Products and Resources Catalog

About The Webinar This session provides opportunities for participants to think about ways school systems help or harm students, families, and staff, and how the Interconnected Systems Framework promotes wellness, healing, and equitable mental health supports in schools. Committing to equity means committing to disrupting harm interpersonally as well as institutionally.   Learning Objectives: Learn about inequitable school systems and the impacts educational inequities have on student mental health and well-being. Understand how the Interconnected Systems Framework supports equity, promotes wellness and a healing approach to school mental health. Learn about vulnerable decision points and neutralizing routines. Be able to access resources to support their efforts to dismantle inequitable and harmful systems and promote wellness and healing   Resources Leadership, ISF, and Equity: Do Our Systems Harm or Help! with Susan Barrett, Kurt Hatch, and Jessica Swain-Bradway (PDF)   About The Speakers Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway is the Executive Director for Northwest PBIS Network. Her work in school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW-PBIS) and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) focuses on equipping teachers with high leverage strategies for instruction, relationship-building, and designing effective learning environments. She has extensive experience supporting districts and states to build capacity for PBIS implementation and working across agencies to maximize resources for developing the organizational health of the school environment. Dr. Swain-Bradway also has expertise aligning restorative practices, mental health practices, including trauma informed care, and academic RtI into the SWPBIS framework.   Kurt Hatch M.Ed. A former teacher, instructional coach and award-winning principal, Kurt Hatch has served as a leader in a variety of systems including Puyallup, Kent, University Place, North Thurston and Shanghai, China.  Currently based out of Olympia, Kurt serves as Associate Director at the Association of Washington School Principals.  His work includes policy analysis, advocacy, leading the Mastering Principal Leadership Network and facilitating professional learning on topics such as: Systems Improvement; Distributed Leadership; and Equity, Bias and Race. Kurt also mentors early-career principals and trains school leaders on the implementation of a school-wide student support system that has helped recapture thousands of hours of instructional time, increase teacher efficacy and eliminate the use of suspensions.   Susan Barrett, MA, serves as a Director for the Center for Social Behavior Supports Center (CSBS) at Old Dominion University and an Implementer Partner with the U.S. National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). She assists with large-scale implementation of PBIS; partners with researchers to evaluate the impact of PBIS on students, school staff, and school communities; and serves on the Association of Positive Behavior Supports Board of Directors. She also co-leads the development of the Interconnected Systems Framework, a mental health and PBIS expansion effort. Susan has been published in the areas of large-scale adoption of PBIS, mental health, cost-benefit analysis, advanced tier system development, and adoption of evidence-based practices in schools.   About The Series  The Northwest MHTTC and the Pacific Southwest MHTTC are continuing our partnership to provide and extend deeper technical assistance on the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF). Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) is a structure and process that maximizes effectiveness and efficiency by blending the strengths of school and community mental health with strengths of the multi-tiered framework of PBIS (Barrett, Eber, Weist, 2013) This past year, we offered three webinars on the Interconnected Systems Framework (see below for recordings) and followed the learning series up with monthly discussion hours led by Susan Barrett and field leaders from our region. This year, we are offering more programming to deepen your ISF work and contextualize ISF to this moment of COVID-19 and beyond. Our fall offering is made up of four modules and ends with a town hall for you to be able to ask faculty your questions and resource one another. Each module includes teaching from Susan Barrett and field leaders on ISF systems, and USC faculty on ISF practices.   Learn more about the full series schedule and access all recordings & presentation materials here.  Want more information and school mental health resources? Visit the Northwest MHTTC's School Mental Health page and sign up for our monthly newsletter for regular updates about events, trainings, and resources available to the Northwest region.

In this session, we discussed key cultural issues for understanding the causes and manifestations of psychiatric disorders in persons of Indian origin from India/South Asia in the United States. We will also discuss approaches to the management of such clinical presentations.

    Community mental health administrators, school district student support managers, and clinical supervisors, among others, often struggled with ways to ensure the adoption of best practices and evidence-based behavioral health interventions among school- and community-based providers in a way that facilitates their application as part of normal practice in these settings. As part of Washington, DC’s Expansion of Comprehensive School Behavioral Health initiative, cross-sector partners invested in a systemic approach to reducing the unmet behavioral health needs plaguing DC youth and families, particularly those most vulnerable and confronting social, economic, or environmental challenges. A Community of Practice (CoP) was established as a part of this citywide initiative to ensure learning was co-created and happened across specialized roles, to strengthen professional relationships, and to foster alignment of initiatives across child and family agencies in order to maximize the use of effective school behavioral health practices in all 244 DC public and public charter schools. Presenters will discuss how a CoP was developed in DC, the impact of this approach on community engagement and clinical practices, and lessons learned about factors that can facilitate or hinder the adoption of this approach, especially when considering the unique circumstances faced by Latino urban families.   You can click the download button for the slides.

