Executive Director's June Message

I am touched to see that #LoveWillKeepUsTogether is the theme for this year’s San Francisco Pride 2022 celebration, which takes place on June 25 and 26. Love sustains us all and may be why San Francisco remains a resilient and welcoming city.

At the heart of Pride is the unifying message of inclusion, a core value of the San Francisco Health Service System. The City’s Office of Transgender Initiatives offers Transgender 101, a course that provides an introduction to gender concepts and identities, and an overview of the City’s Gender Inclusion Policy. Educate yourself on why pronouns matter or take a course on gender diversity.

Yet, even in times of celebrating who we are, it is important to look back and acknowledge the challenges and adversity that we continue to face as a nation.

Juneteenth (short for June 19th) commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. Throughout the month of June, our Well-Being team, in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health, is offering Working While Black: Healing Circle, a safe space to discuss and explore chronic and acute experiences of racial trauma. Still, 157 years after the end of slavery, the nation struggles to process another racially targeted mass shooting, this time in Buffalo, New York.

Again, the most recent shooting at the Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that took the lives of 19 children and two adults, we are confronted with yet another national tragedy.

We are all affected by these events, particularly the parents of young children. Collective trauma from events such as mass shootings can impact our mental health. If you are experiencing difficulties coping with these recent tragic events, reach out for help. You can access your mental health benefits through your health plan or call our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for help.

These recent events can strengthen our resolve to practice kindness, compassion, and inclusion with others. We can persevere and build up our resilience to aid us as we face current and past trauma. Let us rally around the #LoveWillKeepUsTogether theme of San Francisco Pride 2022.

Be well,

Abbie Yant, MA, RN