Past Events

Dennis F. Mohatt, Co-Director of the Mountain Plains MHTTC and VP of WICHE Behavioral Health, will draw on 35 plus years of work in rural communities to deliver a presentation entitled "Rural Mental Health Workforce:  Challenges and Opportunities Caring for the Country" to the audience at Wayne State College Mental Health Conference. In his presentation, Dennis will simultaneously address the current challenges rural communities face in trying to access and provide mental health services and the strategies and resources the Mountain Plains MHTTC is developing to address these issues.

Webinar Description: This webinar will focus on the current state of what we know about opioid use and suicide. In part 1, Dr. Jane Pearson, Chair, NIMH Suicide Research Consortium, will address overall data on opioids and suicide, affected sub-groups, and why certain sub-groups are affected more than others. In part 2, Dr. Richard McKeon, Chief, Suicide Prevention Branch, Center for Mental Health Services, will speak on challenges and opportunities regarding the integration of opioid use and suicide. He will also describe Zero Suicide and other suicide prevention initiatives. Meet the Presenters: Dr. Jane Pearson, Ph.D. is the Special Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) on Suicide Research. She chairs the NIMH Suicide Research Consortium, and serves as the National Institutes of Health representative to the Department of Health and Human Services Federal Steering Group on Suicide Prevention. She assisted in the development of the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide and the first National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Richard McKeon is Chief of the Suicide Prevention Branch at the Center for Mental Health Services within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In his current role, he oversees all branch suicide prevention activities. Dr. McKeon, in partnership with Dr. Jerry Reed and the US Surgeon General’s Office, led the 2012 revision of the US National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, first adopted in 2001.   This webinar is held as a collaborative effort between the Great Lakes ATTC, the Great Lakes MHTTC, the Central East ATTC, and the Central East MHTTC.

For more information and/or to register, please visit the ISPS-US website or click on "Register".

Parent Peer Support (PPS) services help parents who have children with special needs find and become reliable allies for each other. Parent support providers bring expertise based on their own experience parenting children or youth with social, emotional, behavioral, or substance use challenges, as well as specialized training, to support other parents and caregivers. This webinar, part two of a two-part series, will examine the evolution and growth of PPS, its impact on child-serving systems, and implementation strategies.

This is a psychopharmacology consultation line with Dr. Matcheri Keshavan and Dr. Carl Salzman. If you are interested in taking part, please email your specific psychosis-related psychopharmacology questions before the call to [email protected]. If you do not have any questions, you are still welcome to join the call to listen!

The October 30 professional learning community will have a subject matter expert prior to our peer discussion. Join us to talk about Disconnected Young Adults. We will be considering what's really working to support young adults experiencing the intersection of poverty, race, and mental health.   Nia West-Bey, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) Youth Policy Team, will be joining us to talk about their guiding framework for system leaders to shift their approach to youth and young adult mental health away from a service-oriented model and toward a transformational model. CLASP is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing policy solutions for low-income people. CLASP's Youth Policy Team focuses on dismantling systemic and structural barriers to promote economic justice for marginalized young people. Together with youth advocates, mental health experts, and community leaders, CLASP advocates for policy reform and community innovations that reduce the prevalence of adverse experiences, increase access to needed behavioral health supports, and move young people towards well-being.   Join the conversation!

Social support is grounded in a belief that persons who have similar significant experiences are uniquely equipped to help one another. Throughout history we see how people have spontaneously grouped to help one another with shared difficulties. Alcoholics Anonymous is an example of that. Today, behavioral health embraces a new workforce aligned with that belief, harnessing what is naturally occurring. The peer workforce is different from other professionals. They have personally experienced a behavioral health problem and are trained to use such experience to help others.   From this presentation at the Nebraska Justice and Behavioral Health Conference, participants will learn 1) how peer support is a value added to the workforce, 2) why the peer support workforce benefits from peer to peer supervision, 3) how peer to peer supervision adds value to the profession, and 4) best practices for peer to peer supervision.

Research into evidence based practices and the emergence of a peer support workforce are changing how we address the complex needs of needs of persons with serious mental illness. Today, we know how to help persons with complex needs live meaningful and inclusive lives. Lives that include employment, independent living and positive social networks. Clinical supervision is a distinct practice that is concerned with both assuring a high quality service and client welfare, and the ongoing learning and development of a supervisee. This presentation at the Nebraska Justice and Behavioral Health Conference includes a framework to advance contemporary mental health practice through clinical supervision of non-clinical staff, including the peer workforce. From the presentation participants will learn 1) characteristics of good clinical supervision, 2) three types of clinical supervision models, 3) best practices for supervising persons with a different professional orientation, and 4) how to use clinical supervision to maintain the scope of practice of peer support staff.

This Baltimore Faith-Based Commission for Behavioral Health event, supported by the Central East MHTTC, will provide training on establishing environments of recognition and respect among clergy, faith leaders and sexually diverse congregants and their communities. Presenters include Rev. Derek Miller (Executive Director, Hope Springs), Dr. Calvin Culmer (CEO, Peak Performance Associates), Valerie Rochester (Vice President for Program Strategy, AIDS United) and Carlton Smith (Baltimore City Police Department Chaplain).

