PLENARY SESSIONS
(1) Plenary: Closing the Rural Food Gap: A Pathway to Just, Healthy
& Sustainable Communities
Thursday, June 18 (8:30 to 9:30 a.m.)
Mark Winne & Pam Roy
The lack of access to healthy and affordable food is a quiet, but growing
challenge to the quality of life in our nation's rural communities. According
to the American Rural Sociological Society, over 800 rural U.S. counties have either "low
food access" or even worse, are considered "food deserts." Mark Winne and Pam
Roy will explore the causes and consequences of this problem for rural life, health, social
cohesion, and economic prosperity. They will identify some of the strategies for not only
bringing good food back to places that are poorly served by America's food industry,
but for also bringing jobs, mental and physical health, and a renewed sense of economic vigor.
Mark currently writes, speaks, and consults extensively on community food
system topics including hunger and food insecurity, local and regional
agriculture, community food assessment, and food policy. He also does policy
communication and food policy council work for the Community Food Security
Coalition. His essays and opinion pieces have appeared in the Hartford
Courant, the Boston Globe, The Nation, In These Times, Sierra Magazine,
Orion Magazine, Successful Farming and numerous organizational and
professional newsletters and journals across the country. His first book
“Closing the Food Gap — Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty” published
by Beacon Press, will be released in January 2008. He now lives in Santa Fe,
New Mexico, where he serves on the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy
Council and the Southwest Grass-fed Livestock Alliance.
Pamela Roy is Co-Director of Farm to Table, a New Mexico based
organization working on regional food, farm and ranch issues; Farm to School
initiatives; farmers’ market development; and food, health, hunger and
agriculture policy. She is also founder and coordinator of the NM Food and
Agriculture Policy Council. Pam has close to 20 years of
organizational development, policy, farm direct marketing and farmers’
market experience and has worked internationally. She most recently
served on the Board of Directors of the national Community Food Security
Coalition and is currently a regional lead for the national Good Food
Network sponsored by the Wallace Center at Winrock International.
(2) Plenary: Wounded Spirits, Ailing Hearts: The Nature and
Consequences of Trauma in Native America
Thursday, June 18 (9:30 – 10:30 a.m.)
Spero Manson, Ph.D.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is 2-3 times more common among
American Indians than their White counterparts, and presents substantial
problems for their health and well-being, as well as life in their tribal
communities. This presentation reviews work by the author and his colleagues
which characterizes the nature, extent, and impact of trauma and its
debilitating, frequently chronic consequences in the lives of American
Indians residing on or near their reservation homelands. Particular
attention is given to the role of traditional healing and telepsychiatry in
addressing the often neglected mental health needs of this special
population. The presentation concludes by highlighting new lines of inquiry
that suggest the broader implications of trauma and PTSD for the risk of
pain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and asthma in Native people,
reminding us of the intimate relationship among mind, body, and spirit.
Spero M. Manson, Ph.D., (Pembina Chippewa), a medical anthropologist and
Professor of Psychiatry, heads the American Indian and Alaska Native
Programs at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.
His programs include 9 national centers, totaling $65 million in sponsored
activities which entail research, program development, and training among
102 Native communities, spanning rural, reservation, urban, and village
settings. Dr. Manson has published 160 articles on the assessment,
epidemiology, treatment, and prevention of physical, alcohol, drug, as well
as mental health problems in this special population.
(3) Plenary: Plenary 3: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder & Rural
Minority Women
Thursday, June 18 (1:20 to 2:20 p.m.)
NIMH Sponsored
Cathleen Willging, PhD, & Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, PhD
This presentation will describe a new translational intervention study in
New Mexico that aims to: (1) Assess the role of mental health problems,
including trauma-related issues, in community reentry among Hispanic, Native
American, and White women moving to rural environments from prison; 2)
Examine the role of social support in the reentry process, and determine
strategies to strengthen and sustain the women’s community connections and
access to formal and informal helping resources; 3) Adapt and refine a data-
and theory-driven social intervention (the Critical Time Intervention) to
address mental illness and community reentry needs and to decrease
recidivism within this population. Formative research findings will be
shared.
Cathleen E. Willging is Program Director and Research Scientist at the
Behavioral Health Research
Center of the Southwest, an affiliate
of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
She is a medical anthropologist, with specific experience in mental health
services research, health policy, cross-cultural psychiatry, rural
populations, and community-based participatory planning and evaluation. She
has spearheaded a number of research projects in New Mexico that employ
ethnographic methods and other qualitative data collection techniques to
understand the impacts of new programs and policy reforms on diverse
populations throughout the state.
Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, Hunkpapa, Oglala Lakota, Ph.D.is an
internationally recognized leader and mentor to many clinicians and scholars
in the field of intergenerational trauma. Dr. Brave Heart developed
historical trauma and historical unresolved grief theory and interventions
among American Indians, In 1992, she founded the Takini Network, a
Native non-profit organization devoted to community healing from
intergenerational massive group trauma among Native Peoples. Dr. Brave
Heart has served on the NARMH board of directors. She is currently
Associate Professor of Social Work at Columbia University School of Social
Work.
(4) Plenary: Minding the Back Roads: Recovery, Public Service and
Rural Psychiatry
Friday, June 19 (8:45 to 9:45 a.m.)
Ken Thompson, MD
This presentation will address the crisis in rural mental health care by
focusing on the predicament of rural psychiatry. The challenges facing rural
psychiatric practice are formidable issues of finance, recruitment,
retention and quality plaque efforts to provide effective psychiatric care.
This presentation will examine current attempts to improve these
circumstances and consider innovative ways to go even further in improving
rural psychiatric care.
