A Message from the President
By Mark R. Mitchell, Ph.D.

Wow, what a year!!  With the economic downturn and unemployment rates moving to a national 30 year high, there is more need for mental health services than ever, with less and less resources.  We all need to make varying degrees of sacrifices.  Even organizations like NARMH need to make prudent decisions.  One of the changes will be self-evident as you read this journal.  At our last annual meeting and conference in Vermont in August, the NARMH Board decided to re-assess its relationship and costs of publication with Idaho State University Press.  As a result we have elected to “pull the journal back in” and publish it ourselves in collaboration with our administrative support entity, The Odyssey Group.  On the surface, although this may appear similar to our pre-Idaho State publications, there are some important significant differences.  One of those important differences is that our Associate Editors (David Lambert, Ph.D.; James A. Meek, M.Ed.; Ann K. Schumacher, L.S.C.S.W.; Nancy Carter Speck, Ph.D. and me (Mark R. Mitchell, Ph.D.) all remain, and will continue to “peer review” articles for the publication.  Meanwhile, we have appointed a committee lead by our President- Elect, Rick Peterson, Ph.D., who is exploring working directly with publishing firms to possibly “spin out” the journal at some future date.

I also want to take this opportunity to remind you of our upcoming 2009 conference in Albuquerque.  We have a strong conference committee lead by Dr. Helene Silverblatt, which has garnered some interesting and provocative presentations and keynotes.  I believe that you will be intrigued by some of the keynote presentations selected for the 2009 conference.  In particular, I think that you will be inspired by those presentations that help us to re-anchor or re-kindle to our roots in rural America, and values of self-sufficiency and sustainability.

Again, I look forward to seeing many of you again in Albuquerque!!

Aloha and Mahalo,
Mark R. Mitchell, Ph.D.
President