rebecca Stepnick, Kim Lohnas, Fred Hill, and Anne Case added their talents. Over $6,000 was raised for adoptable senior dogs.FYI, the Comedy Store family’s Scott Shore is an animal lover himself. He would always bring his dog to the off-the-charts Deasons’ summer parties. Love it! By the way, when you adopt a senior dog from FFF, you get free medical care. How is that for a win-win!Michael and Mariela Brunnhoelzl with Timken’s star President Megan Pogue – Timken.Meanwhile when Tom and Karian Forsyth come to town, the town wakes up with a new level of fashionable. Friends gathered at the Poseidon in Del Mar to toast and mingle the lovely couple who now call the East Coast home.And don’t miss the Timken Museum’s ‘Night Watching’ by world famous artist Rineke Dijkstra based on Rembrandt’s Dutch masterpiece The Night Watch. It’s multi-media, it’s multi-fascinating. A triumphant flip on the POV ie point of view to the viewer viewing the masterpiece while ultimately being viewed! I am going back for a second ‘viewing!’Lauren and Stephen Wemple – Timken.

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Driver gets 8 years prison for two deaths in La Jolla

A driver who was convicted of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated in the deaths of two passengers in La Jolla was sentenced on March 3 to eight years in state prison.The sentence handed down to Peter John Meno, 28, was one year less than the maximum in the deaths of Jaden Rowley, 22, and Matthew “Max” Cate, 19, who were killed on Nov. 22, 2020.“I’m happy for the eight years,” said Neicy Rowley, the mother of Jaden Rowley, afterward.Meno, wearing tan jail clothes, spoke first and apologized to several dozen family members of both victims “for my bad choices that night and for the heartaches and the pain that I may have caused.”The grandfather of one victim repeated Meno’s words – “he may have caused” – to San Diego Superior Court Evan Kirvin, saying Meno was in denial of what he had done.Meno testified at his trial that he had been speeding on Torrey Pines Road and slowed down as he made a left turn onto Girard Avenue in La Jolla around 3:15 a.m. while looking for a taco shop.He lost control of his Nissan Altima and it struck a curb before striking two trees and then losing a tire. The two passengers apparently unfastened their seat belts and Meno claimed both of them stuck their heads out the window. His speed at the time of the collision was 41 mph, and Meno said the passengers caused their own deaths by their actions.“You have ripped my life to shreds,” said Pamela Cate, the mother of Matthew Cate. “You destroyed who I used to be because I will never be the same again.”“Your mother sits over there in tears,” said Cate, gesturing toward her in the audience. “As a mother, I hurt for you.”The jury on Jan. 26 acquitted Meno of committing gross negligence in the crash and found that he committed ordinary negligence. They also convicted him of driving with a suspended license. Meno lost his driver’s license because of prior tickets for speeding and running a red light.“He’s taken responsibility. He was the driver,” said Meno’s girlfriend, Kenna Kurronen. “This is something he will carry for the rest of his life. It’s not true he has no remorse.”“Peter loved Jaden and Max,” said his sister, Arlene Meno. “He is extremely remorseful. He is sad. He deserves compassion. He made a mistake.”Arlene Meno suggested that some of the grieving family members have hatred toward her brother, which was disputed by several relatives.“Thank you for your judgment,” said Laura Sharp, the godmother of Cate sarcastically, telling Meno family members she did not hate Peter Meno. “I wish you well. You could live to be an old man.”Neicy Rowland also disputed that she had hatred for Peter Meno, telling a reporter she allowed him to have a private viewing of her son’s body before the funeral without anyone around.“I wanted him to see the final result of what he did,” said Neicy Rowland. “We didn’t hate him. (He) was already part of the family.”Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright asked for the maximum 9-year term while defense attorney Jodi Green urged a much lower term. Meno must serve 85% of the 8-year term before he can be granted parole.Kirvin said he thought Meno was untruthful in some of his testimony and he said there was “a constant theme from the defendant of trying to shift the blame toward the victims in this case rather than taking accountability for his own actions.”Bright mentioned that someone in Meno’s family sent cookies to the judge’s staff prior to sentencing. All food and gifts that are sent to any judge are automatically returned.Restitution to various victims was left to be determined later. He was fined $650, and given credit for serving 47 days in jail.

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Grant helps UC San Diego School of Medicine launch mental health program

A four-year, $4 million UnitedHealth Group grant is helping UC San Diego expand the state’s mental health workforce with a focus on inclusivity and diversity.With the grant, UC San Diego School of Medicine has launched the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Inclusive Excellence program (CAPIE), an innovative approach to building a more diverse child and adolescent psychiatry workforce.The CAPIE program offers novel learning opportunities, individualized mentorship, pre-clinical courses, and financial support for participating medical students.Yusra Benhalim, M.D., senior national medical director with Optum Behavioral Solutions, who works to provide effective solutions in the child and adolescent psychiatry field, talked about what the grant will allow UC San Diego to do.Yusra Benhalim, M.D., senior national medical director with Optum Behavioral Solutions.“The intention for it was to enable the launch of the CAPIE program, which is not only an investment in the expansion of the mental health worker field itself but also focuses on inclusivity and diversity, hopefully getting a workforce better representative of the communities served,” said Benhalim. “This program is focused on helping students learn more about the field of child and adolescent psychiatry, and getting them connected with opportunities to get mentorships from those who are working in the field, and really understand what a child and adolescent psychologist does.”Based on a survey conducted by UC San Diego, 87% of all students who engaged with the CAPIE program were more likely to pursue child and adolescent psychiatry as their medical specialty. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 1 out of 5 children experience a mental illness in any given year. However, only half of children and adolescents with diagnosable mental health problems receive the treatment they need.According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, California has a mental health worker shortage projected to worsen unless meaningful action is taken to address the problem. Benhalim noted becoming a child and adolescent psychologist is a “long haul,” taking 10 years after college including medical school and an adult psychiatry residency program before someone can become a practitioner.“Those extra years of training are essential to understand the mental health symptoms affecting young people, who can be super emotional when it comes to their mental health and well-being,” said Benhalim. “We learn to work with both the children as well as their families.”Benhalim has first-hand experience with the impact of social inequities in child and adolescent psychiatry, citing an example. “If a parent loses their home, now their child is at-risk for experiencing homelessness,” she said. “So it becomes even more important for us to think about what wrap-around services we can provide to those families.”Meanwhile, the need for trained mental-health practitioners continues to grow. “Across the country for the past several years, we’ve seen a huge surge in the needs of adults and youth when it comes to mental and emotional health treatment and support, particularly youth who are more prone to anxiety and depression,” said Benhalim. “With the impact of COVID and all the other changes and challenges we’ve seen, more and more young people, who are at the mercy of those around them, are reaching out signaling they are struggling more.”Concluded Benhalim: “When we think about mental healthcare, it is essential to think about expanding the workforce. And there are some mental health ‘deserts’ where people just don’t have access to mental health care at all. We need to be able to reach out to support those people earlier, rather than wait for their problems to become more severe and end up requiring a higher level of care. I’m excited about the possibility of making more and more people pivot toward child and adolescent psychiatry as their field of medicine.” 

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