2019

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SOAR can work for YOU! How SOAR can Improve Engagement, Outcomes & Community Alliances

Speaker(s):

Sara Schwab, MS, LPC

Jared Reck, BA

Eric Godfroy

Presentation: SOAR is used throughout Missouri to assist individuals experiencing SMI and homelessness with accessing financial benefits, but the reach of SOAR expands far greater than increasing clients’ income. By developing a consistent practice for utilizing SOAR in local communities, providers will see improvements in client engagement and retention, improved outcomes at the client and program level, and strengthened partnerships with agencies, leading to a more collaborative and coordinated system. This presentation provides an overview of the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) process in both theory and practice. Strategies for working with challenging circumstances (substance use disorders, initial episodes, institutional barriers) will be discussed and attendees will have an opportunity to talk through barriers that they have experienced when establishing or maintaining a SOAR program. The benefits of maintaining traction through those challenges are impactful to clients, providers, and the local community and each of those areas will be covered in detail.

Objectives:

  1. Describe the SOAR process in Missouri
  2. Utilize specific strategies for working with challenging circumstances during the SOAR process
  3. Identify several benefits of using SOAR at the client, program, and community levels

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Suicide Risk Assessment: A Review of Risk Factors for Suicide in Bipolar Disorder

Speaker(s):

Anchana Dominic, MD

Presentation: In 2016, 45,000 Americans lost their lives to suicide (CDC Data). Since 1999, suicide rates have gone up by more than 30%. Mental illness is a known contributing factor to suicide. In clinical samples, about 50% of individuals with bipolar disorder were found to have a history of a suicide attempt. The rate of suicide attempts in those with bipolar disorder was twice that of individuals with unipolar depression. In this presentation, Dr. Dominic will review empirically researched risk factors associated with suicide in individuals with bipolar disorder. Specific symptoms and clinical presentations associated with risk of suicide will be discussed. Some of the risk factors include family history of suicide, early onset of bipolar disorder, rapid cycling, and abuse of alcohol and/or drugs. Dr. Dominic will discuss how to evaluate for these risk factors and the clinical application to preventing suicide in this population.

Objectives:

  1. Explain the prevalence of suicide in bipolar disorder
  2. Identify risk factors for suicide in bipolar disorder
  3. Describe how to assess for risk factors in bipolar disorder

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Seabury, Arthur, MSW, CRAADC, CTP-T

Arthur W. Seabury is the founder of New Love Contract counseling service, and is currently the school social worker, homeless liaison, and Substance Abuse Prevention counselor for Hogan Prep Kansas City. Seabury has been a Jackson County Drug court coordinator, a National Council against Drugs and Alcohol Board member, a family and individual counselor for the Scott Greening Center, has worked for C Star programs in Comprehensive Mental Health and Sedalia Mental Health and Timber Lawn Psychiatric hospital in Dallas TX as the Prevention specialist.

Presentation(s): 

Cultural Pain, Hollywood or Reality

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Cultural Pain, Hollywood or Reality

Speaker(s):

Arthur Seabury, MSW, CRAADC, CTP-T

Presentation: This presentation will look at the role history and Hollywood play in further stigmatizing generations of people with substance use disorders. The pain from being left behind due to the illusion that everything is okay when it really is not. The drug culture encompasses many ethnic and racial groups. We will look at the impact on many such groups.

Objectives:

  1. Identify new and old drugs
  2. Discuss cultural issues and substance use
  3. Review the popular myths around substances
  4. Describe how laws impact the political debates around substance misuse
  5. Identify popular and unpopular choices necessary to fight addiction

 

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Polka, Lisa, MSW, LCSW, LSCSW, IMH III

Lisa Polka is the Team Lead Clinical Social Worker for the Family Therapy Team at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Lisa is providing evidence-based therapies including Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT) to children (2-7 years old) and their caregivers as well as Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy to children and adolescents (5-18 years old) who have been exposed to traumatic events. Lisa is a Level 1 Trainer through the PCIT International Organization and has trained 3 clinicians to certification standards. Lisa is a co-founder and past secretary of Missouri Association of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, with a mission to promote primary relationships through education, best practices and advocacy. Lisa is a member of the Johnson County Infant Toddler Services board since 2004.

Presentation(s): 

Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health: The Impacts of Trauma & Tools to Promote Resilience

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Bertuglia-Haley, Michelle, MSW, LCSW, LSCSW

Michelle Bertuglia-Haley is a Clinical Social Worker for the Family Therapy team at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Michelle provides evidence-based therapies including Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to children (2-7 years old) and their caregivers as well as Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy to children and adolescents (5-18 years old) who have been exposed to traumatic events. Michelle also provides Child Adult Relationship Enhancement sessions regularly in the community to help Caregivers learn new skills to use to connect with their children. Michelle speaks Spanish and has served as an advocate for Latino mental health in Kansas City. Michelle has served as a member of the Mattie Rhodes Board of Directors, and has participated in local consortiums to enhance the capacity of Spanish speaking providers. Michelle is also a co-founder and past outreach committee chair for the Missouri Association Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.

