Products and Resources Catalog

Prolonged delays from psychosis onset to care (or Duration of Untreated Psychosis-DUP) can imperil the benefits even of evidence-based Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) clinics. Early detection efforts to shorten DUP are thus a necessary component of modern early intervention  services for schizophrenia. The NIMH-funded Mindmap campaign reported the first successful demonstration of DUP reduction in a U.S. region. Details of the design and implementation of Mindmap will be presented with lessons for future early intervention efforts.   Presenter: Vinod Srihari, MD is a staff psychiatrist at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University, and the founding Director of the Program for Specialized Treatment Early in Psychosis (STEP). STEP completed the first U.S. based RCT of specialty team based care for early psychosis and followed this with the first successful replication of the Scandinavian TIPS study of DUP reduction. The Program delivers a care pathway that integrates early detection with CSC and within a population health framework that targets geographically defined populations. This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET, www.mapnet.online).   View a recording of this 11/3/23 session here. 

The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) is an alternative, non-diagnostic conceptualization of distress created by providers and service users, published by the British Psychological Society and attracting international attention. Participants learned the basics of the framework and had an opportunity to discuss how it might be useful to the family workforce, especially in the areas of meaning-making, empowerment and choice. Attendees also gained knowledge of where to access further information about the use of PTMF to enhance family workforce knowledge and tools.   Presenter: Dr. Lucy Johnstone is a consultant clinical psychologist, author of ‘Users and abusers of psychiatry’ (2nd edition Routledge 2000) and co-editor of ‘Formulation in psychology and psychotherapy: making sense of people’s problems’ (Routedge, 2nd edition 2013) and ‘A straight-talking guide to psychiatric diagnosis’ (PCCS Books 2014), along with a number of other chapters and articles taking a critical perspective on mental health theory and practice.   

In celebration of the National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, in partnership with the New England MHTTC, invited people to a listening session about the importance of elevating Lived Experience Leadership among Latine/Latinos/Hispanic Peer Supporters and Latinos/Latine People with Lived Experience to inform the development of the first Hispanic/Latine Yale LET(s)Lead Transformational Leadership Academy, a 9-month FREE transformational leadership development opportunity. 

  In the wake of the recent mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, it’s vital to remember that recovery and healing take time, compassion, and support. Recognizing that everyone affected by this tragedy will navigate grief and trauma uniquely, the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center is offering specific behavioral health resources to support survivors, their loved ones, as well as the larger community.   For an easy-to-understand overview of the disaster trauma recovery process: Disaster Behavioral Health: Response and Recovery Considerations. Reaching out for help can be the first step towards hope.

This clinical brief is intended to introduce mental health providers to the current understanding of culturally responsive care in early psychosis by providing an overview of culturally responsive tools and models for early psychosis (EP) care and highlighting the need for the continued development of a culturally responsive care (CRC) model within EP care.

Person-Centered Recovery Planning (PCRP) is increasingly required by both state behavioral health authorities and funders such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The implementation of PCRP requires attention to multiple aspects of the change process including overall agency culture, stakeholder competencies in PCRP, and organizational business practices. This report presents key findings from a multi-agency learning collaborative offering intensive training and technical assistance to support the uptake of PCRP across the New England Region.    by Milena Stanojlović, Maria O’Connell, Dana Asby, Stephanie Lanteri, Larry Davidson & Janis Tondora  

Dr. Irwin discusses health disparities for individuals with serious mental illness across the cancer continuum. She reviews the development of a model of person-centered collaborative care, including findings from a recent randomized trial, and introduces a coalition dedicated to ensuring mental illness is never a barrier to cancer care.   Presenter: Dr. Kelly Irwin is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a faculty psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center and MGH Schizophrenia Program. She is the founding director of the Collaborative Care and Community Engagement Program, a clinical and research initiative dedicated to improving cancer outcomes for individuals with serious mental illness in the Center for Psychiatric Oncology and Behavioral Sciences at the Mass General Cancer Center.   View a recoding of this 9/22/23 session here. 

This 5-hour asynchronous course is a free, self-paced, basic orientation to the components of coordinated specialty care for early psychosis. It is appropriate for new staff working on an early psychosis team or anyone interested in learning more about this topic. Each course module is co-presented by individuals with professional and lived experience. Topics include: introduction to psychosis, culturally responsive coordinated specialty care, peer support services, individual therapy, medication management, family psychoeducation and support, and supported education and employment. Access the course.

