Day 2 recap of Mental Health America 2024 Conference

MHA Admin

Sat, 09/21/2024 – 12:25

Mental Health America held the second day of main events at its 2024 Mental Health America Conference on Friday, beginning with music and conversation with the Me2/ Orchestra, the world’s only classical music organization created for individuals with mental illnesses and the people who support them. The presentation was sponsored by Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.

Following the performance and panel discussion, four of Mental Health America’s young mental health leaders Makaila Davis, Anastasia Erley, Jonathan Jean Charles, and Kaisar Perry took the main stage, along with Vice President of Youth and Peer Advocacy, Kelly Davis. The group discussed what is lacking in current approaches to mental health and the importance of intergenerational collaboration that provides bidirectional mentorship and authentic relationships.

“To me, intergenerational collaboration means combining the wisdom of older generations with the fresh ideas of younger ones to create more sustainable solutions in the mental health space,” said Makaila Davis.

Jonathan Jean Charles encouraged attendees to “leverage the past, to inform the present, to make a brighter future.”

At the conclusion of the panel, MHA’s mPower Award, which celebrates the life and work of a teen or young adult who has spoken out about mental health issues to educate peers and fight stigma, was presented to Ernesto Isaac Lara.

In his acceptance, he emphasized the importance of representation and how meaningful it is to receive the award as a young, queer, grandchild of immigrants. He reminded attendees that his expertise is not dependent on his accolades or the institution he’s affiliated with, but on his own personal journey.

“I am not an expert because of the institutions I work for, I am an expert because of my lived experience, and I’m gonna always stand on that,” Lara said.

The mid-morning featured breakout sessions across the various conference themes of youth and young adult mental health; policy and advocacy; and community responses to disaster and humanitarian crises. One standout session was presented by 12-year-old Anisha Marrapu, Founder of BhavnaFoundation. Marrapu discussed her work using a machine learning model and resting-state EEG data to detect and treat psychiatric disorders early.

“It is tremendous to learn that Anisha is twelve years old and is already working to help her peers in addressing their mental health,” said MHA’s Chief Social Impact Officer Dr. America Paredes, “Her efforts in developing diagnostic tools like the EEG to respond to early intervention and identification needs is remarkable and commendable. She is leading the way and reminds us to be hopeful for the future.”

In the afternoon, actor Teddy Sears presented the 2024 MHA Media Awards. Winners included: Hawaii News Now: Hope for Hawaii Island, “I Need to Ask You Something,” “In Her Shoes,” The Awakenings Review, and MindSite News.

The afternoon breakout sessions that followed featured topics like cannabis and psychosis, peer respite care, and supporting the mental health of marginalized LGBTQ+ youth.

“When working with LGBTQ youth, replace judgment with wonder and meet people where they are,” said Phii Regis of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation during his presentation.

Attendees gathered back at the main stage in the evening for a keynote address from Dr. Brian Anderson, CEO of Coalition for Health AI. Anderson addressed measuring reliability in AI, emphasizing the need for consensus on definitions and standards, including fairness, transparency, and robustness. He discussed the mental health field as a unique space for AI, with potential benefits in providing non-judgmental support and assisting people with patient advocacy.

“I think certainly within the next two years, we’re all going to have something on our phone that is AI-driven and potentially has the ability to ingest our health data if we wanted to,” Anderson said, “If the tools are trained appropriately right, and they’re innate, able to align themselves to the kinds of values and priorities that you as an individual have, right, and it knows your health data, there’s a real interesting space where each of us can have an advocate that never tires, that is always looking out for us, that perhaps is advocating for what we need or what we want, or helping us to advocate for what we need and what we want with our clinicians, particularly in the mental health space.”

Following the keynote, three awards were presented. The Betty Humphrey Equity Champion Award, which recognizes those who advance the intersectionality of mental health as it relates to discrimination, poverty, stigma, racism, and overall social and economic determinants of health, was given to the Montgomery County Public Schools International Admissions & Enrollment Office’s EML Therapeutic Counseling Team for the services they provide to emergent multilingual learners.

The Joseph de Raismes III Policy Award, which honors an individual who – like de Raismes – makes outstanding contributions to furthering mental health policy, was presented to Barbara Johnston for her impactful advocacy work in mental health, deinstitutionalization, addiction, and crisis management.

The George Goodman Brudney and Ruth P. Brudney Social Work Award, which recognizes significant contributions made to the care and treatment of people with mental illness by practicing professionals in social work, was presented to Dr. Joey Pagano for his profound empathy, compassion, and unwavering commitment to harm reduction.

“I just believe in principles like self determination and…principles like meeting someone where they’re at and just loving someone until they’re ready to make that change and get the help they need,” said Pagano in his acceptance speech.

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