News

Partner of the Month — September 2023

September 1, 2023

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. InTouch Outreach Resource Center has been selected as the Partner of the Month for September in recognition of National Recovery Month.

InTouch Outreach Resource Center is committed to helping people to help themselves. They offer Peer Recovery supportive services to individuals and families in need, believing that building up people first is what matters the most for those seeking recovery.

Some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

Coaching
Community and Family Support
Spiritual Awareness and Mental Illness Support
Employment Assistance

Learn more about InTouch Outreach Resource Center and its mission to connect individuals and families in need to people who care, providing specially designed services at the right moment.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

BIPOC Mental Health: Barriers and Ways to Support

August 30, 2023

Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) experience mental illness at similar rates as white people, but they’re less likely to get treatment due to cultural barriers, stigma, and lack of access to care. These disparities can have a serious impact on BIPOC mental health. People who don’t receive treatment for mental illness are more likely to experience persistent symptoms that interfere with their daily lives.

In the workplace, the impact of discrimination and pressure to perform (and sometimes, overperform) in a way that lowers the risk for negative evaluation can heighten mental distress for BIPOC employees. For companies, this distress can, in turn, contribute to lower retention, loss of workplace diversity, and poor organizational outcomes. Studies show focusing on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) makes companies stronger and delivers more engaging employee experiences.

For many BIPOC individuals, workplace experiences have contributed to poorer mental health outcomes. Workplaces have caused harm (intentional or otherwise), and many BIPOC employees may carry older wounds into new workspaces. Employers have the opportunity to create an environment where BIPOC employees feel seen, valued, and heard, including those who have previously experienced workplace race-based discrimination.

As Rates of Suicide for Native American Youth Increase, Culture Is Key to Prevention

August 21, 2023

Suicide rates for Native American youth are four times higher than that of any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. In the past decade, these rates have only increased. At a recent Clayman Institute Faculty Research Fellows talk, Teresa LaFromboise (Miami Nation) drew upon her lifelong work in Native American youth suicide intervention to discuss cultural and contextual considerations for Native American youth suicide prevention. What LaFromboise demonstrated is that the most powerful sources of healing for Native youth are located within Native communities themselves, through the development of community-based, culturally specific, and culturally focused mental health programming.

LaFromboise associates this rise in suicide rates with a preponderance of re-traumatizing current events pertaining to colonial violence. For example, 2021 saw the launch of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, marking the first time in U.S. history that the federal government has officially acknowledged its operation of 408 boarding schools from 1819 – 1969, which forcibly removed and disappeared tens of thousands of Indigenous children from their families and communities.

Given the magnitude of such historical and ongoing violence aimed at the eradication of Indigenous communities and cultures, perhaps it may come as no surprise, then, that the approaches LaFromboise has witnessed to have had the most significantly positive impact on Native American youth suicide prevention are those that emphasize enculturation, or what she calls “culture as prevention.” Examples of culture as prevention include teaching Native youth their languages, cultures, histories, methods of food sustainability, participation in ceremonies, and the cultivation of connectedness with land. Research has shown that Indigenous communities with greater control over their resources (such as health services and schools), stewardship of land, and cultural revitalization have significantly lower rates of suicide.

Black Men Are Shifting the Mental Health Narrative

August 18, 2023

According to the American Psychological Association, only 26.4% of Black and Hispanic men between the ages of 18 to 44 who experienced daily feelings of depression or anxiety accessed mental health services.

A few factors contribute to the low rates of Black men getting mental health services. For example, when Black men seek help, they prefer a Black psychologist — but only 4% of psychologists are Black. And due to the history of this country, mistrust toward the medical and mental health systems influences Black men’s reluctance.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fernando Branch, 41, says he had a difficult time navigating the isolation. His family encouraged him to see a doctor, but he disagreed. Then, that’s when his 12-year-old daughter said, ‘dad, you’re a little on edge, maybe you should get checked out’. He took his daughter’s advice and went to see a Black doctor who diagnosed him with depression.

“I felt this level of vulnerability, in the sense that, wow this can happen to me too,” he says. “I started thinking, how many men that look like me are navigating some form of depression.”

Shortly after, he connected with other Black men on social media to start conversations on mental health. In 2022, Branch founded the Colorado Men of Color Collaborative, a space for men to support social-emotional well-being, network, and mentoring. As the executive director, he says the collaborative exists to be a safe haven for Black male mental health.

Mental health care isn’t exclusive to therapy. The duo says at their collaborative, they’ve become more intentional about the support they offer. For Black men to heal, it could be healing circles, family support, financial literacy, and social norm and support — beyond the classic forms of talk therapy clinicians offer.

Behavioral Health Equity Challenge Winners Showcase – Part I

August 16, 2023

Earlier this year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) launched the “Behavioral Health Equity Challenge: Outreach and Engagement Strategies for Underserved Racial and Ethnic Communities.” Community-based organizations (CBOs) often serve on the front lines to address the needs of their community members. The goal of this challenge was to identify and highlight outreach and engagement strategies CBOs use to increase access to behavioral health services for racially and ethnically diverse, underserved communities.