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 comprehensive guide is designed to support BIPOC employees, allies, and leadership in fostering a more inclusive and supportive workplace environment. By recognizing and addressing the unique challenges faced by People of Color, promoting allyship, and empowering leadership, we can create a workplace where everyone feels valued, supported, and able to thrive.   This guide provides practical strategies, exercises, and resources to enhance well-being and promote equity within your organization. View a series of webinars for guidance and support for the use and implementation of the guide: Day 1 recording Day 2 recording Day 3 recording

Participants learned how to:  Describe how both positive and negative attentional biases may contribute to suicide risk  Describe the Broaden and Build theory of positive emotions  Describe specific strategies to increase one's attention to positive emotions and experiences   Presenter: Shirley Yen, PhD, Associate Professor, Psychology, Harvard Medical School This hybrid event was co-hosted by Sadhguru Center for a Conscious Planet.

The language of the written word is too limiting for efforts to communicate mental health awareness. Image and sound, which have been used to communicate and teach since ancient times, are much more powerful. Film and other audiovisual media are important ways to promote mental health and reduce stigma and can help enhance emotional and intellectual harmony. Presenter: Mohan Agashe, MD   View a recording of this 8/25/23 session here. 

A joint project of the National Federation of Families, National Family Support Technical Assistance Center, and the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, this tip sheet provides vetted resources and links for school, family, and community leaders to address school culture and climate. Access this publication for tips on what families, parents, caregivers, individual educators, family peer specialists, and mental health providers can do to address the young person engaging in bullying behavior while school and family leaders address school culture and climate and support the child being bullied.

At the New England MHTTC, we believe that agencies and organizations can benefit from applying a racial equity lens to their structure and activities. “A racial equity lens is a set of questions we ask ourselves when we are planning, developing or evaluating a policy, program or decision. It helps us assess if we are taking in the perspectives of the racially diverse people and communities we intend to serve, and whether our policies and programs are resulting in equitable or inequitable outcomes. An equity lens helps us see where challenges and opportunities exist, so that we can make intentional steps to ensure more equitable outcomes for all individuals and communities.” Asking meaningful questions is key. In order to compile the questions for consideration below, the TTC Network conducted a review of approximately 50 organizational and community assessment tools and resources available from the website, Racial Equity Tools. We pulled and synthesized questions from these materials, as well as direct resources from the New England MHTTC, to determine questions most applicable for our work. By providing this resource, we are not signifying that this is a complete list of questions to consider in order to achieve racial equity. We aim to spur thinking and action among the agencies, organizations, and collaborators in our community and we acknowledge that this is just one step in a longer, more integrated and comprehensive process.

Compassionate Listening is... A personal practice – to cultivate inner strength, self awareness, self regulation and wisdom. A skill set – to enhance interpersonal relations and navigate challenging conversation. A process – to bring individuals or groups together to bridge their differences and transform conflict A healing gift – to offer a compassionate listening session to a person who feels marginalized or in pain.   These principles, adapted with permission from the Compassionate Listening Project,, guide the engagements of the New England MHTTC's Racial Equity and Advancing Cultural Humility (REACH) for Organizational Change Learning Collaborative. We encourage you to use these principles as you engage in frank and honest conversations in the workplace. The principles are designed to keep the dialogue grounded so that you can focus your energy on cultivating compassion and respect for others; serving as a witness to another's truth; and listening and speaking from the heart.  

Issues stemming from race and other cultural matters are broad and varied. Individuals and organizations will find that they are quite knowledgeable and proficient in some aspects of cultural competence, and yet, may neglect asking crucial questions in another area. For instance, we may be acutely aware of making focus group (or other) accommodations for the hearing impaired community, but may not have a cache of options to make public health programs accessible to non-native English speakers. When you begin to consider your approach to engagement with diverse communities, you can gauge how and why mainstream strategies have a lower effectiveness and work from a more culturally responsive foundation. Ultimately, the more your work stems from relevant aspects of racial and cultural identity, the greater your chances for effective outcomes and increased, sustainable engagement from a broader, more diverse community. In assessing your agency/organization's capacity for cultural responsiveness, it is useful to have a tool that is focused on core ways to interpret the wide range of behaviors and attitudes that are expressed in the policies and practices of an organization. Our Process of Gaining Cultural Competence represents a continuum into which we can place behaviors, attitudes, policies, and practices. This is intended to be a dynamic tool, since there is always room for growth and development in individuals, organizations, and institutionalized policies and practices.

