SimplePractice Partners with Sidewalk Talk for Community Listening Event
Health and wellness leader supports listening locations during Mental Health Awareness Month
LOS ANGELES – April 30, 2019 – SimplePractice, the industry leader of Practice Management solutions for health and wellness professionals, announced it will co-sponsor the 4th annual Sidewalk Talk event in Santa Monica, CA on Friday, May 17, 2019 from 5:00-7:00pm at ten locations throughout the city.
Sidewalk Talk is a global listening movement dedicated to offering heart-centered listening opportunities in public spaces. The community-driven volunteer effort was founded by licensed therapists, psychologists, and CBS News appointed USA Minister of Loneliness, Traci Ruble.
Loneliness and isolation can affect people of all ages, especially the elderly. It can be a contributing factor for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. Loneliness can also cause chronic stress, age the body, and damage an individual’s overall well-being.
“As the rates of loneliness and disconnection continue to rise, the work we do to empower health and wellness is more critical than ever. Sidewalk Talk aligns closely with our belief that empathy and human connection drive positive transformation,” said Howard Spector, CEO and Co-Founder of SimplePractice. “Helping people engage with each other builds healthy communities and ultimately healthier individuals.”
According to a recent study, nearly half of Americans now say they sometimes or always feel alone, and one in five says they rarely or never feel close to anyone nor feel as though there are people who really understand them. During National Mental Health Awareness Month, SimplePractice and Sidewalk Talk are committed to listening and addressing the epidemic of loneliness.
“Our listening efforts have grown drastically. We receive calls from people all around the world asking how they can start their own chapters. In response, we decided to make Sidewalk Talk a non-profit,” said Traci Ruble, co-creator and global producer of the community listening project. “We need a way to connect with and hear the stories of people that are different than we are. The more people we get to know, the wider our embrace of humanity becomes. We want to usher in health beyond the therapist’s office by nurturing human connections.”
SimplePractice will facilitate the Southern California event and train approximately seventy volunteer listeners.
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About SimplePractice:
Trusted by over 35,000 customers, industry leader SimplePractice empowers health & wellness professionals to run their businesses more efficiently, streamlining administrative tasks, enabling regulatory compliance, and improving documentation and payments. Offering features like a mobile app, paperless intake, customizable progress notes, Telehealth, secure messaging, integrated credit card processing, client scheduling, template library, and more. SimplePractice is a HIPAA compliant, fully integrated practice management platform. SimplePractice is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Visit simplepractice.com for more information.
About Sidewalk Talk:
Sidewalk Talk has over 5,000 volunteers world-wide, with chapters in over fifty cities and twelve countries. Sidewalk Talk is 100% volunteer organization. The first Sidewalk Talk event took place on May 7th, 2015 in twelve locations throughout San Francisco. Listeners set up chairs, signs, and listen to pedestrians who wanted to be heard. Soon after, a group from Los Angeles asked to reproduce the event. To date, Sidewalk Talk has listened to over 12,000 people and referred over 400 people to low fee or no fee mental health support.