Products and Resources Catalog

This is a recording of the Pacific Southwest MHTTC's Back to School Workshop 1 entitled, “Study Session: A Practical Guide for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach,” on August 9, 2023. In this kickoff session, PS MHTTC School Mental Health Field Director Leora Wolf-Prusan and Trauma Informed Educator Network founder Mathew Portell facilitated an interactive study session to familiarize participants with SAMHSA’s June 2023 release of the updated and expanded practical guide from the 2014 Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach Resource.  This session's audience includes educators, school site leaders, school mental health professionals, youth advocates, trauma-informed professionals, and anyone interested in gaining a deeper fluency in trauma-informed language. Viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives:  Define trauma, trauma-informed care, and connected terminology Identify resources to support a trauma informed approach to school mental health work Explore the guide’s case study of Fall-Hamilton Elementary School in Nashville, TN 

This is a recording of Session 4 in the Rising Practices & Policies Revisited series. This panel, "Mental Health & Student Mental Health Workforce: The Woes & Wonders of Recruitment & Retention" took place on August 14, 2023. In this final session of the series, Change Matrix’s Senior Technical Assistance & Training Specialist, Dr. Tonicia Freeman-Foster, moderated a panel and discussion with pre-service and in-service mental health and school mental health leaders on how to address the supply and demand gap, and models of resilience for providers in the field. In this session, we explored the following questions and more: What are the disparities between what the field needs in providers and service systems and what trained professionals are able to provide? What are innovative ways pre-service and in-service graduate school programs are creating, incentivizing, credentialing, and certifying the mental and school mental health workforce? How might we onboard and retain a new wave of providers?

