Products and Resources Catalog

SMI Adviser is a 6-year initiative funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and administered by the American Psychiatric Association. SMI Adviser’s vision is to transform care for people who have serious mental illness so that they can live their best lives. To date, the website has been accessed over 1.9 million times and has been a resource for over 70,000 interdisciplinary learners.  In this presentation, we will provide clinicians a guide to the resources at SMI Adviser, with a focus on resources for working with individuals with early psychosis. We will also highlight resources that are found in our Centers of Excellence section, focusing on tools in the Clozapine and Long-Acting Injectable areas. We will also guide clinicians through our consultation service and share insights from the types of questions our users most commonly ask.   At the end of this presentation, participants were able to: Demonstrate knowledge of the available resources on SMI Adviser’s educational catalog and knowledge base. List and describe three tools in SMI Adviser’s Clozapine or Long-Acting Injectable Center of Excellence. Outline the process of accessing SMI Adviser’s consultation service, demonstrating the ability to effectively seek guidance to help make evidence-based treatment decisions. Presenters: Robert O. Cotes, MD, is an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He serves as Physician Expert for SMI Adviser (www.smiadviser.org), which is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and administered by the American Psychiatric Association. SMI Adviser provides evidence-based resources to clinicians, individuals with serious mental illness, and their families. Sherin Khan, LCSW is Vice President of Operations and Strategy for Thresholds, Illinois’ oldest and largest provider of mental health services. Sherin also serves as the social work consultant as part of SMI Adviser, a SAMHSA funded clinical support system for people living with serious mental illness. She has over 10 years of experience in the non-profit sector with a focus on serving those who are disempowered. This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET, www.mapnet.online).

Session Recording: Description: How did you learn about substance use, addiction, treatment and recovery? What are the sources of information that shaped your views? This workshop will discuss how news, entertainment, and social media, as well as personal experience, influence how people understand substance use disorders and different pathways to recovery. It will also address common beliefs like, “You have to hit rock bottom” and “Recovery is rare,” and explain how attitudes, practices, and data collection have evolved. Information from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and other sources will be presented, including prevalence of illicit substance use, substance use disorders, and co-occurring mental health challenges. Goals: Encourage participants to examine the sources of their attitudes and beliefs about substance use, addiction, treatment and recovery, reconsider any misperceptions, and expand their understanding of these topics by presenting current research and statistics. Workshop Outline: Discuss where participants learned about addiction, treatment and recovery (personal experience, news and entertainment media, etc.). Highlight themes that often appear in films, TV shows, books, music, and social media, including overview of research findings. Discuss critiques of media coverage of these topics. Address common beliefs and whether they’re supported by evidence (hitting rock bottom, enabling and co-dependency, tough love). Discuss how personal experience influences attitudes and beliefs. Present graphics illustrating types of substance use (experimental, social, risky, etc.). Discuss different reasons people use drugs, and how that varies for different substances over time. Present substance use and mental health statistics, using sources such as the 2022 NSDUH. Discuss criteria for diagnosing a substance use disorder (mild, moderate or severe). Trainer Bio: Susan Stellin, MPH is a writer, educator, and public health consultant focusing on health-centered responses to substance use and addiction. Since earning a master's in public health at Columbia University, she has worked on projects about ways to reduce overdose deaths, reform punitive drug policies, and expand access to harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support. Recent clients include NYU Langone’s Health x Housing Lab, the Northeast & Caribbean Addiction Technology Transfer Center, the Opioid Response Network, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Overdose Prevention Program at Vital Strategies, and the Vera Institute of Justice. She regularly leads training workshops for service providers working with people experiencing substance use, mental health, and housing challenges, and has also taught undergraduate courses about media ethics, collaborative storytelling, and the history of journalism.

To view resources from this training, click ATTACHMENT links Recording coming soon! Event Description We are excited to welcome back Alison Malmon, Founder and Executive Director of Active Minds, the nation’s premier nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for young adults, for a training that presents new insights about college mental health in 2024. While many people view the pandemic as something that has come and gone, college campuses across the country, particularly community colleges, are continuing to grapple with the ongoing, and in some cases accelerating, student mental health needs. Recent studies conducted on college campuses found that of the students interviewed, 60% of college students meet the criteria for at least one mental health condition, and 81% of students indicate that their mental health negatively impacted their academic performance in the past four weeks. Alison will present insights gathered from activities Active Minds hosts and coordinates with students on college campuses. These insights don’t necessarily dispute the statistics presented in the last paragraph but instead provide a clear picture of how effective mental health education, advocacy, and awareness are in changing the conversation around mental health, which in turn can positively impact statistics. In addition to the data Active Minds has collected, Alison will share some of the most innovative and effective approaches that Active Minds chapters use to support young adult well-being, particularly on college campuses. This training is for anyone who works with young adults and college-age youth. Trainer Alison Malmon Active Minds Founder & Executive Director

The Community Resiliency Model (CRM) is a skill-based wellness and prevention program that provides a biological, non-stigmatizing perspective on normal human reactions to stress and trauma. In this webinar we will apply CRM to schools by teaching skills for educators, administrators, and the school mental health workforce to reduce burnout and promote staff retention. Attendees will gain knowledge of concepts to understand stress responses in themselves and others as well as learn skills to help regain emotional balance after experiencing strong negative emotions. The knowledge and skills gained will help attendees avoid burn-out and promote cultures of resiliency in schools to better support student mental health.   Learning objectives: 1. Describe how stress and trauma affect mental and physical health. 2. Describe how CRM can protect and heal via sensory-motor awareness. 3. Explain the 6 CRM skills. 4. Understand how CRM can help reduce burnout and promote resiliency.

