Products and Resources Catalog

Session one Rural Social Isolation and Loneliness: Rates, Importance, and Identifying Risk In this session, participants learned about loneliness and social isolation among older adults in rural and urban areas. Dr. Henning Smith reviewed existing data, what we know, how social isolation and loneliness are unique in rural areas, and how rural social isolation is a health and mortality risk factor. She discussed what has changed as a result of the current health pandemic, how to prepare rural providers to ask questions to determine isolation/loneliness, and what can be done for rural people who are experiencing isolation/loneliness. Slide deck Recording   Additional Resources Rural Health Research Gateway Rural Health Information (RHI) Hub   Trainer Carrie Henning-Smith, PhD, MPH, MSW     Three-part Series on Rural Social Isolation and Loneliness  Social isolation and loneliness are complex conditions that can have increased consequences for individuals living in rural and remote communities. The current COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the challenges faced by providers working in rural communities in identifying and responding to the needs of individuals who may be experiencing increased social isolation and loneliness. This series aims to provide an overview of the topic, and novel ways to support providers in responding to the needs of the individuals they serve.   Session two The Evolving Nature of Social Connections: Promoting Well-Being in Times of Crisis July 22, 2020 This session will address programs designed to make connections between and among individuals and organizations to promote well-being in the aging population. Social Connect: Mindful Stress Management is a six-session program delivered virtually through a Zoom platform or telephonically. The program was revised during the early stages of the current pandemic to address the concern of increasing isolation among the elderly population. Social Connect draws on mind-body stress management strategies, in particular, Mindfulness-Based Stress Management. The session will provide the overview of the program, conceptual foundation, program elements, and lessons learned from the first pilot offerings. Central Minnesota Council on Aging (CMCOA) is a non-profit organization designated by the Minnesota Board on Aging as the Area Agency on Aging for the 14 county Central Minnesota region. In partnership with public and private organizations, CMCOA helps older adults age successfully by building community capacity, advocating for aging issues, maximizing service effectiveness, and linking people with information.  Chisago Age Well is one of four Silos to Circles communities whose mission is to increase awareness of, access to, and satisfaction with, existing services and health resources in the community.    Session Two Resources   Trainers Natalie Matthewson, MA, LPC Rebecca Hostetler Darcy Rylander, BS, RYT, NBC-HWC Steve Hoover, PhD     Session three Rural but Reachable: How to Build Grief Support by Creating Community July 28, 2020 What are the unique qualities of our rural environments which lend to us creating community surrounding our common denominator of grief? Come explore in this engaging and interactive webinar where we will discuss how you can start the thread of connection in your own community to support those in grief. How has COVID-19 changed this and where are we now as we create new avenues of support for each other and grief becomes even more of our common experience and language?   Session Three Resources   Trainer Cynthia Drake                  Additional Resources Rural Mental Health Resources  

The Family Peer Support: An Emerging Workforce Webinar airing 12-1 p.m. Thursday, August 20, will introduce family peer support as a profession, explore its roles and functions, and highlight specific training needs.   Visit the webinar web page to learn more.  

Debra A. Pinals, MD, Brian Hepburn, MD, and Joseph Parks, MD will speak about the response of behavioral health systems and facilities to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Their presentation will cover preparedness and response for state hospitals, crisis services, residential & community treatment services, and the criminal & civil justice interface. They will also speak about the challenges regarding financing for community providers, providing medication, adapting to changing technology, and special behavioral health populations such as people experiencing homelessness, children, and older adults.

"Citizenship is for all, but our citizenship work has focused on the needs and aspirations of people with experiences of psychiatric illness. This guide also contains references to substance abuse, homelessness, and incarceration. People confronting these issues along with a psychiatric illness may have a higher risk of social isolation than others, and often lack opportunities to engage in valued roles in their communities. Our longest-running citizenship project has served people with psychiatric illness and histories of incarceration. Still, most of the material in this guide applies to anyone with a psychiatric disability who wants to do ‘citizenship work’."

