Products and Resources Catalog

Original Webinar Date: 02/20/2020 As our population becomes increasingly diverse, mental health organizations and providers see the value of employing diverse staff that reflect the people they serve. The Pacific Southwest MHTTC has developed a self-assessment instrument to help mental health organizations identify and implement workforce diversity strategies in six critical areas. This presentation recording highlights the importance of increasing workforce diversity for achieving health equity. Presenters briefly outline the purpose of the six areas in strengthening workforce diversity. Then participants had the opportunity to complete the tool and explore the different aspects of each area. This recording is geared towards those in mental health organizations who are interested in assessing the importance of a culturally responsive workforce and taking action.   Viewers will: Explore the importance and benefits of a diverse workforce in effectively addressing mental health disparities for community populations. Describe the critical components needed to assess the successes and challenges for mental health organizations in building a diverse workforce. Identify how your organization is doing in each area and overall to identify areas of focus. Identify action steps to address areas where organizations are more limited and incorporate these action steps into an existing organizational plan (e.g., strategic, cultural competency, or diversity plan).

The Pacific Southwest MHTTC curated a series of topical resource sheets to help you find high-quality tools and information on caring for yourself, your families, and the communities you serve. This resource sheet focuses specifically on supporting racially and ethnically diverse populations; older adults; LGBTQIA+ communities; people living with HIV; people with disabilities; immigrant and undocumented communities; and college students and young adults. Click the "View Resource" link above to download, or view all available resource sheet topics.

This brief identifies issues to consider when conducting mental health services and supports through telehealth with culturally diverse communities and provides strategies to ensure that the national Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards continue to drive efforts towards culturally competent care.

February 2020 issue of electronic newsletter of the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC. 

Prepared by Jessica Maura, PhD and Sarah Kopelovich, PhD Over 100 million people in the US identify as belonging to a racial and/or ethnic minority group. Individuals with a serious mental illness who also identify as a racial/ethnic minority tend to receive poorer quality of care, have less access to services, and experience higher dropout rates and poorer outcomes when compared to their White counterparts1. These differences have spurred initiatives to integrate cultural perspectives into evidence-based treatments. This practice brief is intended to help clinicians —particularly those who administer Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for individuals with serious mental illness—to enhance their cultural awareness and incorporate culturally-relevant practices into their formulation and treatment approach.

Integrating cultural and linguistic considerations in our mental health services requires shifts in values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. If we are truly invested in improving the client’s experience as they enter our organizations and in creating equitable systems for services, we need to be open to changes. We can all lead and engage in a change process to integrate cultural and linguistic considerations into our policy, infrastructure, workforce, community engagement, and programs and services. Presenters Suganya Sockalingam and Annie Guo VanDan (Pacific Southwest MHTTC) provide a conceptual foundation of the importance of culture, including definitions, frameworks, and concepts. We look at a self-assessment tool to examine cultural and linguistic competence (CLC) in our organization, and we explore the leadership required to motivate and integrate CLC into systems and service delivery.   Participants will: Recognize and explain the importance of culture and language in mental health services. Use CLC strategies to meet the needs of culturally diverse populations. Identify ways participants can lead (promote) CLC in service delivery. Explore ways to make the CLC change stick!   Audience: Mental health services program directors, administrators, providers, and other personnel involved in mental health services and supports.    

On August 15th, Center for Educational Improvement (CEI) in collaboration with New England MHTTC, held an interview-style webinar session with Dr. Yvette Jackson. She discussed how mindfulness practices, high expectations, and positivity can enhance the compassion and understanding needed to begin to heal the racial divide. This interview-style session was led by the Center for Educational Improvement’s Associate Director of Heart Centered Learning Dr. Michele Rivers Murphy. To download the slides, click here. 

There is a growing movement to identify and promote community-defined evidence (CDE) practices and strategies. CDE practices are bottom-up/ground-up practices that come from the community and the organizations that serve them. CDE practices can range from mental health treatments to community outreach to other services and supports. This compendium is designed to help organizations, providers, and communities establish evidence of effectiveness for CDE practices. It includes: an introduction to CDE; examples from the Pacific Southwest region; evaluation approaches; best practices for ethical evaluation; and an annotated resource list.

Expanding workforce diversity is a critical strategy to support improved access to health and health care for communities of color. To support this work, the PS MHTTC created a self-assessment tool to help mental health organizations explore their implementation of workforce diversity strategies: Assessing Workforce Diversity: A Tool for Mental Health Organizations on the Path to Health Equity. This workshop explores each of the tool's six key domains to build workforce diversity: Leadership and Governance Recruitment Orientation, Onboarding, and Ongoing Training Retention and Professional Development Communication Partnership and Community Goals This workshop outlines the purpose of these areas in strengthening workforce diversity and explore the different issues that require attention.   LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Explore the importance of a diverse workforce in effectively addressing mental health disparities for the populations in your community. Identify the critical components needed to assess the successes and challenges of your mental health organization in building a diverse workforce. Identify areas in which your organization excels and also areas in which you may want to focus attention. Identify action steps to address areas where your organization is more limited and incorporate these action steps into an existing organizational plan (e.g., strategic, cultural competency, or diversity plan).   INTENDED AUDIENCE: Policy makers Mental health leaders Service providers Human resource officers Community partners Mental health advocates  

All health service systems are undergoing fundamental changes in order to embrace the diversity of populations in the U.S. today. Many health systems continue to grapple with the numerous challenges of implementing systemic change to respond effectively to the multiple needs of diverse cultural and linguistic groups. Organizations working together as part of a broader system often do not know where to start the work of integrating cultural and linguistic competence. To do this work, organizations first need to come to a common understanding of culture and cultural competence and adopt a systemic framework for its integration into services and supports. This presentation provides a conceptual framework for cultural competence in health. Participants not only define and identify the framework and underlying principles of cultural competence, they begin to explore how these principles will influence their roles and functions. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Identify the components of a conceptual framework for cultural competence. Differentiate characteristics of culturally competent organizations and systems. Describe the implications for cultural competence in services and support systems. Determine steps to provide leadership in becoming more culturally and linguistically competent.   INTENDED AUDIENCE: Policy makers Mental health leaders Service providers Human resource officers Community partners Mental health advocates    

This package of resources was developed to support Pacific Southwest mental health organizations as they work to provide culturally and linguistically competent mental health services for their diverse populations. It is easy to use and addresses the needs and realities of the Pacific Southwest region. This resource package is organized into six goal areas:  Governance and Leadership Workforce Development Community Engagement and Partnership Adaptation of Services and Supports Communication and Language Supports Continuous Quality and Accountability

The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) serve as the guiding framework for this workforce diversity and inclusion policy assessment. The focus of this assessment is CLAS-driven, state-level legislation and federal mandates. This assessment identifies efforts to advance and sustain organizational governance and leadership that promotes CLAS and health equity. It includes a scan of CLAS-related policies in the Pacific Southwest, recommendations to improve CLAS implementation at the state and island level, and national and state resources.

Workforce diversity improves access to health and health care for communities of color. This self-assessment is designed to help mental health organizations explore their implementation of workforce diversity strategies. It addresses six areas: Leadership and Governance; Recruitment; Orientation, Onboarding, and Ongoing Training; Retention and Professional Development; Communication; and Partnership and Community Goals.

This pre-recorded webinar session celebrates culture and communities, and explores community programs and practices that work and are helping people. The session explores how we collectively approach the concept of evidence, effectiveness of practices, and the role of communities in achieving positive outcomes for individuals experiencing mental health conditions. This discussion is intended for clinicians, mental health program providers, evaluators, and others.