Numerous local, state, and national organizations offer ongoing educational opportunities throughout the year focused on a variety of topics and issues related to mental health. The following organizations provide free teleconferences or webinars that may be helpful to you.

Podcasts Available on Mental Health Self-Determination

The SAMHSA and NIDRR-funded UIC National Research and Training Center on Psychiatric Disability have posted a series of podcasts and slides from their 2009 Summit on Self-Determination: The Fierce Urgency of Now. A range of leading national experts present on topics such as: self-directed care, eliminating disparities, microenterprises, asset building, WRAP, peer specialists, and many more.

Click here to listen or download this series.

National Institute of Health Care Management Foundation Webinars

The National Institute of Health Care Management Foundation offers various webinars throughout the year focused on a variety of topics.

Their most recent presentations are titled “Improving Early Identification and Treatment of Adolescent Depression: Considerations and Strategies for Health Plans” and “Pediatric Mental Health Care: Strategies to Integrate Early Identification and Treatment into Primary Care”.

Click here to access these and other education webinars sponsored by NIHCM Foundation.

SAMHSA’s Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity, and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health (ADS Center)

Each year, the SAMHSA ADS Center conducts approximately six training teleconferences that are free of charge and open to the general public. These educational events are designed to help participants enhance mental health consumer independence and community participation by relating the most up-to-date research and information about stigma and stigma-reduction programs within the United States and beyond.

In addition to featuring two or more formal presentations on stigma and stigma-related topics, each teleconference includes a thirty-minute open forum. The open forum period offers an opportunity for all participants to ask questions and share their experiences and expertise on efforts to counteract discrimination and stigma associated with mental illness.

All SAMHSA ADS Center training teleconferences are conducted via telephone. Accompanying presentation materials are made available through the SAMHSA ADS Center website.

National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health

The National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health provides monthly conference calls addressing topics including:

• New Directions: Implementing A Public Health Approach to Mental Health
• Providing Early Childhood Mental Health Services that Meet the Needs of Young Children and Their Caregivers: Building the Evidence Base
• Cultural and Linguistic Competence Primer
• The Validation of Family Involvement at the Policy, Planning, and Service Levels
• A Public Health Approach to Intervention: A New Framework for Strengthening Children’ Mental Health and Well-Being
• Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Child Serving Systems
• Partnership Based Leadership: Anchoring Challenges in the Common Vision

Visit their website for additional call information or to download playback of previous calls.

Webinar on Systems Advocacy

In a presentation entitled “Systems Advocacy: What It Is and How to Do It,” Joseph Rogers, Executive Director of the National Mental Health Consumers’ Self-Help Clearinghouse, discusses grassroots organizing tactics and provides information about goal-setting, creating an advocacy plan, negotiation skills, and strategy development, including “do’s and don’ts.” The presentation also offers nuts-and-bolts information about effective advocacy letter-writing, phone calls to policy makers and their staffs, and how to handle face-to-face meetings.

Because the basis of systems advocacy is self-advocacy, a co-presenter who has been trained in self-advocacy skills offers information about how she has put these skills into practice in her own work and life.

Click here to access an archived copy of the webinar.

Preventing Youth Suicide in Rural America: Recommendations to States

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), in partnership with the State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association (STIPDA), recently released a report entitled Preventing Youth Suicide in Rural America: Recommendations to States. This webinar highlights recommendations from the report that approach youth suicide prevention through the lens of America’s rural communities and details the strengths and limitations of rural settings that should be considered when designing and implementing more effective prevention strategies. Featured presenters include:

• Anara Guard, Deputy Director, Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC);
• Dennis Mohatt, Director, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Mental Health Program; and
• Mark LoMurray, Project Director, North Dakota Adolescent Suicide Prevention Project

Click here to access a recording of the presentation.