Cody Manthei will be providing a full day of compassion fatigue training for providers in the Billings Community. This event will incorporate strategies to recover from compassion fatigue, ways to increase care giver satisfaction, and will address the effects of secondary trauma on care delivery.

The Washington State Mental Health Summit is an inclusive forum for stakeholders around the state to develop, share, and advance new and promising ideas, opportunities and collaborations that will advance effective education, prevention, and care for Washingtonians living with mental health and addiction problems. The event is open to mental health stakeholders interested in participating in the improvement of mental health care in Washington State. The Northwest MHTTC will have a table at the Summit, and will network with providers engaged in a shared vision. Study & Article by Eric Bruns, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Northwest MHTTC Director of Evaluation and School Mental Health What does it take to get evidence-based mental health treatment to people in need? That’s a question researchers sought to answer in a newly published study in Implementation Science.  “This research is critical because it is important to know which factors may influence whether those with mental health needs are receiving services that are proven to work,” said lead author Eric Bruns, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine as well as the Associate Director of the UW School Mental Health Assessment, Research, and Training (SMART) Center. This is one of the few studies to explore the dynamics and influences on states’ decisions toward mental health policy.  The research team wanted to evaluate whether decision-making is driven by things that policymakers can control or by factors beyond their control. See the article here.    Teen activist Seika Brown spoke at the Mental Health Summit  The UW Medicine Newsroom published an article on November 18, 2019 about the Washington State Mental Health Summit. The article lists a number of new mental health initiatives that were presented at the summit, making huge impact in our state.  Read the article here. 

Project Director Joe Evans, Ph.D will provide emerging behavioral health professionals with information on careers in integrated behavioral healthcare. This is a private event for students at Benedictine College.

Join us for our afternoon dialogue, "Best Practices in School Mental Health." Officials from New England mental health and education agencies will discuss and highlight best practices and ways to promote improvements in supporting the mental health needs of students in the region.  

Times: 9:30am - 11:30am We're a co-sponsor! The California Alliance of Child and Family Services is hosting a series of community forums to spark dialogue among community-based organizations, policymakers and government administrators around school-based mental health, highlighting meaningful and impactful strategies that are grounded in evidence. This year’s forum, STRENGTH IN PARTNERSHIP, will examine successful partnerships for the delivery of school based mental health services.

MAPNET and NE-MHTTC will be co-hosting a webinar from 9:30 AM - 10:30AM led by Manny Hernandez and Michelle West, who currently work in early psychosis programs in Massachusetts.   Presenters: Emmanuel (Manny) Hernandez Manny is a young adult peer coordinator at the Department of Mental Health. In that capacity, he works to help young adult’s live healthy lives by promoting systems change. He also, works towards the ongoing development of the young adult peer workforce.     Michelle West Michelle is a clinical psychologist with the CEDAR Clinic and with MAPNET. Her roles include providing direct care to young people and families experiences possible signs of risk for psychosis, and doing multiple types of teaching focused on early psychosis.

This training will provide attendees with the foundational elements of motivational interviewing and the stages of change model; demonstration and practice of skills and strategies to implement motivational interviewing in your work; and approaches to match your interventions to your participant’s stage of change. This training will be informational and interactive. Following this training, staff will participate in an ongoing learning community with other providers to discuss implementation of MI techniques learned. (Closed)

This training will provide attendees with the foundational elements of motivational interviewing and the stages of change model; demonstration and practice of skills and strategies to implement motivational interviewing in your work; and approaches to match your interventions to your participant’s stage of change. This training is specifically designed to provide clinical supervisors with additional information and skills to support supervisory approaches that reinforce MI with direct service staff. Following this training, staff will participate in an ongoing learning community with other providers to discuss implementation of MI techniques learned. (Closed)