The third issue of our Northwest MHTTC newsletter features webinars on mental health topics such as clinical supervision, leadership, and service animals. It also highlights a call for presentations for the Re-Imagining Behavioral Health: Race, Equity & Social Justice Conference.

Recording of the event Reducing Stigma Toward the Transgender Community, originally held on March 7, 2024. View Slides

Download Session Slides Here This session is designed for local education agencies/school districts engaged in school mental health initiatives that provide students and families service referrals. The information will also be relevant to state education agencies seeking to advance policies and procedures that ensure a full spectrum of services are accessible to meet student and family wellness needs.   Learning Objectives Participants who join this session will be able to: 1. Understand and articulate the value of ongoing investment in effective school mental health referral pathways. 2. Leverage best practices to build and refine pathways linking schools, providers, students, and families to support student mental health. 3. Select and apply easy-to-implement tools and templates that improve school mental health referral pathways.   Session overview What level of need warrants referral to an outside provider? Does your team have a communication procedure for a student’s supported re-entry to campus? Are the school mental health providers you work with timely in their intake of students after they have received a referral? This session outlines the benefits off effective school mental health referral pathways. After reviewing best practices, you will be able to improve the consistency and efficiency with which your students are connected to appropriate levels of mental health support. Given the dynamic nature of schools and service agencies, establishing and maintaining good methods of contact and tracking requires regular attention. This session will also provide tools and templates to strengthen your referral pathways, and it will explain how these tools and templates can be adapted to the circumstances and culture of your school system.

Hosts Joey Rodriguez and Lola Nedic discuss culturally responsive strategies and the future of culturally responsive care. This podcast episode is sponsored by the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC).

At the end of this presentation, participants were able to: Recognize the importance of understanding the historical context of the lives of older African Americans Recognize the importance of eliciting the older African American’s perspective of his/her mental and physical health challenges Elicit socio-cultural and spiritual beliefs that could influence an older African American’s health care choices and access to care Enhance knowledge of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of major mental health disorders when working with older African Americans   Presenter: Martha Crowler, PhD   This webinar was presented in collaboration with the Massachusetts Mental Health Center GrandRounds series.

The one-hour Reclaiming Native Psychological Brilliance virtual series provides an opportunity for participants to: Gain skills on strength-based approaches in partnership with Native People to enhance Native behavioral health, and Discuss ways that Native brilliance is demonstrated and supports behavioral health, and Learn about Native brilliance examples to share with behavioral health and other health care staff, as well as with local Tribal Nation citizens The concept of Native psychological brilliance will be celebrated through Native music videos and Native spoken word performances as part of each session of the Reclaiming Native Psychological Brilliance series.   February's topic was "Native Crisis Response (Part Two) – Escalation and De-escalation and Native Implications."

This webinar provided tips for working with families of individuals with psychosis in outpatient community settings. Questions that were addressed include:   How can I develop a good working relationship with families in order to support care even though I don’t have a lot of experience working with families and I have a large caseload? How can I manage confidentiality? How can I help families develop a better understanding of their relative and their symptoms and treatment? What are some important considerations for providing culturally responsive care when working with families? What can I learn to feel more equipped to support families entering care in the context of a recent onset of psychotic symptoms?   Presenter: Julie M. McCarthy, PhD, is a clinician-scientist in the Division of Psychotic Disorders at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. Her research aims to identify neurobiological and psychosocial treatment targets and develop/evaluate treatments for individuals and families experiencing co-occurring psychotic and substance use disorders.

Participants will be able to define a school-wide crisis and an individual student emergency, understand incident management guidelines at each phase, and identify possible barriers to school emergency responses in order to positively engage leadership/staff during an emergency.

Session learning objectives: Provide an overview of the prevalence of mental health challenges among youth before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Examine specific groups of youth that may be more vulnerable to mental health challenges post-pandemic. Explore pandemic-related changes in behavior patterns and coping mechanisms adopted by youth, including the role of technology. Describe ways in which schools can identify students who experience persistent challenges and implement school-based programs to best support these youth.  

This webinar will explore the concept of healthy aging for people living with serious mental health conditions. While people aging in this group may experience health challenges, supporters can encourage and empower people to take actions toward healthy aging despite challenges. Objectives: Explore healthy aging for people aging with serious mental health conditions List methods to promote healthy aging Identify strategies to empower older adults to make informed decisions about resources for care and supports  

Our mission is to facilitate the implementation of evidence-based and empirically supported mental health practices to improve the lives of individuals living with mental health conditions and support their recovery, wellness, and resilience. As we conclude our fifth year of activities at the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, we are reflecting on strategies to support the sustainability of our efforts. A critical component of sustainability is collaboration with valued partners. We’ve had the opportunity to build many such partnerships. You’ll see in this summary of our Year 5 activities that collaborations are central to our work and its sustained impact.