Products and Resources Catalog

  Students are reporting overall mental health decline, including increases in anxiety and persistent sadness. Aligning school-based mental health supports within existing structures and building skills of educators can increase access to evidence-based interventions. This session will highlight: best practices in school-based mental health; specific function-based interventions at the classroom, group, and individual levels; and access to free resources from the Mid-America MHTTC.   Presented by: Hannah West, PhD, BCBA, is a regional trainer for the Mid-America MHTTC and behavioral health provider at Sunflower Pediatric Behavioral Health in Shawnee, Kansas. Dr. West is passionate about assisting schools and districts at the systems level through consultation and coaching to match student academic, behavioral and mental health needs with resources available through the development of multi-tiered systems of support. As a trainer for the National Association of School Psychologists’ (NASP) PREPaRE curriculum, she is also passionate about working with schools to implement best-practice prevention, intervention, and postvention supports related to school crises. Dr. West received her doctorate in school psychology from Oklahoma State University. Her doctoral training and research focused on child and adolescent assessment and treatment, as well as working within the systems and environments they live to match resources to needs.   Jessica Christensen, M.Ed, holds a bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education and a master’s in Education. With over a decade of middle school teaching experience, she moved from the classroom to the non-profit sector. Following the conclusion of Please Pass the Love in May 2023, she transitioned from Please Pass the Love to a full-time role at MHTTC. Jessica offers valuable insights to enhance mental well-being in education, empowering educators, and guiding districts to strengthen their mental health frameworks.     Learn more about our School Mental Health program.     

Positionality refers to the social positions we hold in our society that influence how we interact with the world. As mental health providers, researchers, and advocates, our social positions influence our approach to our work, and reflection on positionality can allow us to identify our limitations and advance equity. The Positionality Project at the South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) aims to provide resources for the mental health workforce in Region 6 to understand and integrate positionality into their work. This brochure includes foundational information for mental health providers, researchers, and advocates to understand positionality. It provides a metaphor to understand positionality, explores how positionality can be used in mental health, provides a hypothetical example of applying positionality, and shares guiding questions for developing a positionality statement, which is one method for reflecting on positionality. A glossary of terms is provided at the end of the brochure. We hope that the brochure provides an introduction to this critical topic and inspires further learning.

From wildfires to school shootings, we need to be prepared to support the mental health of students, staff and families in our school communities when disaster strikes. This concise resource is a critical tool in building your response plans.   Access The Disaster Behavioral Health: Response and Recovery Considerations Document Here >    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.

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The Northwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center and the UW SMART Center presented the 2024 Virtual Speaker Series to the school mental health workforce. The six-session series features discussions on ways to create a positive school climate for students and staff. Through this series, we spotlight evidenced-based strategies to address universal screening, staff retention, and bullying and its intersection with youth mental health and violence. Please feel free to share the series flyer with your colleagues!   Learn more and register for upcoming events in the series here.    Check out the history of this series! SMART Center 2023 Speaker Series SMART Center 2022 Speaker Series SMART Center 2021 Speaker Series   Learn more about the UW SMART Center here.   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.

NAMI has many free support and educational programs. This talk reviews these programs and discuss NAMI's first book You Are Not Alone, where people who have lived with mental health conditions use their names and share what they have learned. They do so to reduce the isolation and shame so common with mental health conditions and to make meaning of their experience. Their lessons include ways they have found to live with symptoms, give to others, and build a life. Families who have learned to communicate and cope with loss will also share what they learned.   Presenter: Ken Duckworth, MD, is the chief medical officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Ken is board certified in adult psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry, and is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.   View a recording of this 9/13/23 session here. 

This guide is intended to accompany the three-part series, Understanding Stress, Understanding Trauma, and Understanding Trauma-Informed Care web-based modules located on HealthEKnowledge. This guide is intended for facilitators, coaches, and trauma-informed care champions of this curriculum to feel guided and supported in leading a cohort of through the content. The layout of this guide provides an overview of the objectives, materials needed, breathing & grounding exercises the facilitator can use, timing and content map for live sessions, as well as additional or supplemental exercises to support the content in the module.

The objectives of this module are:  • Develop a shared language around stress, adversity, and trauma, as well as healing and resilience. • Identify different types of stress. • Identify ways stress affects the body.

In the appendix, you can find additional breathing exercises, questions to build connections, closing exercises and practices, and TIC principles case studies.

Learn how to cultivate a strong and robust system with this informative flyer focused on how to grow a healing and resilient system.

