Facilitation Notes for M.I.K.A. Mental Illness Community Discussion

M.I.K.A. Mental Illness Knowledge Awareness

Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 1:30-3:00 PM

Location: Community Meeting Room, Bitterroot Public Library

Facilitators: Katelyn Andersen and Beth Fischer

Attendance: 11 participants

  1. Welcome: Beth Fischer (National Institute of Health (NIH) – Rocky Mountain Laboratories) and Katelyn Andersen (Montana State University/Ravalli County Extension) welcomed attendees and ask for participants to give introductions stating their name and role in the community.
  2. Review of March 12, 2019 Meeting: Facilitators reviewed the notes from the previous meeting with the proposed action items. Since new participants were at the meeting, more action items were added to the list.
  3. Current Action Items: Responses include the following, italics indicates items were added at the April 3, 2019 meeting:
    1. Promotion/Access of NAMI survivors in Ravalli County – 1 participant
    2. Interventions for suicide risk – 3 participants
    3. Consolidation of mental health resources
    4. Website/resources for the consolidation of mental health resources – 1 participant
    5. Creation of Facebook page with resources/opportunities/meetings related to mental health resources – 2 participants
    6. Update outdated resource guide through Bitterroot Cares for Kids Network
    7. Promotion of support groups – 2 participants
    8. Share mental health resources – local and state – 3 participants
    9. Early childhood education for mental health – 6 participants, 1 participant = 7 total
    10. Advocates for young adults – 3 participants, 1 participant = 4 total
    11. Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) – 1 participant, 2 participants = 3 total
    12. Judge training – Mental Health Court
    13. Peer support – 3 participants, 1 participant = 4 total
    14. Provider training for prenatal-birth promotion – 2 participants
    15. Alternatives to support groups – connecting people through activities – 8 participants
    16. Personally invite those not here – 9 participants
    17. Economic development for young adults
    18. Develop parent skills classes – 3 participants
    19. Parenting as a career – 1 participant
    20. Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for EMS – 1 participant
    21. PTSD for health professionals/suicide provider – 1 participant
  4. Andersen requested participants to mark the responses they would commit to working with a committee to create impact in the community. Responses from March 12 meetings are indicated above in green text with the number of responses from participants. Responses from April 3 meeting are indicated above in the red text with the number of response from participants. Combined numbered are listed in blue
  5. Participants gathered based on interest in contributing to Action Items and discussed the following:
    1. Refine the priority area for action: what does success look like?
    2. Define outcomes – action items related to priority area
      1. Set goals for next 60 days
      2. Set goals for next six months
    3. Secure chair and co-chair for action committee
    4. Invite individuals who are not in attendance at the committee meeting
    5. Set date for next meeting related to action committee
  6. Chairs and Co-Chairs were identified for the following action committees:
    1. Consolidating/Promoting Website of Mental Health Resources in Ravalli County
      1. Contact: Annie Bernauer, [email protected]
    2. Alternatives to Support Groups – more ways to connect people with support activities
      1. Contact: Annie Bernauer, [email protected]
    3. Early Childhood Education for Mental Health:
      1. Contact: Wendy Campbell, [email protected]
    4. CIT for EMS:
      1. Contact: Teri Albrecht, [email protected]
    5. Identifying parenting courses to serve the need of the community and funding resources:
      1. Contact: Katie DeFelice, [email protected]
    6. Postpartum Support Group:
      1. Contact – Rachael Watters, [email protected]
      1. The next meeting will be set via a Doodle poll to select a date where those not in attendances could help choose a date.

Upcoming M.I.K.A. Speakers:

Speaker: Dr. Pedro Martinez

Title: Is this normal? Navigating the lifetime changes from puberty through menopause

Details: PAC, Hamilton, Thursday, April 25 from 7 – 8 pm

In addition to learning from Dr. Pedro Martinez, local “momedians” will share monologues from their Momedy, which is occurring in at the Dennison Theater in Missoula on Sunday, May 12 sharing their experiences.

  • Pedro Martinez, who is an expert in women’s health, works in the Behavioral Endocrinology Branch of National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He is a general psychiatrist, also trained in child and adolescent psychiatry as well.
  • A talk describing the “normal” changes that occur due to hormones affecting women’s health and the mile-markers where things tend to go wrong, including depression, post-partum “blues” and related psychoses at any part of the continuum. 
  • What constitutes an actual disorder, the causes, frequencies, symptoms, but also the spectrum of treatments. 

Speaker: Dr. Susan Borja at the PAC on Monday, May 13th 7pm – 8 pm

Title: After surviving trauma can you get to thriving? Recovery and PTSD (and everything between)

Details: PAC, Hamilton, Monday, May 13 from 7 - 8 PM

Dr. Susan Borja is an expert the field of traumatic stress research at National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH):

  • Research on how the brain adapts to and extinguishes fear and how the dynamic functions of memory acquisition, consolidation, and extinction are influenced by neurodevelopment, aging, and other factors in at-risk or symptomatic individuals
  • Aspects of disorder inadequately addressed by current therapies; and strategies to prevent chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Research to understand shared and unique mechanisms responsible for co-occurring and comorbid physical and mental disorders
  • Investigating the neurobiological impact of various interventions known to be effective treatments
  • Risk factor, services, and intervention research in the context of disasters and mass casualty events to a) move beyond group-based risk prediction such that assessment would be tied to a continuum of intervention intensity and b) establish transportable disaster mental health response models that draw upon a continuum of intervention approaches sensitive to the nature of the disaster, affected population(s), availability of resources, and the status of health and mental health infrastructure

 

Coming in the fall 2019:

Dr. Lisa Horowitz from NIMH and a colleague of Dr. Maryland Pao (January’s M.I.K.A. speaker): She will spend a week providing training to medical/non-medical groups educating on the ASQ training for suicide prevention screening.

  • In hospital/medical settings training and development of risk management and tools for what to do when a person presents positive
  • Can also meet with home health aides, parents, teachers, coaches in a workshop style format to discuss how to foster resilience, coping skills, developing a safety plan with someone at risk, and how to respond
  • She VERY much subscribes to “TAKE AWAY TANGIBLES” bridging the gap between research and real life by offering tools for your toolbox

 

To be confirmed:  Dr. Robert Heinssen with NIMH  to discuss Schizophrenia

  • Robert Heinssen, Ph.D., recipient of the 2014 Special Presidential Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Dr. Heinssen serves as Director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at NIMH. He has been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for championing research on early psychosis and translating it into policy and programs for clinical implementation as a new standard of care.
  • Heinssen has played a key role in the development of the NIMH research project, Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE). This groundbreaking project seeks to fundamentally change the trajectory and prognosis of schizophrenia through coordinated and aggressive treatment in the earliest stages of illness. RAISE is designed to reduce the likelihood of long-term disability that people with schizophrenia often experience. It aims to help people with the disorder lead productive, independent lives. At the same time, it aims to reduce the financial impact on the public systems often tapped to pay for the care of people with schizophrenia.