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.   July's topic was "Native Crisis Response: Tribal 988 Successes and Challenges."   Watch a recording of this 7/25/23 session here. 

This three-hour webinar deep dives into the core competencies previously drafted and shared during the Competencies for Peer Support Workers in Crisis Services webinar hosted in March 2023. The co-facilitators – including a youth peer with recent experience working in the field in a crisis setting - explore each competency and allow participants to apply the competencies in peer crisis work scenarios. We present detailed information about how each competency is applicable in peer crisis work and then use breakout rooms and case studies to prompt discussion on how to utilize a specific competency.    Participants gain knowledge about the complexities of working as a peer in crisis settings and how to maintain the ethical standards of the peer role; gain a detailed understanding of the 5 Core Competencies and how they were developed by the MHTTC team; develop a practical understanding of how the competencies will show up in their work in crisis settings; and learn about practices and tools that can be used to assist with becoming comfortable and skilled in the competencies.   View a recording of this 7/31/23 session here.  

In collaboration with the Connecticut State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) and its Office of Multicultural Health Equity, the New England MHTTC supported a training and technical assistance activity highlighting the stats and statistics around the state of minority mental health in Connecticut.   While the statistics help to validate that the rates of mental health illness are similar across racial groups, they also conceal a deeper inequity. What you can’t tell from the numbers is how the severity, persistence, contributing factors, and implications for the overall well-being of mental health conditions vary widely across demographic groups. This event aims to raise awareness, foster dialogue, and share strategies that support optimal behavioral health treatment, care, and recovery for minoritized populations.   Featured Speakers Nancy Navarretta, MA, DMHAS Commissioner Charles Dike, FRCPsych, MBChB, MPH, DMHAS Medical Director Karin Haberlin, Behavioral Health Program Manager, DMHAS Jessica Isom, MD, MPH, Keynote Speaker, Vision for Equity, LLC Taylor Bryan Turner, Assistant Regional Director, SAMHSA Region 1   View a recording of this 7/27/23 session here.  

Individuals recovering from a first episode of psychosis are prone to high rates of comorbid medical disorders due to a combination of lifestyle, medication, and self-management factors. This presentation provides practical guidance regarding strategies for promoting a healthier lifestyle and integrated training in mental health and physical illness self-management. Principles of effective supports to improve physical health in persons with FEP, as well as multi-episode clients, are illustrated with clinical vignettes.   Presenter: Kim T. Mueser, Ph.D. is Professor of Occupational Therapy and Psychological and Brain Sciences, researcher at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University, and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. His research interests are on the development and evaluation of psychosocial interventions for persons with serious mental illnesses.   This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET).   View a recording of this 7/28/23 session here. 

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic decreased both economic well-being and mental health.  Using a survey of a diverse representative sample of Boston residents in the first months of the pandemic, we identified sources of vulnerability and resilience on mental health during the pandemic’s early months. Persons of color, who reported greater economic impact than white residents, reported less decline in mental health, a pattern consistent with prior research on what has been termed the “black-white mental health paradox” and the “Latino health paradox.” Women, younger and more educated persons reported more adverse mental health impact, in part due to changes in social connection. Loneliness and more online activity predicted greater decline in mental health, except when online engagement was with friends and family or was part of a religious community. Our findings help explain mental health effects of the pandemic and can guide planning to lessen adverse mental health effects of future pandemics.   Presenters: Matcheri Keshavan, MD, Russell K. Schutt, PhD, and Dr. B.S. Keshava   View a recording of this 7/21/23 session here. 

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.   June's topic was "Healing Family Trauma Connected with Misuse of Drugs and Alcohol."   View a recording of this 6/27/23 session here. 

Ronitia Hodges and Ashley Stewart discuss the importance and benefits of fostering an authentic and inclusive environment in the workplace. This podcast episode is sponsored by the New England Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC).  

2023 marked a significant expansion of behavioral health resources for individuals, families, and providers in Massachusetts. Beginning this year, Massachusetts implemented key components of its Behavioral Health Roadmap at the same time the Massachusetts Psychosis Access & Triage Hub (M-PATH) began providing services. Combined, Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHCs), DMH’s Behavioral Health Help Line (BHHL), and M-PATH have vastly expanded access to behavioral health services across the Commonwealth. This is an overview detailing the who-what-when-where-why-and-how (to access) these critical new resources.   Presenters: Dr. Margaret Guyer, PhD, Michael Stepansky, MPP   This webinar was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (MAPNET, www.mapnet.online)   View a recording of this 6/30/23 event here.