Welcome to Dreams, Dilemmas and Dialogues, a podcast produced by the Pacific Southwest MHTTC, that explores thought-provoking discussions between educators and school mental health providers on issues that impact our schools, classrooms, and communities.    In this four-part podcast co-hosted by Oriana Ides and Candice Valenzuela, and with guests throughout, we cover a rich tapestry of themes, ranging from fostering a positive school culture that empowers both students and educators, to the importance of centering compassion and empathy in the classroom, and creating spaces where learning and personal growth intertwine.   Join us as we dive into the realm of staff development, uncovering strategies to help educators continuously enhance their skills and ignite their passion for teaching. We also look at cultural shifts in education, examining how societal changes shape our classrooms and influence the way we educate the next generation.   Whether you're a school mental health provider, educator, parent/caregiver, student, or anyone curious about the future of education, these episodes are here to inform, inspire, and ignite conversations to inform our practices and policies. Tune in for fresh insights, and thought-provoking conversations that allow us to question and contemplate. Welcome to Dreams, Dilemmas and Dialogues—where every episode is a journey into our own and collective hope and healing.   Listen to each episode below, or click the "View Resource" button above to subscribe on Spotify!     Episode 1 - What Informs Us and Our Work? Reflection and Action: An Introduction to Liberation Psychology In this opening episode, hosts Candice Valenzuela and Oriana Ides explore their foundational values and formative experiences as healing centered practitioners in education.  Their conversations elevate some of the tenets and practices that have been most transformative in their individual and collective efforts to build school communities rooted in hope, healing and liberation.        Episode 2 - Interrupting Grind Culture; Shifting Professional Development, Pedagogy and Practice to Center Staff and Student Wellness Episode 2 features longtime classroom teacher Giulio Sorro, and co-hosts, Candice Valenzuela and Oriana Ides who steer the dialogue to how educators can uplift frameworks and orientations that support professional development where learning and personal growth intertwine. This episode illuminates the possibilities and practices for fostering a school culture that centers humanity, justice and empathy in the classroom.        Episode 3 - No Missed Steps; Laying the Groundwork for Healing and Restoration in Schools Episode 3 welcomes Stephanie Cariaga, professor of Teacher Education and Tatiana Chaterji, Restorative Justice (RJ) visionary, into an honest conversation that quickly moves beyond the implementation of programs and initiatives towards the possibilities of embodying the principles of RJ and building entire infrastructures rooted in its indigenous, culturally sustaining values. Together we witness, uplift and celebrate one another’s experiences of joy, righteous rage and safety as a pathway towards healing and visioning.        Episode 4 - Honoring Praxis; The Intentional Practice of Reflection and Action In this final episode, Candice Valenzuela and Oriana Ides reflect upon their decades in education and the ways in which they’ve consciously and unconsciously created culture in school sites and beyond. In the spirit of trailblazers and change-makers, this episode celebrates the abolitionists of traditional educational norms. Our podcast invites you to join the conversation on revolutionary approaches to teaching and learning, and to explore the transformative potential of anti-racist pedagogy.         Meet the Podcast Co-Hosts   Oriana Ides, MA, PPS, LPCCI (she/hers) is the School Mental Health Training Specialist at CARS, who approaches healing the wounds of trauma and oppression as core elements of social justice.  She has worked with young people across the life course from elementary school to college, and has served as teacher-leader, school counselor, classroom educator and program director.  She is committed to generating equity within school structures and policies by focusing on evidence-based mental health techniques and institutional design.     Candice Valenzuela MA, MFTI, YT-200 (they/them) is a proud Afro-Latinx native of Watts, California. They have worked at the crossroads of education and healing for 17 years. Candice earned a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and a minor in Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, earned a secondary teaching credential from Alliant University, and a Master of Arts in East-West Psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies. Candice is certified as a trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness instructor through the Niroga Institute and has training in mesoamerican indigenous healing practices through Ancestral Apothecary in Oakland, California. Candice is currently training as a Marriage and Family Therapist in Denver, Colorado.  Candice believes that ancestral, community and ecological healing are the most urgent issues of our time. They coach administrators, train teachers and lead professional development at schools throughout the nation in addition to providing gender affirming therapy as an Intern Therapist at Queer Asterisk in Denver, Colorado . When they are not working or studying, Candice enjoys sharing their enthusiasm for nature with their 6 year old child.       Meet the Guests   Giulio Sorro is a father of three as well as a son, brother, uncle, teacher and learner. He is forever in search of balance between the stars above and the concrete streets he walks. The Bronx, Enssogologo, Africa, San Francisco and June Jordan School for Equity serve as his official classes and continue to provide rich opportunities for learning and growth.  Even as a classroom teacher, he believes we must find our way out of these four walls and turn liberation theology into practice.  His bougie tendencies are loose leaf tea.     Stephanie Cariaga has served the wider Los Angeles community for sixteen years as a high school and middle school literacy teacher, founding member of the People’s Education Movement and co-organizer of the People’s Education Conference, and now an assistant professor in teacher education at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Rooted in radical feminist ways of knowing that center the body, wholeness, and justice, her teaching and research examines the intersections between trauma/healing-informed pedagogies, critical literacy, and critical teacher sustainability.       Tatiana Chaterjee is an educator, trainer, and restorative justice practitioner working at the borders of criminalization, intergenerational trauma, structural violence and youth empowerment. With over a decade of experience in schools, prisons, re-entry, juvenile justice, and community settings, I bring deep commitment to peacebuilding, violence prevention, and healing. ​Using personal narrative and embodied practice, I deepen conversations across difference and cultivate humanizing relationships. I integrate tools from multiple traditions to recover human connection between people at multiple ends of historical injustice. I seek opportunities for dialogue and accountability regarding systemic oppression and the way it manifests in interpersonal relationships. I mobilize my survivorship from violence for radical love, with an eye toward (dis)ability, disrupting power & hierarchy, and stopping harm.    

  This is a recording of Workshop 2 in the Back to School Series, “Giving Voice to Youth Psychological Strengths: A Photovoice Partnership Project,” that took place on August 16, 2023.   In this second session, faculty from California State University, Sacramento’s School Psychology Program and staff and students from Natomas Pacific Pathways Preparatory (NP3) High School showcased the Photovoice Partnership Project, “Giving Voice to Youth Psychological Strengths.”   CSUS Anchor University Grant-funded this project, and it was carried out in a collaboration between the NP3 High School students, counselors, and school psychologists; and CSUS School Psychology faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students. The webinar celebrates the outcome of this project, that entailed a timeline of ten weeks in which NP3 students worked to (a) define psychological strengths such as self-efficacy, self-awareness, empathy, optimism, and gratitude; (b) examine sources of psychological strength in their school, peer, and family networks; and (c) produce photovoice projects illustrating their “world of strengths.”   View this video for a brief introduction to the project, featuring individual project presentations by each of the students, tools used to ground the activities, such as the CoVitality strengths-based mental health screener, and a question and answer discussion with the faculty, Dr. Meagan O'Malley and Jeremy Greene, MA, NCSP, LEP.   

