Day 3 at the 2023 Mental Health America Conference: Next Gen Prevention

MHA Admin

Sat, 06/10/2023 – 13:06

The final day of the 2023 Mental Health America Conference: Next Gen Prevention did slow down, but rather fired up attendees with energetic keynotes and sessions.

Dr. David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, had a conversation with Caren Howard, director of policy and advocacy at MHA, about mental health in the Black LGBTQ+ community, his policy work, and the importance of words.

“I use the term same-gender loving man, I do not use the term gay,” Johns said. “I use this term to acknowledge that I am as proud as being a Black man as I am as a same-gender loving man.” He also talked about allowing people “in” rather than having to “come out.” “I don’t owe anybody information about me that they don’t deserve.”

Johns also spoke about his research findings in his paper, By Any Means Necessary: Supporting Black Queer Public School Students in the United States. “I found things in the data that I would not find if I didn’t use an intersectionality tool,” Johns said. He spoke about how representation and respect matters more for Black trans and nonbinary students than other student groups.

Johns said that the negativity that emerged in the previous Administration has led to a rise in tension in public schools. “We are living in an environment where politics are leveraging spaces where they are legally protected,” Johns said. “You can’t sue a politician for what they say on the legislative floor.” He added that these policies and words are “having real detrimental effects on the people they are targeting.”

Karen Fortuna, assistant professor at Dartmouth College, led the session Emerging Trends in the Development and Uptake of Digital Peer Support Technologies. “What peer supporters were using were apps like Calm to connect with people through the pandemic. Not the ones we spent millions on, but the popular ones,” Fortuna said. “There are thousands of apps and different technologies. How do you know which one to choose? Which ones take your insurance? Which ones have wait times under 10 minutes? … It’s about accessing and engaging a population and forging that connection.”

Mila Rodriguez-Adair, who works at Portland Public Schools in the student success and health department, co-led the session entitled Crisis Recovery after a Hate-based Event. “Just because I’m a person of color doesn’t mean I don’t have work to do,” she said. “You can’t just depend on training being required in your own district.”

Deb Haaland, U.S. Interior Secretary, addressed the audience via video. “Indigenous peoples continue to grapple with intergenerational trauma, which is a direct result of violent federal polices meant to eradicate or assimilate people like me,” Haaland said.

Haaland spoke about what her department is doing and different steps that are being taken to collectively heal the nation, and especially Indigenous peoples. “We are also leveraging one of the most important resources we have, access to nature. And that’s not just critical for Indigenous communities, but for each and every one of us, no matter where we live.”

Autumn Rose Miskweminanocsqua (Raspberry Star Woman) Williams, former Miss Native American USA, shared two of her poems and her experiences as a Shinnecock woman and with suicidality and depression.

“Connection is important to me in my mental health journey,” Willaims said. “Connecting nature and with my culture is something that helps me feel grounded my world feels like it’s turning upside down.”

She spoke about the widespread indifference of Indigenous communities in the U.S. “The genocide of Native Americans never fully went away, it just transformed,” she said. “We go to a period of genocide to forced assimilation … from there we go onto a period of being written out of education … then we go into a period of not seeing us.” Williams added to applause, “My existence is resistance.”

Travis L. Teller, a traditional practitioner at the Tséhootsooí Medical Center, sang a song of blessing in the closing session. “Through all of the hard painful experiences, [Indigenous peoples] are still here. I am still here. To pray, to sing, to do my ceremonies.”

MHA President and CEO Schroeder Stribling, in her closing remarks, said, “This has been a profoundly inspiring week, and each of you has contributed to that. I want to thank you all for your presence here, for your advocacy, for your wisdom, and your good work in service of the most critical issue of our times – the health and well-being of individuals and communities.”

Learn more about the basis of this year’s conference theme and Mental Health America’s new strategic plan focusing on Next Gen Prevention.

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