Recent News

January 10, 2019 Farmers in North Dakota are experiencing significant stress and are in need of mental health services. To meet the need in their community, Jamestown Regional Medical Center in Jamestown, North Dakota has partnered with the Village to pilot offering mental health services to vulnerable farmers. ead the full article provided by Valley […]

South Carolina receives a three year grant to build new mental health courts and conduct research on outcomes. To read more, CLICK HERE.

The updated SHAPE system is here! The SHAPE System, developed by the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is a free, private, web-based portal that offers a virtual workspace for school mental health teams at school, district, and state levels to document, track, and advance […]

Students of all ages have unmet mental health needs that affect their performance in school. How can educators and school personnel respond to the mental health needs of students? What do educators and school personnel need to know about child and adolescent mental health? Where can school districts, schools, and staff access training on how […]

The American Indian and Alaska Native MHTTC and PTTC have awarded scholarships to two youth to attend this year's CADCA’s National Leadership Forum/SAMHSA’s 16th Prevention Day. The conference will occur February 3-6, 2020 in National Harbor, Maryland. CADCA is a leading substance use prevention organization. The two youth chosen to attend are Stevi Johnson, of Absentee-Shawnee and Sac […]

Click here to register for the free webinar series.   In the Managing Chronic Pain in the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Webinar Series, Drs. Christian Klepper, Chase Grosse and Tyler Brown will discuss the ways behavioral health providers understand, assess and manage chronic pain in the primary care setting. The first webinar will focus […]

January 7, 2020 In many rural communities the local grocery store is the only source of fresh and healthy food, so the loss of these stores poses a risk for the health of rural residents. Lack of fresh produce has been closely linked to several chronic health conditions. “In North Dakota, a study of over […]

January 6, 2020 Due to the limited access to therapists it can be difficult for rural Montanans to get the care they need. Researchers and mental health advocates in Bozeman, Montana are studying the effectiveness of Thrive, an online program intended to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, in hopes they can adjust it to […]

Editors' Note: This story ran in our January newsletter, published Jan. 6.   Our Center hosted two six-hour workshops on motivational interviewing in Spencer, Iowa, in late November.   Bill Baerentzen, Ph.D., taught the training sessions, geared toward practitioners. Nearly 50 people attended the workshops.   "Often, the choices we make are informed by conflicting thoughts and […]

Editors' Note: This story ran in our January newsletter, published Jan. 6.   In early December, the Mid-America MHTTC selected nine teams from schools and districts in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska to participate in our inaugural Regional School Mental Health Learning Community beginning this month.   The Learning Community, conducted in partnership with the National Center on […]

January 2, 2020 The Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) has been engaged in efforts to implement new Psychiatric Advance Directives* (PAD) legislation in Colorado. As part of this engagement, a Mountain Plains MHTTC staff member attended workgroup meetings, helped create training materials for the general public, and contributed to the development of […]

December 30, 2019 Rural communities have become the symbol of the opioid epidemic. Deaths from drug overdose are more common in rural areas than in urban areas, this is partially because rural communities have far less access to treatment and care for addiction than more populated regions. The burden of responding to the opioid epidemic […]

See the wealth of trainings and events on the National MHTTC Training and Events Calendar!

December 17. 2019 Nationally, law enforcement officers are the most likely responder to encounter a person experiencing a mental health crisis. For this reason, law enforcement agencies and state legislators have been working to improve compliance efforts and establish alternatives to divert people with mental health issues away from participation in the criminal justice system. […]

December 11, 2019 Farm Bureau, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the National Farmers Union have partnered on a program offering both online and in-person trainings to those who interact with farmers to provide them with the tools to identify signs of stress and other mental health concerns. Farmers experience higher levels of psychological distress […]

Check it out!  We are featured in a front page article in the Winter 2019-2020 edition of the NJAMHAA News, titled Free Training and Assistance Available on Many Prevention and Treatment Topics.

December 12, 2019 After being shaken by the suicide of a coworker, the co-owner of the RK construction company, Jon Kinning, worked with mental health experts to put together a suicide prevention model specific to the construction industry. “Construction and mining (including oil drilling) have the highest suicide rates of all occupations, according to data […]

December 11, 2019 The Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center team is dedicated to addressing rural mental health. However, they also recognize that the agricultural community encounter unique challenges related to the accessibility, availability, and acceptability of mental health services. In response, specific trainings and resources have been developed to address mental health and […]

October 1, 2019 The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) recently released an evidence-based resource guide on First-Episode Psychosis and Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders. According to SAMHSA, “this guide supports healthcare providers, systems, and communities to address first-episode psychosis and co-occurring substance use disorders. It describes relevant research, examines emerging and best practices, […]

December 5, 2019 The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is requesting input on the draft National Institute of Mental Health Strategic Plan for Research. Your feedback can help guide the future of mental health research efforts and priorities at NIMH. Every five years, NIMH publishes a Strategic Plan for Research to accelerate progress in […]

December 5, 2019 The Rural Health Information Hub in partner with the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis has developed a new issue guide on farmer mental health and suicide prevention. This new issue guide discusses the rising mental health crisis in farming communities and provides information on organizations and model programs that are […]

This fall, the governor of Oklahoma commuted over 500 individuals’ sentences, marking the largest single-commutation in American history. The act of clemency applied to individuals convicted of a non-violent offense. The governor’s orders come at the heels of Oklahoma reclassifying certain minor felonies as misdemeanors in 2016. All this, though great news for criminal justice […]

Editors' Note: This story ran in our December newsletter, published Dec. 2.       The first-ever quarterly meeting of the Mid-America Technology Transfer Center (TTC) Advisory Board took place on Nov. 21 in Omaha.   The board is a joint effort between the Mid-America Addiction, Mental Health, and Prevention TTCs, and members are comprised of state leadership in […]

Editors' Note: This story ran in our December newsletter, published Dec. 2.   Mid-America MHTTC lent its expertise in school mental health to attendees of the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH)'s annual conference Nov. 7-9 in Austin, Texas.   "The Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health was an excellent opportunity for us to learn […]