Products and Resources Catalog

View Presentation Slides   This workshop targeted to mental health providers will explore the concepts of personal resilience and post-traumatic growth, including definitions and application of the ideas in personal and professional life. The links between adverse events and challenges will be discussed and how we can use these difficulties to help us grow stronger and more balanced through post-traumatic growth. Strategies for building resilience and encouraging growth will be sought from participants and discussed from a Post-Traumatic Growth lens and from the positive psychology “Flourishing” model- Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (PERMA).   Webinar Objectives: Explore resilience and post-traumatic growth for mental health providers Identify links between difficult situations and post-traumatic growth Review PERMA (Seligman) model Identify strategies for flourishing for mental health providers

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  About the Event:  During this webinar, Dr. Helle Thorning will provide a platform for Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) providers to discuss how ACT pivoted to adapt to COVID-19 and the ensuing racial unrest. Pivoting has both been challenging and exciting as it has provided opportunities to discover new ways to provide ACT services for vulnerable individuals who have behavioral health challenges. Moreover, current COVID-19 realities in the context of racial unrest have had tremendous impact on ACT team leaders, team members, ACT participants, social supports and the communities in which they live. As much of the ACT work has moved online, strategies for inter-professional team collaboration will be explored, highlighting the importance of communication, relationships building, and the importance for self-care for ACT providers, ACT participants and their social supports alike.  Presentation Slidedeck   Key Learning Objectives:  1. Identify the challenges of ACT in unprecedented times.   2. Consider adaptions to ACT due to current realities of COVID-19 and racial unrest and its impact on supervisors and team members. 3. Understand the importance of the inter-professional team in providing services to vulnerable individuals with behavioral health challenges.  4. Describe how critical conversations (CC) model provides a framework to illuminate and examine power dynamics in order to produce change with parallel insight and action -- across teams, supervisee, supervisor -- towards an anti-racist practice.   5. Describe approaches to self-care for ACT providers.    About the Presenter:  Dr. Helle Thorning, MS, LCSW, PhD, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Social Work at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. She serves on the leadership team of the Center for Practice Innovations in the Division of Behavioral Health Services and Policy Research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University. Here she is a Research Scientist and the Director of the ACT Institute. Dr. Thorning completed her bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Copenhagen, her master's at Columbia University School of Social Work, and her PhD at the Silver School of Social Work, New York University.  An experienced clinician in hospital and community mental health, Dr. Thorning is a licensed clinical social worker, training clinicians and working with people facing mental health challenges and their families in the US and abroad. Her main research area is in the development and application of education and psychoeducational interventions designed to improve quality of life and outcomes for individuals and families faced with trauma, mental illness, parenting in the context of behavioral health challenges or other significant life challenges as well as transitional care. She has published widely on the topic of interventions and the experience of families and siblings. Moreover, she studies implementation science to change practice through workforce development, transformative learning processes, organizational change and quality improvement and has published in the emergent area of study. 