Motivational interviewing (MI) provides us with a way to have conversations about change. Practitioners use MI with adolescents, young adults, and parents to successfully support their values and guide them toward their own desired change targets. In this session, Dr. Dempsey discussed research-based MI interventions for youth and specific strategies to reduce resistance and engage young people in conversations about and movement toward personally meaningful change.   Viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives:  Determine at least one type of motivation-based intervention appropriate for children, adolescents/young adults, and parents. Construct at least one values-based intervention to help guide adolescent and young adults toward change targets. Practice two interventions to reduce resistance and support autonomy of youth engaged in conversations about change. Design one conversation about change intended to support and guide parents of youth involved in change.

This is a recording of the Closing Session in the Aging Out or Growing Together? Flipping the Youth Services Paradigm to Better Support Young Adulthood series. This final session took place on July 26, 2023 and featured special guests Rudy Corpuz, Executive Director of United Playaz; Associate Director John Torres of Youth ALIVE!, and Mariaynez Carasco, Program Coordinator of Mission Neighborhood Centers. Region 9's Technical Assistance and Training Specialist Oriana Ides facilitated a discussion to address how organizational values, program design, implementation strategies, and long-term visions for young adults can expand to support their evolving needs. This session is designed for agencies and individuals that serve transition-aged youth and young adults and explore themes specific to the needs of this age group.

This is a recording of the Social Media & Youth: Perils, Powers, and Pathways to Resilience panel on August 1, 2023. The Pacific Southwest MHTTC gathered a group of leaders in the fields of social science research, mental health and youth advocacy including Senior Research Scientist and Director of Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab at Wellesley College, Linda Charmaraman; Founder/CEO of Log OFF Movement, Emma Lembke; Assistant Professor of Equity, Diversity and Justice in Education at University of Colorado, Boulder, Tiera Tanksley; and Outpatient Therapist, Skyler Blankenship. Together, they presented and discussed the risk factors and benefits of social media for young people. The session focused on strategies for fostering a more empowered, healthier relationship with digital technology and provided a nuanced view of both the perils and powers of social media use for youth.   This session is designed for providers who work with youth, young adults and their families and viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives:  Understand the positive and negative psychological impact of social media on youth and young adults Identify strategies mental health providers can use in supporting youth to reflect on their social media use, make meaning of it, and develop coping responses to harmful exposure  Learn about available tools and resources to support diversion and self-regulation in social media use Understand risk factors and impacts to specific populations of youth around social media harms  Support community efforts and advocate for improved monitoring and filtering of social media while supporting healthy social development

This is a recording of Session 3 of Rising Practices & Policies Revisited - Working with Youth and Families Experiencing Homelessness and Home Insecurity, which occurred on July 10, 2023. In this session, Pacific Southwest MHTTC's Co-Director Miranda March hosted and Technical Assistance Specialist Evelyn Clark facilitated a panel discussion on how community-based organizations, mental health systems, and school services are responding to the issues, challenges, and needs of home insecurity and what rising practices and policies are emerging to meet the mental and school mental health needs of people experiencing the impact of structural inequities. The Session 3 panelists included Program Specialist of Homeless Education for the Orange County Department of Education, Elida Sanchez; Executive Director of CARE Olympia, Emily Clouse; Special Projects Coordinator for McKinney-Vento & Foster Care Liaison, Hannah Etchison; and Samantha Taitano who serves as Executive Director of Manelu in Guam. In this session, we explored the following questions and more: How can we interrupt the stigmatization of homelessness and foster safe and equitable access to mental health services? How are school and community-based mental health partners utilizing the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and other federal funding streams to maximize the workforce’s skills and support? How can we increase access to school services and supports? How can we collaborate with services that address compounding issues (e.g., interpersonal violence, the foster system) to be innovative in our approaches?