On Thursday, September 7 at 2:30 – 4:00 pm EDT, join this Showcase to hear from the winners of the Behavioral Health Equity Challenge! Winners will share their innovative strategies, lessons learned from implementation, and recommendations for replication in other communities. SAMHSA invites CBOs, state and federal leaders, and behavioral health leaders to join the Showcase to learn from and engage in Q&A with Challenge Winners.

View Resources and the Recording!

The event was also shared on Facebook Live at fb.com/nned.net and closed captioning was available through Zoom.

Challenge Winner Presenters

Mt. Olive Baptist Church

Carlton Williams, DMin

Senior Servant
Mount Olive Baptist Church
Project Director & Principal Investigator
Motivate, Educate, Link, Train (MELT) Project

Dr. Carlton Williams formal education includes a Doctorate in Ministry from United Theological Seminary, a Master’s of Divinity from Payne Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor’s in Theology from International Apostolic University. He has extensive training in a variety of areas, including community issues, cultural diversity, and family development. He is also a certified instructor for Trauma Recovery Empowerment, Youth/Adult Mental Health First Aid, and Nonviolent Crisis Intervention. Dr. Williams previously served in the capacity of Community Service Director for Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio. There he worked in the area of HIV/AIDS and other minority health interventions. Additionally, he co-authored several related peer-reviewed publications. Upon his retirement, he continues to serve as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Research. Dr. Williams pastored 26 years and is currently serving as Pastor Emeritus at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio. He served as Project Director and Principal Investigator of the Motivate, Educate, Link, Train (MELT) Project, a federally funded SAMSHA program that focused on reducing stigma around mental illness among African Americans through community education and training. He is currently serving as Co-Project Director of Reachable, Teachable, Inclusive (RTI), which is another SAMHSA-funded project. The RTI Project endeavors to increase engagement in care for African American individuals in Montgomery County, who have substance use disorders (SUD) and/or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders (COD), and those who are at risk for or living with HIV/AIDS.

North Carolina Youth Violence Prevention Center

Paul Smokowski, PhD, LCSW, CP, TF-CBT

Executive Director
North Carolina Youth Violence Prevention Center

Dr. Paul Smokowski is Executive Director of the North Carolina Youth Violence Prevention Center (NC-YVPC). He has an interdisciplinary background in social welfare, child development, prevention science, and public health. Before leading NC-YVPC, Dr. Smokowski was a faculty member at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for 16 years. His past 15 years of work in youth violence prevention culminated in NC-YVPC, a nonprofit agency specializing in helping rural communities promote healthy youth development that Dr. Smokowski founded with a grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Dr. Smokowski’s research teams have been awarded more than $20 million worth of federal funding from the CDC, the National Institute of Justice, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Justice, and SAMHSA. As a prolific author, he has published more than 100 articles and book chapters on issues related to risk, resilience, acculturation, adolescent mental health, family stress, and youth violence prevention. Dr. Smokowski also has more than 25 years of expertise in Prevention Science, designing, implementing, and evaluating school and community-based programs to promote socio-emotional learning. He is a national authority on bullying prevention, school safety, and child and adolescent mental health and well-being. Dr. Smokowski received national awards for his youth violence prevention research, served on NIH’s Youth Violence Consortium, and was a member of the inaugural class of Health Protection Research Awardees funded by the CDC’s Office of the Director. Dr. Smokowski has extensive experience leading formative and summative evaluations. He has facilitated hundreds of presentations on child and adolescent mental health, bullying and victimization, school safety, school-based prevention programs, restorative justice, and many other topics that are germane to youth mental health and well-being.

Southcentral Foundation

Brandy Gallagher, BS

Program Manager, Benteh Nuutah Four Directions Outpatient Treatment Center
Southcentral Foundation

Brandy Gallagher is the Program Manager for Southcentral Foundation (SCF) Benteh Nuutah Four Directions Outpatient Treatment Center. Brandy works closely in partnership with Rachel Franzen, Clinical Supervisor, to ensure operational and clinical visions are aligned and connect seamlessly for enhanced employee retention and patient outcomes. Brandy’s core expertise is in operations, improvement, and leadership. Recent SCF project highlights include being awarded the FY23 and FY24 Tribal Opioid Response Grant to help address the opioid crisis in Alaska and launching a new substance use department. In her previous roles at SCF, she led COVID-19 communication projects and created campaigns to promote Alaska Native health and wellness. Throughout the past four years at SCF, she worked on many cross functional projects to promote awareness of services, enhance patient experience, and improve access. Her undergrad studies include certificates in Improvement and Innovation and Leadership with the focus on Business. Externally from the organization, she is a cohort mentor at Cook Inlet Region Inc. with the goal of building meaningful relationships with and strengthening the future careers of Alaska Native and American Indian people. Brandy is Inupiaq Alaska Native, with her grandmother originating from Nome, Alaska. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, especially subsistence activities such as hunting and fishing. In addition to being passionate about expanding the growth of services for Alaska Native and American Indians, Brandy strives to reflect values of compassion, dedication, and integrity to help cultivate a meaningful and engaging workplace.