Presentation(s): 

Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health: The Impacts of Trauma & Tools to Promote Resilience

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Davis, Patty, MSW, LCSW, LSCSW, IMH III

Patty Davis is a program manager for Trauma Informed Care at Children’s Mercy, strategically moving its healthcare system toward a trauma informed organization through awareness building and institutional changes designed to incorporate the Trauma Informed Key Principles into all policies, practices and procedures. Patty has a long history of serving children and families through individual and family therapies, including evidence-based practices such as Family Based Treatment, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Parent Child Interactive Therapy. Patty is a co-founder and past-president of Missouri Association of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, with a mission to promote first relationships and advance effective infant mental health practice. Patty serves as an executive board member of Alive and Well Communities, a bi-state, community-wide effort focused on reducing the impact of toxic stress and trauma on health and wellbeing. Patty is an invited speaker at local, state and national conferences, speaking frequently on the signs of symptoms of traumatic stress, effective treatments to prevent and mitigate the effects of trauma, and on building trauma informed systems of care with cultural humility and equity building.

Presentation(s): 

Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health: The Impacts of Trauma & Tools to Promote Resilience

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Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health: The Impacts of Trauma & Tools to Promote Resilience

Speaker(s):

Patty Davis, MSW, LCSW, LSCSW, IMH III

Michelle Bertuglia-Haley, MSW, LCSW, LSCSW

Lisa Polka, MSW, LCSW, LSCSW, IMH III

Presentation: The science is clear – the most important resilience factor for children is the predictable, compassionate availability of a primary caregiver. Pediatricians are learning more about this science and referring young children and families to receive mental health support. But does the mental health community know what to do when these families present for treatment? The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, the impact of trauma on development and most importantly the key strategies providers can use to both start the healing process of traumatic stress, and to build resilience through predictable, healthy and strong parent-child relationships. We will also provide summary of key evidence-based practices and their capacity to promote optimal early childhood mental health.

Objectives:

  1. With an understanding of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, redefine mental health evaluation and treatment to consider all three patients: parent(s), child, and their relationship
  2. Identify seven resilience skills in children and parents necessary for healthy attachment
  3. Apply an Infant Mental Health construct to recognize and respond to trauma symptoms in children and parents presenting in various settings with tools designed to restore and strengthen resilience
  4. Define evidence-based practices and their capacity to help promote optimal Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health in populations affected by traumatic and toxic stress.

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West, Damon

The only athlete in the history of the NCAA to receive a life sentence and parole out of prison with enough life left to tell the story, Damon West has made the most of his second chance. As an addict in long-term recovery, with a lifetime of parole, this former college quarterback has learned from his own mistakes, and the examples of others, that his program of recovery is paramount to everything else. He has dedicated his life to Servant Leadership and his “Coffee Bean” analogy, learned in prison, has become a mantra for kids, college athletes, addicts, and corporations alike.

“Rescued” by a Dallas SWAT team on July 30, 2008, he was finally forced into sobriety through incarceration. Behind bars, in an alien-world, he faced a terrible new reality and severe consequences for his criminal-addictive behavior. Stripped of everything in life, Damon was a blank slate. Sentenced to 65 years (Life) for Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity for dozens of burglaries he committed while hooked on meth, prison life began with a violent baptism-by-fire. Nothing in his privileged background, working in both Washington politics and at one of the largest Wall Street banks in the world, could have prepared him for the nightmares of a Texas maximum-security prison. It would be the wisdom of an elderly convict, the love of his family, a program of recovery and his faith that guided his path.

His acclimation to prison life and tales of survival on the life-sentence building in a maximum-security hell captivates audiences of all ages, genders, races, socio-economic classes and everyone in between.

Since his parole from that Texas maximum-security prison in November of 2015, he has shared his story with audiences ranging from the incarnated to students to the corporate world. His goal in every room is to reach that “one person” and find those who may be struggling with substance abuse or any other life-restricting obstacles. His story is sure to inspire and motivate those who hear it.

Damon’s message connects with audiences on a level rarely before seen, as evidenced by the lengthy and thought-provoking Q&A following each presentation. His ability to articulate his story is proof that sometimes they lock-up the right person.

He has appeared on nationally and globally televised shows. His memoir out in March of 2019, The Change Agent, is a true story about his turbulent childhood, becoming a star athlete, going from addiction to recovery and finding redemption.

“It is my hope that my story, my example, can show others they are capable of way more than they think. In order to stem the flow of pain in society, it is incumbent upon each of us, whether in life, in school or in business, to be like the coffee bean from my story.” – Damon West

Presentation(s): 

The Coffee Bean