Motivational interviewing (MI) provides a way to have conversations about change. Common MI and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions are both powerful and effective strategies that practitioners often find challenging to decide which intervention to use for various school-based social and emotional issues. In this session, Dr. Kristin Dempsey provided considerations for when to use common MI and CBT interventions based on the stages of change being experienced, which interventions overlap, which have specific applications, and which common MI and CBT interventions can be flexibly applied to a number of common school-based challenges.    Viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives:  Identify at least four common factors shared between motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. Create a collaborative treatment/change plan with students and parents that contains at least three change targets that can be addressed using motivational interviewing or cognitive behavioral therapy. Practice applying at least three motivational interviewing and/or cognitive behavioral interventions based on a student’s or parent’s identified concerns and stage of change for each concern. Construct a plan to use integrated motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral interventions for at least one student/parent.

This is a recording of Session 4 in the "Creating Safe Spaces for Peer Support Providers" series entitled, “Peer Support Series, Session 4: Career Paths for Peer Support Specialists,” that took place on June 28, 2023. In session 4, the Pacific Southwest MHTTC's Technical Assistance and Training Specialist Evelyn Clark facilitated a forum with special guests Jason Clark, Lindsey Burton-Anderson, and Stacey Thompson who shared their lived experiences and discussed burnout, trauma and compassion fatigue along with cultural, structural and individual risk and protective factors. 

This is a recording of the May 31st, 2023 Session 4 in the series Aging Out or Growing Together? Flipping the Youth Services Paradigm to Better Support Young Adulthood. This fourth session, Navigating Barriers to Service and Client/Participant Resistance in Case-Management featured special guests Falilah Bilal, Dr. Jaleel Abdul-Adil, and Magali Rivera-Davis. Our Region 9 Training Specialist Oriana Ides facilitated this panel discussion to address how organizational values, program design, implementation strategies, and long-term visions for young adults can expand to support their evolving needs. This session and all those in the series are designed for agencies and individuals that serve transition-aged youth and young adults and explore themes specific to the needs of this age group.

This is a recording of Session 2 of Rising Practices & Policies Revisited - Uplifting Supports, Strengths, and Healing for Refugees from War. The session was held on June 12, 2023. In this session, Region 9’s Technical Assistance Specialist, Oriana Ides, facilitated a panel that focused on trauma informed and sensitive approaches to service for clients and students who are refugees from current and previous crises. The panel included speakers across our region who have lived experience with the impact of war and whose practices and policies reflect attunement to war-recovery needs. These special guests included José Patiño, Dr. Natalya (Natasha) Bogopolskaya, and Stephanie Noriega, who all shared strategies for working with individuals who have survived wars and navigated the ensuing primary, secondary, and vicarious traumas that resulted from this experience. In this session, we explored the following questions and more: What are fundamental elements of providing care and services to those who are war impacted? What are ways that experiencing secondary or vicarious war impacts survivors’ recovery (e.g., how does seeing the war in Ukraine impact the mental health of Afghani refugees in California, Ecuadorian asylees in Arizona, or native Pacific Islanders in Guam)? How can therapists, peer specialists, social workers, and other providers adapt services to ensure cultural humility and responsiveness? What practices and policies have emerged in the past year to help us help?

This is a recording of Part 1: Self-Harm and Suicide Awareness and Prevention in Childhood and Early Adolescence, that took place on April 18, 2023. To raise awareness and support prevention of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) in children, our Region 9 partnered with Dr. Meagan O’Malley, Frances Marion LCSW and Jessica Palacio LCSW to release Self-Harm and Suicide Awareness and Prevention in Childhood and Early Adolescence: A Resource for Elementary School Educators and School-Based Professionals (March, 2023) Led by the authors of this guide, this webinar video is available to provide elementary school personnel with critical knowledge and resources to help recognize, assess and respond to the warning signs of STBs in such a way that harm may be reduced and children are kept safe. Part 1 of the series offers an interactive walk through the guide with exercises and scenarios to support optimum use of the guide. Viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives: Gain a deeper understanding of the risk factors and warning signs of suicide in elementary age children. Explore the protective factors against suicide, as well as tiered, school-based approaches to prevention and intervention. Learn strategies to communicate with parents/caregivers of elementary age children at risk for suicide.