In this webinar from Nov. 19, 2020, Mid-America MHTTC specialists and partners with Omaha-based Community Alliance describe how family peer support workers help families adjust their thoughts, feelings and behavior to promote health and well-being. Self-care allows family members to relate better to their loved ones, and providers and practitioners to promote recovery. Participants will understand how a family peer support worker can help families:   Adopt productive self-care strategies through teaching and modeling; Understand, identify, and accept their own emotional response to the illness of a loved one; and Develop a personal self-care plan.   Speakers:   Dr. Lilchandra Jai Sookram has been in the mental health field for over 40 years. At the Nebraska State Hospital, he provided psychological services to persons with serious mental illness and to their family members, and he directed clinical services including psychology, nursing, social work, therapeutic recreation, education and return-to-work programs. He is the former director of mental health services in Kansas and clinical director of a juvenile correctional facility. Currently he is manager of family and peer services at Community Alliance. Bill Baerentzen, Ph.D., CRC, LMHP, is serious mental illness program director for the Mid-America MHTTC. Much of his outreach involves promoting evidence-based practices to help people with serious mental illness (SMI) live meaningful inclusive lives. Dr. Baerentzen has worked as director of a 250-bed emergency overnight shelter; supervisor of therapists in a treatment program for persons with co-occurring disorders; and as faculty in a rehabilitation counseling program. Cecilia Losee is a financial planner who specializes in working with special needs families. Her own disability and that of her adult daughter give her a unique perspective into what it takes to plan for the future. With over 10 years in the industry she uses many different tools, such as special needs trusts, to ensure the protection of government benefits while maximizing the amount left to take care of your loved ones. Rich Kalal is a parent of a loved one with serious mental illness. A retiree of IBM, Kalal works as a volunteer at Community Alliance, in particular on family education programs along with Dr. Jai Sookram. On many occasions, Kalal has spoken to University of Nebraska Medical Center residents of psychiatry and family medicine and medical students about being a family member of a person with a serious mental illness.     Learn more about Family Peer Support: An Emerging Workforce at https://bit.ly/FPS_2020  

Young people with foster care experience are incredibly resilient. Despite facing enormous challenges including trauma, loss, and disruptions to schooling and social and family connections, they can and do heal, thrive, and contribute to their communities every day. Relationships with supportive adults and the right services at the right time both contribute to better outcomes - particularly when the adults supporting young people in foster care recognize their potential and when services meet their needs and strengthen protective factors. In this interactive conversation, we discussed the resilience of youth and young adults in foster care, and how providers, practitioners, caregivers, and other adults can help them to navigate challenges and thrive.   Resources Annie E. Casey Foundation | Brain Frames: Short Tools for Positive Interactions With Youth in Foster Care Annie E. Casey Foundation | Adolescent Brain Development Resources The Root | Black Children and Foster Care: On Surviving the Trauma of a System That Doesn’t Care About Keeping Families Together NYT | What Makes Some People More Resilient Than Others Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Mental Health Resource Guide NYC Well | COVID-19 Digital Mental Health Resources What is essential when promoting resilience and ensuring a culturally humble lens?  

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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  

Anitra Warrior, PhD, of Morningstar Counseling in Lincoln, Nebraska, draws from years of experience serving Native populations in urban, rural and reservation settings to share strategies for ensuring integrated behavioral health and primary care clinics are prepared to provide culturally appropriate care. This presentation supplements our Oct. 30 webinar from our webinar series Coming Home to Primary Care: Pediatric Integrated Health.

The South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (SSWMHTTC) is excited to share our Year 2 annual report.

The South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (SSWMHTTC) is excited to announce our School Mental Health report for Year 2.

Throughout the uncertainty that 2020 brought the world, the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) has continued to support the mental health workforce as they have rapidly adjusted to changing service delivery formats, heightened needs of program participants, and personal losses and challenges. Along with the pandemic-related trainings and products we have provided, we have also continued to offer development opportunities related to the foundational practices that support recovery from mental illnesses. 

View Presentation Slides   The 8 Dimensions of Wellness (SAMHSA) offers a useful framework in the recovery goal planning process. During this webinar, the 8 Dimensions of Wellness will be reviewed and strategies for integrating the 8 Dimensions with individuals participating in your services will be presented. Webinar participants will have an opportunity to practice writing SMART goals that incorporate the 8 Dimensions of Wellness.         Webinar Objectives: Review the 8 dimensions of wellness Identify strategies to incorporate the 8 dimensions of wellness into services Apply SMART goal planning to wellness goals   Trainer: Joni Dolce, MS, CRC, CPRP, is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions at Rutgers, School of Health Professions. Joni has several years of experience working in behavioral healthcare settings, namely supported employment. Joni teaches courses in the AS and BS in Psychiatric Rehabilitation programs as well as providing training and technical assistance to behavioral healthcare providers. Her research interests include staff training and employment services. She presents nationally on the topic of employment services and is listed as a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recommended speaker on the topic of creating workplaces that support mental health.