Kenneth S. Thompson, MD, serves as Associate Director of Medical Affairs for
Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA). In his role as medical advisor to A.
Kathryn Power, director of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) at
SAMHSA, Dr. Thompson provides comprehensive medical leadership in the
diverse integrated planning, design and implementation actions that relate
to CMHS programs and objectives. In addition to providing medical
consultation and assistance to CMHS programs, he monitors the application of
relevant American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association
professional standards to CMHS policies and programs.
A native of Pittsburgh, Dr. Thompson has worked for the past 15 years as
a community psychiatrist in a wide variety of settings, including a primary
care clinic, an HIV clinic, a state hospital, several disaster response
teams, a homeless outreach team and a community mental health center.
He held an assortment of administrative, clinical and teaching positions
within these settings. Most recently he has worked with the Office of
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services in Pennsylvania, providing
psychiatric consultation to the Harrisburg State Hospital closure process.
(5) Plenary: Partnerships for Mental Health Transformation in Rural
and Frontier Communities
Friday, June 19 (1:15 – 2:15 p.m.)
Larke Nahme Huang, PhD, Sandy Root-Elledge & Joseph Elledge - SAMHSA
Sponsored
This plenary session will identify how partnerships with families and
youth can improve the effectiveness of services. Successful strategies
to implement family-driven and youth-guided care will be discussed, with a
particular focus on youth and family-provider relationships and youth and
family-policymaker relationships. The session will also provide
information about the work being conducted by the Child, Adolescent and
Family Branch of the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and will share evidence and
innovative and promising practices that can improve the lives of children,
youth and families in Rural America.
(6) Plenary: Recovery and Resiliency in Rural Settings and the
Cultural Implications
Saturday, June 20 (8:45 to 9:45 a.m.)
Wilma Townsend, MSW
The presentation will discuss the challenges and opportunities involved
in providing and receiving recovery services in rural communities. It
will discuss the creativity and resiliency of both the individual and
providers striving to understand and achieve recovery with limited resources
and access. The presentation will also talk about the interchange and
impact of both the rural and ethnic cultural on the recovery process in
rural communities.
Wilma Townsend, MSW. Wilma Townsend is President of WLT
Consulting, a consulting firm that specialized in Mental Health Recovery,
Consumer Involvement and Cultural Competence. Ms. Townsend is a board member
of the National Leadership Council for African American Behavioral Health, a
past board member of the American College of Mental Health Administration,
and Founding member of the Multiethnic Advocates for Cultural Competence in
Ohio. Ms. Townsend is a recognized national consumer leader in the
recovery movement. She has written two books in this area, “Emerging
Best Practices in Mental Health Recovery” edition 1 and 2. Her most
written book (2006) entitled “Consumers in the Mental Health Workforce: A
Handbook for Community Providers.” She also has written numerous
articles on the subject as well has written the prologue and epilogue for
the book “Treatment Planning for Person-Centered Care, The Road to Mental
Health and Addiction Recovery.” Ms. Townsend also has been a member of
SAMHSA workgroups that developed National Standards on Cultural Competence
and the National paper on Mental Health Recovery.
AWARDS AND SOCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
(1) Awards Luncheon – Howery Award and Going to Bat Award
Thursday, June 18 (12:00 to 1:20 p.m.)
The Victor I. Howery Memorial Award is given each year to an individual
who has made significant contributions to the rural mental health field.
This year’s recipient is Dr. David Lambert. Dr. Lambert is an
Associate Professor at the Muskie School of Public Service, University of
Southern Maine. Dr. Lambert directs the Mental Health Program Area
within the Institute for Health Policy and has over 15 years of experience
in conducting mental health research with a focus on projects that improve
access to, quality and effectiveness of mental health care to vulnerable
populations. He is a nationally recognized rural mental health services
researcher and is widely published in this area. His research has focused on
access to mental health services in rural areas, particularly coordination
of primary care and mental health, recovery models, and evidence-based
practice. Dr. Lambert has a long history of service to the rural mental
health community including service on the NARMH Board of Directors.
The “Going to Bat” Award is given to an individual who has been a strong
voice and advocate for rural mental health. This year, the “Going to
Bat” Award will be given to Diane Denish, Lieutenant Governor of New
Mexico. Lt. Gov. Denish has long been an advocate for children's
educational, health, and mental health services around the state. She
is from rural New Mexico and understands the mental health needs of rural
communities. She is well known for her "taking the Roundhouse on the
Road" tours, where she has visited small communities and listened and
responded to their needs.
(2) Social Event: “Experience the Cultures of New Mexico”
Appetizers & Music in Old Town
Thursday, June 18 (6:00 to 8:30 p.m.)
Enjoy the cultures of New Mexico as we go to Old Town Albuquerque
Thursday evening, for appetizers, traditional New Mexican music,
conversation, exploring and fun!
(3) NARMH Membership Meeting Luncheon and Rural Arts Award, Sponsorsed
by UNM-HSC Family and Community Medicine-TEASC Project
Friday, June 19 (12:30 to 1:15 p.m.)
Non-members as well as members are encouraged to join us for our annual
membership meeting luncheon on June 19 from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. This
year, our membership meeting will highlight some of NARMH’s advocacy work as
well as a few of the projects. The Rural Arts Award will also be
presented during the luncheon.
(4) Closing Session and Door Prizes
Saturday, June 20 (11:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.)
We will ask our conference participants to review the high points of the
meeting, identify the areas of strongest interest and importance, and take
these suggestions to lay the path for NARMH's 36th annual meeting.