The Camp Opehay program is fortunate to be affiliated with the Stanford University Pediatric Bipolar Disorders Program in Palo Alto, California. 

Camp Opehay’s Medical Directors, Drs. Kiki Chang and Shashank Joshi, and Clinical Director, Meghan Howe, M.S.W., all hail from the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Stanford University. 

Stanford University’s School of Medicine’s Pediatric Bipolar Disorder Research Program serves to study the cause, presentation, and treatment of pediatric bipolar disorder (BD). Their central mission is to understand which children are at risk for developing BD so that they can intervene to prevent the disorder. In order to do this, they are conducting studies designed to discover brain and gene abnormalities that are unique to early-onset BD.  Together with early symptoms, these biological "markers" could then be used to predict the amount of risk that children have for developing full-blown BD.  These markers would also provide information on the cause of BD, enabling better treatments to be developed. As BD is a chronic, destructive disorder that affects millions of children, who largely then become adults with BD, they feel it is necessary to focus their efforts on the early identification and prevention.  Additionally, they conduct innovative therapeutic and clinical treatment studies in an effort to create better treatment modalities for children with BD. For more information please visit http://pediatricbipolar.stanford.edu or email the program at PBDPstanford@gmail.com.

The Taylor Family Foundation (TTFF) is Camp Opehay’s main benefactor.  Their generous grant to YBFNC, which funds our use of the Camp Arroyo facility, is why Camp Opehay exists and has continued to thrive since 2005.

TTFF provides a variety of special needs groups with a once-in-a-life-time camping experience at Camp Arroyo, at no charge to their group.  Camp Arroyo was built by TTFF in partnership with the East Bay Regional Park District. The camp’s operator is the YMCA of the East Bay, which also runs its outdoor environmental education program during the school months.  Camp Arroyo is a state-of-the-art camp facility in Livermore, California, built with kids in mind.  The camp’s design takes into consideration the children’s physical and emotional needs and offers a lot of fun in a safe and loving environment.  For more information, visit http://www.ttff.org or email TTFF directly at kids@ttff.org.

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