This is a recording of Part 2: Young Children & Suicide Prevention for Parents and Caregivers To raise awareness and support parent and caregiver’s prevention of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) in children, our Region 9 partnered with Dr. Meagan O’Malley, Frances Marion LCSW and Jessica Palacio LCSW to release Our Young Children & Suicide Prevention: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers  (March, 2023) This resource is for schools and mental health providers to distribute to parents and caregivers so they are equipped with the tools to recognize the warning signs of STBs, and, when necessary, intervene early and effectively to keep their child safe. In Part 2 of the series, the authors of this guide walked school personnel through how to use the guide, discussed some of the risk factors for suicide, and provided coaching models for ways parents can talk with children about suicide in an age-appropriate way, as well as actions to take in securing professional help if a child is in danger. Viewers of this video can benefit from the following learning objectives: Gain a deeper understanding of risk factors and warning signs of suicide in young children. Learn developmentally appropriate ways parents and caregivers can talk with their children about suicide. Learn action steps parents and caregivers can take in responding to suicide risk in their children, including how to make their environments safer and connect children to professional support.

This is a recording of Part 1 of the Trans 101 Workshop Series - Foundations of Knowledge & Action on May 17, 2023. In Part 1, the trainer, Arc Telos Saint Amour reviewed common terms and explored examples of how anti-transgender prejudice intersects with other forms of oppression. The session modeled how to navigate conversations with transgender and non-binary people using up-to-date and affirming language. The trainer reviewed essential guidelines for supporting transgender and non-binary people in all spaces. Viewers of this recording will learn strategies that can be implemented immediately for affirming of the transgender and non-binary community! Learning objectives include: An accurate explanation on the difference between sex assigned at birth, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. Examples of affirming and supportive language, and examples of language that can be considered disrespectful, a microaggression, or non-affirming. Potential strategies for personally and professionally being able to better support transgender and non-binary people.

This is a recording of Part 2 of the Trans 101 Workshop Series - Working with Families of Trans & Non-Binary Youth on May 24, 2023. In this final session, educator and advocate Sean Lare, addressed the wide range of responses to young people in their family or care coming out as transgender or non-binary and how affirmation is essential for the mental health, safety, and future of trans and non-binary youth. Mr. Lare used case examples, small group work and best practices to guide professionals who work with trans and non-binary youth and their caregivers or families to meet both the parent/caregivers and the young person “where they are” in their process and help identify where the adult is on the spectrum of acceptance. This webinar dove briefly into family systems work, spent time considering the short- and long-term impacts of family rejection on trans, non-binary, and gender diverse youth; and discussed methods to assess where the adults are in their ability and willingness to affirm and accept their young people. , as well as helped to guide the family unit towards attunement. Viewers of this recording will learn: The five stages of the Nelson Continuum as they relate to reactions to a person coming out as transgender or non-binary. Examples from each stage of how a person might respond and explain how that type of response might affect a transgender or non-binary person. Two different approaches used to support the youth and parent/caregiver. External resources or supports for a youth and 1-2 external resources or supports for a parent/caregiver.

Learning that your elementary-aged child is thinking about self-harm or using language that signals suicide is frightening and disorienting. Thankfully, suicide is preventable and there are many things that parents and caregivers can do to help keep their children safe. This Brief, a complement to the more detailed resource, “Our Young Children & Suicide Prevention: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers” is designed to help parents and caregivers prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs), recognize the warning signs of STBs, and, when necessary, intervene early and effectively to keep their children safe.   O’Malley, M., Marion, F., Palacio, J., & Gomez, J. (2023) Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC).

  When children talk about death, communicate a wish to die, or hurt themselves—when they engage in suicidal thoughts and behaviors (“STBs”)—school adults may feel stunned and disoriented. Rates of reported STBs in children are rising (Burstein et al., 2019), elevating the need for up-to-date information meant to ensure educators are prepared to respond in the best possible way. This Brief, a complement to the more detailed resource, “Self-Harm and Suicide Awareness and Prevention in Childhood and Early Adolescence: A Resource for Elementary School Educators & School-Based Professionals,” is designed to provide elementary school personnel with critical knowledge and resources to help them recognize and assess the warning signs of STBs, and to respond in such a way that harm may be reduced, and children are kept safe.   O’Malley, M., Marion, F., Palacio, J., & Gomez, J. (2023) Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC).

