Day 1 Recap of the 2024 Mental Health America Conference

MHA Admin

Fri, 09/20/2024 – 09:20

Mental Health America held the first day of main events at its 2024 Mental Health America Conference on Thursday with over 900 clinicians, advocates, and industry leaders attending in person and another 3,000 viewing online. The programming kicked off with remarks from MHA President and CEO Schroeder Stribling and Health Resources and Services Administration Administrator Carole Johnson at an opening luncheon.

The afternoon featured breakout sessions across the various conference themes of mental health innovation; local solutions to equity needs; youth and young adult mental health; policy and advocacy; and community responses to disaster and humanitarian crises.

When attendees gathered back at the main stage in the early evening, Mental Health America’s young mental health leaders joined Stribling and MHA Board Chair Pierluigi Mancini in an annual conference tradition: the ringing of the Mental Health Bell.

During the early days of mental health treatment, asylums often restrained people who had mental illnesses with iron chains and shackles around their ankles and wrists. With better understanding and treatments, this practice stopped, and in the early 1950s, Mental Health America issued a call to asylums across the country for their discarded chains and shackles.

In April 1953, at the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, Mental Health America melted down these inhumane bindings and recast them into a sign of hope: the Mental Health Bell. Today, the Mental Health Bell rings out hope for improving mental health and achieving victory over mental illnesses.

Following the bell ringing, Mancini presented Mental Health America’s highest award – the Clifford W. Beers Award. Created in honor of MHA’s founder, the award is presented annually to a consumer of mental health or substance use services who best reflects the example set by Beers in his efforts to improve conditions for and attitudes toward people with mental illnesses. Mancini presented this year’s award to Renee Jones, a dedicated mental health professional, speaker, and survivor advocate who overcame addiction and sex trafficking.

“I fought and fought and fought and I will not stop fighting. I am here today to let you know that Mental Health America, you and I will continue to fight in the open and be there for the ones that cannot fight for themselves,” said Jones in her acceptance speech, invoking one of Beers’ most famous quotes, “I must fight in the open.”

In the final event of the evening former Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy and Philomena Kebec sat down with MHA Board Member Madhuri Jha to discuss mental health advocacy and Kennedy’s latest book, “Profiles in Mental Health Courage,” which features Kebec’s story.

Kebec, who belongs to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, discussed how healing for her is not just about medication or therapy, but about making structural changes, including elevating people in her community who are experiencing injustice.

“That is as much a part of my therapy as when I go and talk to my therapist every week,” she said.

Kennedy echoed the need for systemic change and addressing social determinants of mental health saying, “We don’t treat the main factors in helping people have stability…housing, employment — these are things that aren’t covered by insurance.”

He also called for political leaders and future presidential administrations to focus on mental health as a bipartisan issue.

“We’ve got a much bigger fight, it’s not a republican or democratic fight, it’s about getting this issue front and center,” he said.

The 2024 Mental Health America Conference continues through Saturday, Sept. 21.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Capital City Emergency “Level II” Trauma & Wellness Center will house a “state of the art” Outreach Community Resource Center, that will provide case management, mental health community advocacy, and oversight from the M.I. Mother’s Keeper mental health advocates. 
 
The Capital City Emergency “Level II” Trauma & Wellness Center will offer patrons access to immediate coverage by general surgeons as well as coverage by the specialties of orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, radiology and critical care.
 
Our goal is to help people in the best way possible in an effort to preserve and to save more lives in the Nation’s Capital and beyond.

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Emergency

Code Red
Gunshot Victim
Life Threatening Wounds
Physical Assault Victim
Severely Injured Auto Accident Victim
Burn Victim
Epilepsy/Seizures
Cardiovascular
Choking & Breathing Obstructions
and more…

trauma

Child Sex Assault Victim
Domestic Violence Victim
Drug Overdose
Rape/Sex Crime Victim
Suicide Watch
Trafficking Victim
Nervous Breakdown
and more…

Mental Health

At Capital City Emergency Trauma & Wellness Center patrons with mental health emergencies that include life threatening situations in which an individual is imminently threatening harm to self or others, severely disoriented or out of touch with reality, has a severe inability to function or is otherwise distraught and out of control, will have access to quality and psychiatric emergency services and referrals.