This presentation describes the real-world experience of one community in a rural state (Iowa) in enhancing their crisis services.  It is meant to complement the two prior webinars in this series, the first of which described a large and relatively resource-rich crisis system that has been up and running for some time, and the second describing what an “ideal crisis system” might look like.  This webinar is a case study of one community’s process of expanding their crisis services, highlighting some of the successes and how those were navigated, as well as some ongoing challenges. Slides available for download here. About the Presenter Michael Flaum, MD Michael Flaum, MD, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, is the author or co-author of more than 100 publications, mostly reflecting his collaborative clinical research in schizophrenia in the 1990s. In 1999, he assumed the directorship of the Iowa Consortium for Mental Health, which aimed to harness the academic resources of Iowa’s universities to benefit the state’s public mental health system. His work since then has focused on efforts to optimize the quality, effectiveness and access to psychiatric services within publicly funded settings in a recovery-oriented manner. He currently serves as president of the American Association for Community Psychiatry.

On December 4th, Rebekah Behan and Tim Marshall introduced Children's System of Care. The system of care (SOC) is a comprehensive spectrum of mental health, behavioral health, and other necessary services organized in a coordinated network to meet the multiple and changing needs of children, youth, and their families. This webinar allowed participants to develop a clear understanding of the values and principles of a children’s system of care, to identify the relationship and differences between a children’s SOC and an adult SOC and to learn the necessary steps to implementing a system of care approach.

Youth peer support is an increasingly popular intervention for youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions. However, many agencies face difficulty when it comes to hiring this new role. This webinar addresses appropriate qualifications for youth peer support specialists, drafting a job description, addressing barriers related to confidentiality, and out-of-the-box recruitment methods. This webinar will also briefly touch on retention once you start growing your youth peer workforce. Trainers: Caitlin Baird Caitlin Baird is a Project Manager and Trainer with Pathways RTC at Portland State University. Caitlin has experience working directly with transition aged youth and young adults as a peer support specialist and as a supervisor for peer support specialists in wraparound and other mental health settings.        Maria Hermsen-Kritz Maria Hermsen is a Research Assistant with Pathways RTC at Portland State University. She has experience providing peer support for transition age youth, supervising youth peer support specialists,and managing a youth drop-in center program.  

This flyer provides an overview of Mid-America MHTTC services in the field of integrated behavioral health and primary care.

Severe and persistent mental illness touches every part of a person’s life. It impacts overall health, relationships, activities of daily living and overall quality of life. The mental health treatment community is learning more about evidence-based practices that result in increased quality of life and improved recovery trajectories. The foundation of mental health treatment is a multidisciplinary treatment team. In this webinar, Dr. Gina Bryan gives an overview of how nurses support people with persistent and severe mental illness.

Youth peer support is a growing field in many mental health and child-serving systems, yet many agencies are new to supervising and supporting these roles. This line of work can often be taxing for its young employees, and self-care is just as important to supervision as job performance. This webinar presents specific strategies supervisors can use to promote self-care among their youth peer staff while ensuring accountability to their job duties.  

Youth peer support is an emerging and innovative role within mental health that is seen as valuable for young adults who are system involved. While many agencies want to employ or do employ youth peer support specialists, there are many questions and challenges regarding how to best support this role. In this webinar we will clarify the responsibilities and boundaries of the youth peer support role and offer tips on how to support this role and these employees within your agency.

On May 13th through May 16th, New England MHTTC and the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services sponsored the International Recovery and Citizenship Collective (IRCC) 2019 Symposium. The IRCC is a global collaborative of policy makers, health care providers, persons with lived experience, advocates, researchers, and other stakeholders. The IRCC focuses on bi-directional learning and the sharing of policy, service delivery, workforce, and other mental health and addictions innovations designed to promote recovery, citizenship, and health care system development and transformation. The IRCC envisions a world in which people thrive, are connected to their communities, and live meaningful lives.