This is a recording of “Session 1: 988 Turns One! How Did it Go and How Can it Grow?” in the Rising Practices & Policies Revisited: Emerging Priorities in Mental & School Mental Health series.  On May 8, 2023, our Center’s Co-Director Dr. Miranda March hosted this Session 1, a panel discussion on how school and mental health leaders from our Pacific Southwest region have implemented 988, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline that launched in July of 2022. The panel was moderated by Danielle Raghib, Technical Assistance Specialist with the Center for Applied Research Solutions and featured CJ Loiselle, David Lopez, Kelly Marschall and Dr. Margie Balfour.  View this recording to hear the panelists' presentations and a Q&A with participants regarding the following questions, and more: How has the launch of 988 gone and how has it served the communities in our region? What are some of the challenges and wins? What are some of the lessons learned in the implementation of 988 (what worked and didn’t work, any models adopted, any emerging practices emerging)?

LEARNING SUMMARY: RISING PRACTICES & POLICIES IN OUR WORKFORCE: REGION 9's 2022 SPRING & SUMMER FOUR PART SERIES  In the Spring and Summer of 2022, the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) brought together regional leaders and implementers in a four-part learning series on emerging issues for the mental health and school mental health workforce with the goal of identifying considerations and elevating promising practices. This document includes a learning capture of all four sessions in this series. It includes each of the webinar recordings, highlights of the resources, ideas and learnings from the sessions.  Below are the titles of each panel event in the series. Session 1: Launching 988: What Do We Need to Know and How Might It Go? Session 2: Mitigating Distress & Maximizing Supports for Refugees from War Session 3: Working with Youth and Families Experiencing Homelessness and Home Insecurity Session 4: The Woes and Wonders of Recruitment and Retention in the Mental Health and School Mental Health Workforce  

  LEARNING SUMMARY Launching 988: What Do We Need to Know and How Might It Go? In May of 2022, MHTTC's Region 9 convened mental health crisis system professionals to learn how our region was preparing for the July 2022 launch of 988, the new front-facing number for suicide prevention and mental health crisis response. This new system operates through the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifelines, a network of 200 locally operated and funded crisis centers in the U.S. The launch of 988 created a universal entry point to trained crisis counselors and increased the nation’s capacity to circumvent law enforcement response to mental health crises. The system also reduces the number of admissions through the emergency room for people experiencing a mental health crisis, freeing up beds for other patients and reducing the cost of care. Recognizing that this once-in-a-generation opportunity requires intentional change management, MHTTC’s session explored considerations and strategies for 988 adoption and integration. Highlights from the panelists and group discussion, along with resources shared, are presented in this document. 

  LEARNING SUMMARY Session 2: Mitigating Distress & Maximizing Supports for Refugees from War   In June of 2022, MHTTC's Region 9 convened leaders in the school and mental health workforce to share strategies for responding to clients and students who are refugees from current and previous wars. Highlights from the panelists and group discussion, along with resources shared, are presented in this document. 

  LEARNING SUMMARY Working with Youth and Families Experiencing Homelessness and Home Insecurity   In July of 2022, MHTTC's Region 9 convened leaders in the school and mental health workforce to share strategies for responding to youth homelessness and housing insecurity in school and community-based settings. Highlights from the panelists and group discussion, along with resources shared, are presented in this document. 

  LEARNING SUMMARY The Woes and Wonders of Recruitment and Retention in the Mental Health and School Mental Health Workforce The Pacific Southwest region is experiencing a huge rise in need for mental health services in our communities and schools, and at the same time, experiencing a large attrition rate of providers—an ongoing situation that predated the pandemic but has been exacerbated by its effects. Beginning with the premise that issues of recruitment and attrition can be better framed as a shortcoming of systems, rather than a staffing shortage, in August of 2022, our Center convened behavioral health professionals and leaders to address strategies for cultivating a healthy and sustainable mental health and school mental health workforce. Highlights from the panelists and group discussion, along with resources shared, are presented in this document.