Physical Health

Whether your life threatening medical emergency involves excessive or uncontrollable bleeding, head injury. difficulty with breathing, severe pain, heart attack, vision impairments, stroke, physically collapsing, or seizure related, rest assured that our professionals will properly assess and evaluate the level of response that will be most needed to help provide stabilized care solutions and minimize complications as well as reduce early mortality.

Holistic Healthcare

We offer healthcare solutions that will support the whole person which includes their physical, psychological, emotional, social, & spiritual wellbeing. Research supports that because your mental state can affect your overall health we support and offer the inclusion of complimentary and alternative medicine(CAM) practitioners and naturopathic doctor recommendations and referrals as a part of our Outreach Community Resource Center’s care regimen and support.

Rehabilitative

Emergency care can typically result in traumatic injuries for which rehabilitation becomes an essential component of care in trying to achieve the best long-term outcomes for the patient. In addition to speeding up recovery times and helping to prevent further complications, rehabilitative care also helps to support a patient’s self-managed recovery once discharged from our facility. Our Outreach Community Resource Center works closely with our trauma center’s discharge department to assure that patrons requiring these services are linked with qualified professionals who will be accountable to the standard of care required to help the patron be successful in their recovery.

Social Services

Our “state of the art” Outreach Community Resource Center intends to promote “expansive” beneficial community enriching services, programs, case management, & linkage to “approved” partner resources and supports in all of the following intended areas and more:

Social Services

  • Clothing
  • Food Pantry
  • Housing/Shelter
  • I.D. Credentials
  • Senior Wellness Check
  • Toiletries
  • Transportation
  • Etc.

Extended Family Services

  • Child Care
  • Credit Counseling
  • Family Court Services
  • Legal Aide

Career Training

  • Apprenticeship programs
  • Computer/Graphics Training
  • Culinary Program  
  • GED Courses
  • Hospitality Training
  • Job Etiquette & Grooming
  • Resume’ Prep
  • Sales Training
  • Software/Technology workshops
  • Small Business Training

Return Citizen
Program Partner
(Bridging the Gap)

  • Case Management
  • Temporary Boarding/Housing
  • Transitional Program Registration

Prevention/Intervention Outreach,
Workshops, & Programs

  • After-school Behavioral Health Program
  • Civic Engagement / Volunteer Sign-up
  • Fatherhood Rites of Passage
  • Gun Violence Town Hall Forum
  • Life Coaching & Coping Strategies
  • Marriage Counseling Workshops
  • Medicare Informational Workshops
  • Mentorship Training
  • Parental Classes
  • Support Groups
  • Town Hall Discussions
  • Violence De-Escalation Training
  • Voter Registration

Nutritional Outreach

  • Cooking Demonstrations
  • Dietary Programs
  • Exercise Classes
  • Recipe Sharing Workshops
  • Meal Prep

Community Outreach

The Healthy DC & Me Leadership Coalition is partnering with the M.I. Mother’s Keeper Mental Health advocacy organization to provide outreach services on the community level as an aid in reducing the existent health inequities that many District citizens are facing as a direct result of the presence of debilitating social determinants and the lack of culturally appropriate care choices and realities for community members residing in marginalized and lower-income communities.

It is the vision and intentions of the M.I. Mother’s Keeper Mental Health Advocates organization to help improve the quality of living for citizens living in our Nation’s Capital and beyond by overseeing the delicate linkage to services and by maintaining higher standards of care accountability for deserving citizens of the Nation’s Capital.

For more information or to enroll as one of our service providers, please email us at:
info@healthydcandme.org