Monthly e-newsletter of the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC.  February 2021 issue features resources for Black History Month, The Counselor's Corner, state spotlight on Ohio, the new Peer Recovery Center of Excellence website, and more!    

This session will describe the two-fold workforce development needs for creating mental health equity in integrated primary care: creating an equitable workforce and training for creating equitable clinical structures. Speakers will discuss the unique approaches that have been successful in recruiting and retaining individuals from the communities in which they serve as well as ways to engage community support.   Learning Objectives: Identify innovative approaches for recruitment and retention of your workforce team with the intent to create mental health equity within an integrated primary care system.  Discuss how to generate a more representative workforce along with more equitable outcomes as identified from research efforts involving the pediatric population. Describe the importance of obtaining support from the community including identification of resources and community agencies in order to foster growth for the future workforce.    Target Audience: Behavioral Health Providers Primary Care Providers Nurses   Learn more: https://bit.ly/ComingHometoIC

This session will describe the two-fold workforce development needs for creating mental health equity in integrated primary care: creating an equitable workforce and training for creating equitable clinical structures. Speakers will discuss the unique approaches that have been successful in recruiting and retaining individuals from the communities in which they serve as well as ways to engage community support.   Learning Objectives: Identify innovative approaches for recruitment and retention of your workforce team with the intent to create mental health equity within an integrated primary care system.  Discuss how to generate a more representative workforce along with more equitable outcomes as identified from research efforts involving the pediatric population. Describe the importance of obtaining support from the community including identification of resources and community agencies in order to foster growth for the future workforce.    Target Audience: Behavioral Health Providers Primary Care Providers Nurses   Learn more: https://bit.ly/ComingHometoIC

Strengthening Resilience: Promoting Positive School Mental Health Among Indigenous Youth January 13, 2021 This free training, hosted by LaVonne Fox, PhD, OTR/L, Sarah Nielsen, PhD, OTR/L, and Thomasine Heitkamp, LCSW, provided participants with context and information related to the new publication developed by the Mountain Plains MHTTC entitled: Strengthening Resilience: Promoting Positive School Mental Health Among Indigenous Youth. This training provided participants with a chance to learn more about how to adapt the recommendations of this toolkit in their schools. Slide Deck Access the Toolkit Recording   Learning Outcomes Understand how to use resilience and culturally responsive practices to support the unmet needs of Indigenous youth.  Develop a deeper understanding of how trauma impacts Indigenous youth, including historical trauma.  Advance participants' understanding of the cultural context of Indigenous youth and how this relates to a school setting.  Learn strategies for incorporating traditional practices such as the Seven Teachings and Circle of Courage into a K-12 setting.    Trainers LaVonne Fox, PhD, OTR/L Sarah Nielsen, PhD, OTR/L Thomasine Heitkamp, LCSW

Mexicans represent 62% of all immigrants with Latin American origins living in the United States. Mexican indigenous families often experience isolation, deportation, and numerous challenges caused by family members' migration, often diminishing mental health. This factsheet aims to create awareness of the cultural factors and what you should know about engaging Mexicans in mental health treatment.

On December 16, Dr. Li and Dr. Bogan from FAMU discussed the need for cultural competency when treating patient with mental illness. This is part of an important effort to assist the mental health workforce in better recognizing and responding to multicultural issues for people with severe mental illnesses. Learning Objectives • Learn about how psychosocial experiences may increase risk for a mental health crisis • Get to know protective habits for mental health from a cultural perspective • Get to know cultural factors that may impact processing initial and subsequent episodes • Get to know cultural sensitive strategies working with clients from minority backgrounds.   To view/download the slides, click here. 

Distanciamiento social: manejo de los efectos emocionales de estar lejos de los demás Este seminario web examinará la diferencia entre el distanciamiento social y la desconexión social y proporcionará estrategias para lidiar con las secuelas emocionales de estar lejos de los demás entre los niños, adolescentes y cuidadores, especialmente enfocado en aquellos que se identifican como latinx.   Download Slides Here.

Parte 2: Estrategias para manejar las emociones en niños, adolescentes y cuidadores durante la pandemia de COVID-19 Este seminario web discutirá las emociones y sus manifestaciones y brindará estrategias para manejar las emociones en niños, adolescentes y cuidadores que se identifican como latinx durante la pandemia de COVID-19.   Download Slides Here.

Parte 3: Proceso de duelo: lidiar con las pérdidas durante una pandemia Este seminario web identificará los tipos de duelo y proporcionará estrategias para manejar el duelo en niños, adolescentes y cuidadores que se identifican como latinx durante la pandemia de COVID-19.   Download Slides Here.

The State of New Mexico Office of Peer Recovery and Engagement and the National Hispanic & Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center will offer a peer focused webinar that considers cultural elements of the Hispanic and Latino populations with indigenous perspectives and approaches. The goal of this virtual training is to increase the awareness and abilities of peer workers on integrating cultural factors into the diagnosis of mental health disorders and the use of culturally centered interventions.   Download Slides Here.

This one and half-hour online session will focus on culturally responsive programmatic efforts to improve access and utilization of behavioral health services among the Hispanic/Latinx community. The session will describe how these programs and strategies reduce disparities by addressing often cited barriers and promote behavioral health equity. The concept of cultural brokering and its use in across settings will be discussed and considerations and implementation of community mental health navigator programs will be described. This session will also outline lessons learned from implementation and recommendations for future work.   Download Slides Here.

Original Broadcast Date: 11/13/20 Dr. Aaminah Norris, a professor of teacher education, and Babalwa Kwanele, a licensed mental health therapist working with school communities to engage in examining grief and the double pandemics of racial violence and COVID-19. In Part 2, participant reflects on their own experiences with counseling, teaching and learning during the double pandemics and learn ways to incorporate culturally responsive pedagogies that create healing and learning spaces. Participants learn humanizing strategies for working through grief that address and disrupt racism and anti-blackness. Download the slides HERE.   Speaker Bios:   Dr. Aaminah Norris, Associate Professor at Sacramento State University, is Founder and CEO of UnHidden Voices LLC, a Black woman-owned educational consultancy with a mission of building empathy and disrupting the invisibility of Black children, students, and families. She has more than 25 years of experience supporting schools and non- profit organizations in addressing issues of educational equity for low-income students from historically marginalized communities. She researches, teaches, and advocates the digital literacies of Black girls and women, with a particular interest in their STEM practices, culturally responsive pedagogies particularly as they connect to maker education, and the pedagogies of Black women teachers.     Babalwa Kwanele is a licensed mental health therapist (LMFT), with over 30 years of professional experience working with culturally diverse youth, children, and families in community mental health and school - based settings. Her work and research has a special focus on prevention and intervention, with the goal of improving academic outcomes and the social determinants of health. She has extensively studied the neurobiology of trauma and the effects of racism and poverty on communities, families, individuals, and complex systems. Kwanele’s areas of specialization are complex multigenerational trauma, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), trauma-informed school based mental health, impact of secondary trauma on educators and learning, complex family systems, cultural humility, and culturally responsive care.     This webinar was one of the sessions of November's Grief Sensitivity Virtual Learning Institute (GSVLI). For more information on how to access resources from September's and November's GSVLI, please click here.

For our November 2020 newsletter we're excited to share a wealth of new events and resources in this month's newsletter. In particular, we want to highlight resources we've shared in honor of National Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month. We welcome you to take a look and learn more about how to support the mental health and wellness of Native students, staff, and families. Sign up for our School Mental Health Newsletter!  Want more information and school mental health resources? Visit the Northwest MHTTC's School Mental Health page and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates about events, trainings, and resources available to the Northwest region.

Learn more about what the School Mental Health supplement to the Northwest MHTTC accomplished in our second year of operations with this 2-page document. Want more information and school mental health resources? Visit the Northwest MHTTC's School Mental Health page and sign up for our monthly newsletter for regular updates about events, trainings, and resources available to the Northwest region.

Rituals are actions done in purposeful ways that symbolize something much more than the acts themselves. Every culture has rituals that provide purpose and meaning to experiences. Rituals are made up of actions that represent ideas, thoughts, myths, or beliefs about something specific. They give purpose to action and always serve to connect us to something else, generally something greater than ourselves. In difficult times, rituals provide a certain order to an existence that otherwise might be full of confusion and chaos. Given the current pandemic, loss and grief have taken a front seat. A sense of loss permeates in many of our lives, and for many clients this may be difficult to name. Furthermore, the inability to perform rituals in our habitual ways can be distressful for many. The current webinar will discuss the experience of loss and grief for Latinos during the current pandemic: including physical and symbolic losses. The presenters will discuss Latinos values and rituals as they relate to the current pandemic. The importance of the therapeutic relationship will be discussed as well as approaches and strategies that promote new rituals, new meanings, and a transformative experience. Three case studies will be included for group discussion.   Download the slides HERE.     About the presenters:    Salvador Treviño, PhD- Dr. Treviño has taught professional psychology for over 40 years and lectures extensively on the theories and practices of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, primitive mental states, and Latino behavioral health. Drawing on his scholarship of more than 43 years of clinical work with Latino immigrants and families, Dr. Treviño is active in furthering the national conversation on cultural diversity, the impact of historical trauma on Latino behavioral health, the psychology of racism, and matters of social justice from a psychoanalytic perspective. Dr. Treviño is Executive Director of GCAPS - Guadalupe Counseling & Psychological Services in Santa Barbara, CA and is adjunct faculty of the Antioch University Santa Barbara Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Treviño is licensed as a psychologist and marriage and family therapist specializing in salud mental Latina.   Darice Orobitg, PhD- Darice Orobitg is a clinical psychologist. She obtained a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and completed her PhD at Carlos Albizu University in San Juan, PR. Dr. Orobitg worked at the PR Rape Crisis Center where, she was a therapist for children, adolescents, and adult survivors of sexual violence. At the PRRCC she was also a clinical supervisor and coordinator of clinical services. She later worked at the National Hispanic and Latino ATTC as trainer and TA consultant offering training and TA to clinicians, counselors, social workers, and other professionals offering services to Hispanic and Latino populations with SUDs. Dr. Orobitg was also a clinical consultant at Proyecto Mujer- a gender-specific treatment program for Latinas with SUDs and trauma histories. Darice is currently the Training and Content Specialist for the National Hispanic and Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center. She has been in private practice since 2005.  

