Day 3 recap of the 2024 Mental Health America Conference

MHA Admin

Sun, 09/22/2024 – 10:56

Day 3 Recap of the 2024 Mental Health America Conference Mental Health America wrapped up the third and final day of its annual conference with powerful programming that explored themes of novel approaches to substance use disorder, research informed by lived experience, student-led approaches to improving mental health on college campuses, and the vital role of spirituality in one’s well-being. It started with a keynote from Dr. Nzinga Harrison, Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Eleanor Health.

Dr. Harrison, a psychiatrist, addiction medicine expert, author, speaker, and activist, emphasized a “culturopolitical” approach to mental health in addition to the traditional biopsychosocial model. Specifically, she discussed the importance of racism-informed care, which acknowledges the role that race-based trauma plays in an individual’s life.

Dr. Harrison noted that healing may involve uncomfortable conversations.

“The same way we want to point compassion to people who are seeking to start their journey to recover from addiction, we want to point compassion to people who are seeking to start their recovery from racism,” she said.

Following the morning keynote, three breakout sessions looked at cutting-edge approaches to youth mental health, substance use disorder treatment, and mental health research.

During a discussion titled, “Lift the Mask Club: A Student-Led Approach to Normalizing and Improving Mental Health on College Campuses,” three young mental health leaders, Emily A. Abbott, Ashley Panzino and Allie Rosenberg, discussed how mental health resources need to change along with young peoples’ brains when they leave high school for college. Sponsored by the Quell Foundation, the Lift the Mask Club initiative is a program created by college students for college students, helping them navigate difficult conversations and support each other.

In a session called, “Breaking Barriers: Treating Dual Diagnosis with Ketamine and Novel Treatment Approaches,” Dr. Abid Nazeer, founder and Chief Medical Officer at Hopemark Health, outlined the promise of ketamine in helping address both psychiatric symptoms as well as underlying substance use.

“When we talk about dual diagnosis, one principle matters most: Address both,” Dr. Nazeer said. “You tackle one only, and the outcomes go down. If you tackle both, you’ll have the best chance at success.”

The MHA research team held a session titled, “Your Voice Matters: Integrating Lived Experience in MHA Research,” that explored how lived experience is integrated into both research as well as development of new technologies, such as the digital peer bridger tool for substance use.

“With folks where I used to be, thinking what I was thinking: ‘There’s no way out,’” said Patricia Franklin, an MHA Board member and peer support specialist. “To tell someone my story, to see what I’ve come from and what I’ve been through, it could help somebody else and that’s what gets me excited.”

The final keynote featured a highly anticipated conversation with Dr. Lisa Miller, a New York Times best-selling author and professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Miller is also the founder and director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School.

Dr. Miller shared highlights of her groundbreaking work, which has shown the protective effects of spirituality on the brain’s well-being.

“Depression and spiritual life are inextricably linked,” she said. “Despair is a gateway to awakening. Every one of us has this opportunity.”

“That is your birthright. No one can ever take that away from you,” she added.

Closing out the conference, MHA President and CEO Schroeder Stribling expressed gratitude to all who attended, including speakers, Board members and staff, for making it such a moving conference.

“At Mental Health America, we together envision a future where everybody has an equitable opportunity for whole-person health, healing, and flourishing,” Stribling said. “And that is what you are doing.”

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