The unprecedented disruption in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a dramatic transformation to telehealth, including neuropsychological practice. With a rapid increase in the utilization of remote neuropsychological assessment, this modality of assessment has become primary.   Learning Objectives: Review the foundations of remote neuropsychological assessment, and highlight the various models for conducting assessments during COVID-19. Review factors that have led to health inequities in among racial, ethnic, geographic, socioeconomic, and other groups during the pandemic, how this can be impacting treatment delivery to patients with serious mental illness. Address the various ways health inequities exist in delivery of neuropsychological services, and make recommendations for increasing access and improving quality of neuropsychological services to vulnerable and underrepresented groups such as patients with serious mental illness.

Dr. Yvette Jackson, Dr. Rachel Santa, Ann Smith, JD, and Dr. Christine Mason shared their insights as we explore solutions and vision for equity and inclusion in schools in 2021. Learning Objectives: learn about innovative programs and recommendations to achieve greater equity and inclusion. learn about advocacy and promising practices for children who are more vulnerable and more at-risk. Gain practical ideas and resources to help alleviate stress and create a brighter future, even in the midst of all we are handling today.

DSM-5 Diagnosis: Overcoming Challenges in Rendering Clinical Diagnoses - An Intensive Q&A session Slide Deck Recording View Session One Resources The Mountain Plains MHTTC, in collaboration with the Association for Utah Community Health (AUCH), hosted a two-part intensive training series on providing DSM-5 Diagnoses in a Community Health Center Environment. Mental health practitioners and primary care providers working in integrated care environments often experience increased pressure to render accurate DSM-5 diagnoses in a short amount of time. This training series provided attendees an opportunity to identify the primary elements in DSM-5 diagnoses and the challenges presented by rendering these diagnoses in a community health center environment.   Learning Objectives Identify primary elements in DSM-5 diagnoses. Develop an understanding of necessary documentation. Be able to identify some differences in payer practices.   Trainer Andrew J. McLean, MD, MPH Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences        

This session featured a conversation about advocating for changes in the societal conditions and oppressive structures that impact mental health, which is a cornerstone of the citizenship framework. The panel featured community activists and people in recovery sharing their own experiences with advocating for change through collective efforts, and what impact that work outside the system has had on their lives and recovery journeys.

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. 

La CLAve es un tratamiento culturalmente sensible para latinx enfocado en reducir la Duración de la Psicosis No Tratada (DPNT) en pacientes que presentan un Primer Episodio de Psicosis (PEP). La CLAve se basa en modelos conceptuales de literacia en salud que incluyen no solo al paciente, sino también a sus familiares y/o cuidadores. La CLAve es una guía para  recordar  los síntomas de la psicosis. La hoja informativa del National Hispanic and Latino MHTTC:  La CLAve: Herramienta psicoeducativa para reducir el tiempo en que reciben tratamiento los latinx con un primer episodio de psicosis está diseñada para proveer una guía a los proveedores de servicios de salud mental para aliviar el sufrimiento de los latinos con psicosis temprana y de sus familiares.   

In Well-Being Wednesdays: Clarifying, Aligning with, and Committing to One's Values, which aired Nov. 11, 2020, attendees learn to clarify their values in their personal and professional lives and distinguish them from personal and professional goals. Clarifying and committing to values helps teachers find their purpose in the day-to-day grind and can help them prioritize tasks to reduce time demands. Well-Being Wednesdays: Taking Care of Educators Who Take Care of Kids is a webinar series geared toward education professionals, administrators, and stakeholders who are working together to create a culture of well-being that supports students and educators. Learn more: https://bit.ly/Well-beingWeds

This is the slide deck for our Nov. 11, 2020, webinar, Well-Being Wednesdays: Clarifying, Aligning with, and Committing to One's Values, part of our monthly series Well-Being Wednesdays: Taking Care of Teachers Who Take Care of Kids. Learn more about the series.