Rachel Franzen, LPC-S, CDCI

Clinical Supervisor, Benteh Nuutah Four Directions Outpatient Treatment Center
Southcentral Foundation

Rachel Franzen is the Clinical Supervisor for SCF Benteh Nuutah Four Directions Outpatient Treatment Center. Rachel oversees the direct care to all participants, selecting, creating, adapting, and integrating culturally affirming curricula into the program services offered, and supervision, training, and support to clinical staff delivering care to participants. Rachel has experience as a Program Evaluator for state and federal grants, including Garret Lee Smith campus suicide prevention, CDC Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Regional Training Centers, and Specific Prevention Framework-State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG). Rachel’s experience includes being a clinical supervisor, clinician, project coordinator, grant evaluator, and a data collection interviewer as a research assistant. She possesses excellent skill to transfer knowledge and collaborate that results in the growth of her clinical team’s ability and proficiency for improved treatment approaches and patient outcomes. Rachel’s experience working in integrated health systems has taught her to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams, which is critical to the success of this clinic as it aims to treat co-occurring disorders and collaborating with multiple disciples for the success of the patient. Her wisdom and relational skills resulted in the successful launch of this department almost two years ago, being awarded the FY23 and FY24 Tribal Opioid Response Grant, a thriving clinic with excellent employee retention, and SAMHSA’s Behavioral Healthy Equity Challenge award.

Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center

Niki Wright, PsyD, CSAC, ICADC, CCS, CPS, CSAPA, CSOTP, GCDF

Director, Mālama Recovery Services and Ho῾okūola Hale
Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center

Dr. Niki Wright is the Director of Mālama Recovery Services’ intensive outpatient substance use disorder treatment program and Ho῾okūola Hale, an integrated chronic pain management department, both at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, the largest and oldest of the Federally Qualified Health Centers in Hawai‘i. She is licensed as a clinical psychologist and certified as a substance abuse counselor. She has made it her mission to reduce the negative social stigma surrounding mental illness, particularly SUD, and to break down the barriers that prevent individuals from accessing the care they need, particularly in medically underserved communities. Dr. Wright’s professional interests lie primarily in health psychology and working with diverse and marginalized populations, including SUD treatment, chronic pain management, trauma, systems, and women’s health. She is also the Chief Behavioral Health Officer at the Wahiawā Center for Community Health, co-founder of IMUA Health Group, and clinical psychologist for the State of Hawai‘i’s Department of Education. Dr. Wright has previously taught in the Rehabilitation Counseling Master’s degree program at the University of Hawai῾i at Mānoa under the Department of Kinesiology and is a current adjunct professor at Chaminade University of Honolulu’s Doctor of Marriage and Family Therapy program. In her personal life, Dr. Wright is a CrossFit level 1 coach and incorporates the “Five Pillars of Health” as the Director of Health and Wellness at CrossFit West O‘ahu. Through her impressive work and unwavering commitment to improving mental health and well-being, Dr. Wright has made a significant impact on the mental health and well-being of her patients and different AANHPI communities, and continues to be a leading voice in her field.

Hsin-Tine (Tina) Liu-Tom, PhD, CSAC

Staff Psychologist and Director of Joint Training Program, Mālama Recovery Services and Ho῾okūola Hale
Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center

Dr. Hsin-Tine (Tina) Liu-Tom is a Chinese American born on the island of Taiwan to first generation Chinese immigrant parents, and raised with an older and younger brother in America. She lived in Taiwan with her maternal grandparents, without her biological parents, until she was approximately 4 years old. Subsequently, she was uprooted and migrated to Austin, Texas, to reunite with her family of origin. While growing up, she straddled two worlds throughout her development and process of acculturation, seeking to find balance between the ethnic enclave of her Chinese immigrant parents and the outside world of American ideals and values. Her life history and lived experience contributes to her current view of healing and wellness, approached from a holistic, evidence-based, mindfulness-oriented, culturally informed, linguistically appropriate, and theoretically integrative lens. Dr. Liu-Tom serves as a staff psychologist and the Director of the joint training program of Mālama Recovery Services’ intensive outpatient substance use disorder treatment program and Ho῾okūola Hale, an integrated chronic pain management department, both housed within the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. She is licensed as a counseling psychologist, is certified as a substance abuse counselor, and has worked in the mental health/behavioral health field for the past 22 years through a variety of related clinical, academic, and leadership roles. She passionately advocates for behavioral health equity for underserved, marginalized ethnic and racial communities and serves as an ally to sexual and gender minorities. She strives to empower those with lived experiences to give voice to their story and to share their profound insights with those who are on their journey of recovery from SUD/opioid use disorder and mental health concerns. Dr. Liu-Tom completed her BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. She currently resides on the island of O`ahu with her husband and 14 year old son, and has enjoyed life there for the past 21 years.

Makani Tabura

Cultural Educator, