Aloha from Hawaii
Greetings and welcome from the National Association for Mental Health
(NARMH). Last year, NARMH celebrated its 30th Anniversary at our
conference in Kansas City with a very successful conference. A
few years ago, we embarked on a mission to broaden our perspective on
mental health to embrace substance use and abuse, forensic mental
health issues and age-specific offerings. Additionally, we
have continued our work in practice diversity within our conferences;
including alternative healing practices, unique cultural practices,
as well as target groups in need of specialty services (e.g. returning
veterans).
This past winter at our semi-annual board meeting held in Washington, DC,
NARMH held its first Legislative Reception. I want to express my
thanks to all the board and the Odyssey staff who worked so diligently
on making all those arrangements. We are looking forward to hosting
this event on an annual basis. The reception serves as an excellent
forum for NARMH to articulate our advocacy message, as well as our position
on legislation in process or needed. It is also important
to remember that we need to sustain and build our organizational relationships with
our legislators both in Washington, DC and at a local level.
The interest in rural mental health has never been greater. The
“softening” economy is placing large burdens on our state
and federal governments. As a result, there is greater scrutiny
on resources, and just not enough resources to respond to the pressing
needs of our mental health consumers. Smaller and rural providers are most
challenged by on-going funding needs. I cannot remember a
year when we have received so many calls from practitioners and organizations
seeking advice on specific topics, program design information and
consultation. NARMH is frequently being invited to policy forums to
relate our positions and advocate different ways to improve mental
health care in our rural communities.
NARMH has an exciting conference this year in Burlington, Vermont.
The conference will be heald from August 6-9, and I encourage you to make it a
point to attend. We have an excellent agenda for you. In fact, this year,
there were many proposals for presentations that we didn’t have the
time to accommodate in our program. For me the conference serves as
a forum for renewal: renewal of myself professionally; renewal of old
friendships and acquaintances; and renewal of my energy to carry on in the
field. The conference also serves to introduce us to new and
different approaches to our work - not only are there unique models of
care to explore from promising practices to evidenced-based interventions, but
the conference enlivens the synopsis allowing us to envision new
processes and systems.
You really shouldn’t miss our 31st Annual Conference in Burlington, Vermont.
Who knows? Maybe you will even get a glimpse of the elusive “Champ”
(Vermont’s counterpart to “Nessie”) while touring Lake
Champlain. I look forward to seeing you all there!!
Mahalo,
Mark R. Mitchell, Ph.D.
President, NARMH