This is a recording of our Native American Heritage event: Native American & Alaska Native Time Travel: A Look through our History & Resiliency of Our People. This session featured history of Native American culture and celebrated the resiliency of their people.

Slides from the session, "Native American & Alaska Native Time Travel: A Look through our History & Resiliency of Our People". This session featured history of Native American culture and celebrated the resiliency of their people.

Our opening keynote address focuses on intervention strategies for grief therapy. Dr. Katherine Shear introduces the concept of H.E.A.L.I.N.G. milestones and stopping points in adapting to loss. She provides simple, evidence-based guidelines for grief therapy that include active listening, validation, support and guidance. She presents a simple approach to grief therapy, based on proven efficacious treatment for prolonged grief disorder, discusses the relationship between usual grief and prolonged grief disorder and how to recognize the latter, and provides tips for understanding and addressing processes that can stall or halt the process of adapting to loss. Download the slides HERE. Speakers: Dr. M. Katherine Shear, Founder and Director of the Center for Complicated Grief, is an internist and a psychiatrist with the heart of a social worker. She is a talented clinician who is widely recognized for her work in bereavement studies and complicated grief disorder. Dr. Shear developed a short-term psychotherapy for people unable to move forward after a loss that was influenced by her inherent optimism and faith in human creativity and resilience. Complicated Grief Therapy (CGT) has proved to be efficacious in three NIMH-funded randomized controlled trials. Her work has produced several assessment instruments and an instruction manual for CGT—a focused, adaptation-focused approach with the strongest evidence base of any grief treatment to date. Dr. Shear is the Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia School of Social Work and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She served on review committees of the National Institute of Mental Health and on the advisory council for its National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. She served as an advisor to the DSM-5 workgroup on complicated grief and adult separation anxiety, a member of the World Health Organization’s ICD11 Working Group on Mood and Anxiety Disorders, a member of the scientific advisory board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and an elected member of the board of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. This webinar was the opening session 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.

Join youth leaders from the RYSE Youth Center, a community based organization founded by young people and their adult allies who were experiencing- and still are- violence, loss, homicides, and trauma. Together, RYSE youth and staff created a home agency to address the emotional, mental and political health of youth that centers healing, agency, leadership, and dignity. The MHTTC GSVLI was honored to have RYSE youth sit with one another in a conversation-for them and by them- on what it looks, sounds, and feels like to not only survive grief, but to thrive in its wake. In sharing their experiences and stories, our conference ends with those we serve.  Download the slides HERE. Speakers: Latrinity Gulley has been a RYSE member since 2018 and is currently a student at Contra Costa College studying Psychology. She has been a part of the Community Leadership Institute (CLI), which is a program that teaches young leaders grassroots organizing. With CLI, she volunteered at various community organizations, including Safe Return. While working to clean up community parks and trails, she simultaneously started the first-ever Black Student Union at her high school. Mental health is essential to Latrinity because of her own struggles and having someone to talk to about l what she is going through has been crucial to her healing process. When she gets her degree, she hopes that she will be able to be there for people who too struggle with mental health.   Monica Tello has been a RYSE member since 2018 and is currently a student at Contra Costa College, exploring her career options, with plans to transfer to a university. While in high school, she spent a year volunteering at an animal shelter. Mental health is important to Monica because when she first started coming to RYSE she was going through the “worst year of her life” and having someone to talk to was essential for her to keep pushing and moving forward. “I believe everyone deserves that opportunity.”   Carizma Hughes has been a RYSE member since 2016 and is currently a student at Los Medanos College with plans to transfer to a university to study Elementary Education. She has been a mentor for Project WHAT!, a youth-led program that helps children of incarcerated parents build community by sharing their experiences through storytelling and creative work. She has also facilitated several groups to develop best practices in serving children of incarcerated parents. This webinar was the closing session 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.