This presentation, Module 2: Cultural Case Formulation and Assessment Using the Dsm-5 Cultural Formulation Interview, is based on the guide developed by the National Hispanic and Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center. The goal of this training is to increase the awareness and abilities of mental health care providers in their use of cultural elements by promoting the use of culturally appropriate formulations when treating Latinx presenting with psychological and mental health disorders. This webinar is informed by current research findings on the impact of cultural factors on the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders and on the therapeutic relationship.   Download Slides Here

Considering Culture in the Diagnosis of Mental Health Disorders in Hispanic and Latino Populations. Module Goal: This module will provide training on integrating Latino cultural factors into the assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis of emotional, psychological, and mental disorders. This training is Module 3 of the Clinical Applications of Cultural Elements in Treating Hispanic and Latinos with Mental Health Disorders series and was prepared by the National Hispanic and Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center. The goal of this training is to increase the awareness and abilities of mental health care providers in their use of cultural elements by promoting the use of culturally appropriate formulations when treating Latinx presenting with psychological and mental health disorders. The information is informed by current research findings on the impact of cultural factors on the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders and on the therapeutic relationship.   Download Slides Here

Developing Culturally Centered Interventions Module Goal: This module will provide training on the integration of culturally centered interventions in mental health and substance use treatment. This training is Module 4 of the Clinical Applications of Cultural Elements in Treating Hispanics and Latinos with Mental Health Disorders and was prepared by the National Hispanic and Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center. The goal of this training is to increase the awareness and abilities of mental health care providers in their use of cultural elements by promoting the use of culturally appropriate formulations when treating Latinx presenting with psychological and mental health disorders. The information is informed by current research findings on the impact of cultural factors on the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders and on the therapeutic relationship.   Download Slides Here

  MODULE 5: Engaging and Treating the Hispanic and Latino Client Module Goal: This module will provide training on best practices in the engagement and treatment phase of mental health treatment with the Hispanic and Latino client. This training is Module 5 of the Clinical Applications of Cultural Elements in Treating Hispanics and Latinos with Mental Health Disorders series and was prepared by the National Hispanic and Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center. The goal of this training is to increase the awareness and abilities of mental health care providers in their use of cultural elements by promoting the use of culturally appropriate formulations when treating Latinx presenting with psychological and mental health disorders. The information is informed by current research findings on the impact of cultural factors on the assessment and treatment of mental health disorders and on the therapeutic relationship.   Download Slides Here

Strengthening Resilience: Promoting Positive School Mental Health Among Indigenous Youth Presentation for University of North Dakota College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines The Mountain Plains MHTTC, in collaboration with the University of North Dakota College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines, hosted a training session on the new toolkit Strengthening Reslience: Promoting Positive School Mental Health Among Indigenous Youth. Lavonne Fox, PhD, OTR/L, and Thomasine Heitkamp, LCSW, provided an overview of the toolkit and discussed strategies for supporting access and implementation of this product in school settings. This toolkit provides effective strategies for K-12 educators, administrators, and mental health treatment providers to use when working to increase cultural awareness of tribal history, language, and culture within the full continuum of education and behavioral health response.    Slide Deck Access the Toolkit Session Recording Trainers Lavonne Fox, PhD, OTR/L Thomasine Heitkamp, LCSW  

La CLAve (the clue or key) is a culturally responsive treatment for Latinx with a focus on reducing Duration of Untreated Psychosis (DUP) in patients presenting a First Episode Psychosis. La CLAve is informed by conceptual models of health literacy which include not only the patient but also patient’s family members or caregivers. La CLAve is a tool in Spanish that represents the symptoms of psychosis. The National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC´s: La CLAve (The Clue or Key) A Psychoeducational Tool to Reduce Treatment Delay in Latinx with First Episode Psychosis factsheet, is intended to provide a resource to providers to ease the suffering of Latinos with early psychosis and their families.