Welcome to the 2023-24 school year! We hope you had a fantastic summer.  To kick off this year, we present the following haiku: School bells are ringing Doors open widely for all  Eager students near Teachers greet students Classrooms are freshly prepared   Lesson plans begin  Anxious, distracted  Not all students adapt well Coping skills needed Who can they turn to? You! Mental health champions Assess, plan, support Action drives outcomes Building teams create promise Kids begin to thrive We invite you to read and access the many resources shared in this newsletter edition to help your students thrive. Wishing you a wonderful start to the new school year.  Best Wishes, The NWMHTTC School Mental Health Team   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.

  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.   

In furthering our efforts to meet people where they are and foster healthy practices in adolescents and youth, the Great Lakes MHTTC and Wisconsin PATCH (Providers and Teens Communicating for Health) asked teens to describe the best ways adults can partner with youth and what motivates young people to get involved with organizations like PATCH. The responses featured in this resource were provided by teenage participants of the PATCH Teen Educators program.    This product was created with our valued partners at Wisconsin PATCH.  

Counselors have the privilege of working with individuals and families from various backgrounds; intersecting identities; and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions. Deliberately incorporating culturally responsive care in mental health settings can help ensure that individuals have access to treatment that meets their needs. This guide was created by WAFCA with funding from the Great Lakes MHTTC and is based on material presented by Dr. Patricia Arredondo on February 17, 2022, for WAFCA-CE. WAFCA serves as the Wisconsin partner for the Great Lakes MHTTC. 

This resource highlights how Buffalo Grove High School implemented Classroom WISE, as part of the 2023 Classroom WISE School TA Opportunity. To learn more about Classroom WISE, visit www.classroomwise.org.

This resource highlights how Provisional Accelerated Learning Academy implemented Classroom WISE, as part of the 2023 Classroom WISE School TA Opportunity. To learn more about Classroom WISE, visit www.classroomwise.org.

  The Great Lakes Current is the e-newsletter of the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC.   The August 2023 issue honors International Overdose Awareness Day (August 31), opioid overdose prevention training on HealtheKnowledge, and the newest NIATx in New Places series blog post written by Lynn Madden, PhD, MPA.  And as always, you will find links to all upcoming events and trainings hosted by the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC!  

  The Great Lakes Current is the e-newsletter of the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC.   The July 2023 issue honors National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month and World Hepatitis Day (July 28) by sharing events and resources on these topics. This issue also features newly released episodes from the Checking-In Podcast that focus on PTSD treatment providers' self-care and a new HealtheKnowledge course developed by the Great Lakes ATTC: NIATx Change Leader Academy: Rapid-Cycle Change for Teams.    As always, you will find links to all upcoming events and trainings hosted by the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC!  

The UW SMART Center Speaker Series brought esteemed scholars virtually to elevate our understanding of issues related to school mental health and critical topics in education. This year's speaker series on Equity-Centered MTSS and Implications for School Mental Health was a success, leaving participants inspired and eager for more. The event showcased a diverse range of experts, engaging discussions, and practical insights into implementing equitable MTSS in educational settings. "More of it! This presentation was FANTASTIC!!!" "Loved the whole series of Equitable MTSS. Would love more next year!" "I liked how it was thoughtful and balanced, not only supporting students but also supporting staff in doing important work. I liked the emphasis on collecting data to inform decisions and cultural wisdom or sensitivity." "Thank you for this. I am in my studies to be a school counselor and this has given perspective!" "Great reminders to utilize data through an equity lens, and to remember that behind the data is a student"   The school mental health supplement to the Northwest MHTTC co-sponsored the UW SMART Center's 2023 Virtual Speaker Series. Full Series details can be accessed here. Learn more about the UW SMART Center here.   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.

Dina Coughlan shares her experience as a mental health advocate with host Ashley Stewart, and they discuss how to support mental wellness in the workplace. This podcast episode is sponsored by the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC).

Recording of the event Black Youth Suicide: Exploring a Public Health Crisis and the Role of Racial Trauma, originally held on June 6, 2023. Slide presentation

  This report is based on the research and the results of an intensive technical assistance (ITA) series hosted by our valued partners at the Wisconsin Association of Family & Children's Agencies (WAFCA). The report outlines the initial data of a multi-year intensive series being conducted with the participation of several schools in Wisconsin. For more information about the data presented in this report, please email [email protected].      For more information about the Wisconsin Association of Family & Children's Agencies, visit wafca.org.   

  The Great Lakes Current is the e-newsletter of the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC.   The June 2023 issue honors National Pride Month, National PTSD Awareness Month, and Men's Health Month by sharing events and resources on these topics. As always, you will find links to all upcoming events and trainings hosted by the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC!  

  Primary care can serve as a key entry point for children exposed to trauma to receive access to mental health services. This toolkit accompanies Screening and Assessing for Trauma in Primary Care.   Learn more about the series: Implementing Trauma-Informed Practices in Pediatric Integrated Primary Care