October 28th-29th, 2019 (Post Conference: Oct. 30th) We're a workshop and post-conference presenter! The theme this year is "Leading the Way for Positive and Equitable Schools." We hope to see you in our sessions on designing and implementing school mental health referral pathways.   Laying the Foundation: Optimizing Your Current Tier II-III Referral Management Approach October 29th, 2019: 1:00pm - 2:15pm Join us as we investigate how school mental health referral pathways improve coordination and collaboration both within schools, between school and other youth-serving agencies. Participants will gain tools to assess their readiness for implementation, key strategies and principles to build effective SMHRPs such as how to define roles and responsibilities for partnerships, information sharing procedures, and how to make intervention decisions collaboratively through a youth-engaged and equity lens.   Meeting the Need for Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Tier II-III Referral Systems October 29th: 4:00pm - 5:15pm This session addresses cultural and linguistic considerations for building effective referral pathways to behavioral and mental health supports in schools. The session will increase understanding of disparities in mental health services for culturally and linguistically diverse students; build effective strategies for referring all students to appropriate supports at school and in the community; and standardize culturally and linguistically competent practices. Tier II and Tier III Teams will be better able to refer students appropriately, leading to improved wellness and educational outcomes in schools.   Post Conference Full Day Learning Opportunity!  How Does Developing Mental Health Referral Pathways Support a PBIS Team? October 30th: 8:00am - 3:30pm *Includes continental breakfast Effective systems for linking students to appropriate school and community-based supports is paramount for Tier II and III teams. School behavioral/mental health referral pathways improve coordination and collaboration both within schools, between school and other youth-serving agencies; they are essential to successful PBIS design and implementation.  Building new or refining a current referral process entails assessment of school and community interventions, maintaining high functioning linkages, and ensuring accessibility to all partners. It is complex work that has high return when done thoughtfully, collaboratively, and equitably.   In this training we provide a baseline understanding of what school mental health referral pathways are and could be, and then deepen our practice by identifying and integrating practical tools to achieve culturally responsive and student-centered referral systems. Together, we investigate how Tier II and Tier III teams can both address biases that may be barriers to equitable access and successful support for students in a referral system. Additionally, we explore best practices for including student and family voice and choice in their experience of mental health referral pathways to optimize intervention procedures for students, educators, administrators and community-based practitioners.   The learning objectives for this post conference session include: Access design and implementation strategies for effective school-based referral pathway systems that match students with social, emotional, or behavioral needs to high-quality interventions. Identify areas of growth to interrupt practices and policies that create mental and behavioral health access disparities that culturally and linguistically diverse students experience and deepen understanding of how they matter. Action plan ways in which current PBIS design and implementation can increase partnership of students, families, and educators in each step of a intervention referral process.

Presenter Dave Eckert, MDiv, CPRP, is the Director of Intersect, an initiative of Access Services that supports those at the intersection of faith and mental health. This Central East MHTTC-supported training will teach participants skills for supporting people considering suicide. Specific attention will be given to the methods of question asking, persuasion and referring people to community resources. Learning Objectives Increase participants’ awareness of the suicide epidemic in our society Gain an understanding of the various approaches to asking people about suicide Learn approaches to helping persuade people thinking about suicide to choose life Gain knowledge around how to refer people thinking about suicide to community resources

We'll be leading a three-hour workshop on "Leading For and With Well Being, Resilience, and Healthy Workplaces" on October 24th. The full 3 day summit runs October 22nd through the 24th. Join us for this interactive and dynamic session that explores what trauma is and how services, systems, and policies can become trauma-informed to best provide individuals the care they need. We begin with the basic theory and research to provide us with a framework for trauma-informed practices, and then examine what these practices look like across different systems, and dig into organizational level considerations for local providers, directors and managers of agencies, and mental health and education leaders. Participants receive guidance on how to create and enhance organizational practices that support healing and resilience.

Final in person intensive technical assistance visit to meet with teachers, staff and administration.

This 8-hour course teaches participants how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The training helps them identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

This session covers integrated and interdisciplinary services focusing on mental health promotion, prevention & intervention; application of evidence-based Tier 1 & Tier 2 strategies; plans for teams to use Every Moment Counts programs and strategies. This training is a private event. If you are interested in similar training for your school, please contact Sarah Nielsen at [email protected]. This training is being provided to  Smee School District-Wakpala School, Wakpala, SD; Redfield Elementary, Redfield, SD; Prairie Rose Elementary, Dickinson, ND; WilMac Multi-District Special Education Unit, Williston, ND; Boulder Elementary, Boulder, MT.

Times: 6-7 p.m. ET / 3-4 p.m. PT / 12-1 p.m. HT The Northwest MHTTC and Pacific Southwest MHTTC are excited to partner on an upcoming "West Coast ISF Party"! This is part one of a three-part distance learning series that will focus on the three topics of the newly released Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) Fact Sheet Series. The interconnected systems framework (ISF) promotes using a single system of delivery for educational and mental health supports in schools. ISF offers a solution to the challenge of meeting the needs of the whole child. Presented by Susan Barrett, MA, and facilitated by the school mental health leads of the Northwest MHTTC (Kelcey Schmitz) and the Pacific Southwest MHTTC (Leora Wolf-Prusan).   Learning Objectives. Participants will: Understand ISF and its positive impact on schools Discuss strategies to align PBIS/MTSS and student mental health Identify appropriate community-level partners  Learn initial steps for implementing the ISF approach    Presenter Bio Susan Barrett, MA, is the Director of the Mid-Atlantic PBIS Network at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore Maryland. She has a Masters in Counseling Psychology and certification in Special Education, having served as a teacher, administrator and coordinator with Sheppard Pratt Health System since 1993. Mrs. Barrett serves as an Implementer Partner with the United States Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)'s National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). In her role with the center, she assists with large-scale implementation of PBIS by providing training and technical assistance to states and districts across the country. She also works with Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia and University of New Hampshire to evaluate the impact of PBIS on students, school staff and school communities. She serves on the Association of Positive Behavior Supports Board of Directors. She co-leads the development of the Interconnected Systems Framework, a mental health and PBIS expansion effort, as well as serving on a National Coaching workgroup to develop systems coaching materials, tools and curriculum. Susan has been published in the areas of large-scale adoption of PBIS, mental health, cost-benefit analysis, advanced tier system development, and adoption of evidence-based practices in schools.   Download ISF 101: An Introduction Fact Sheet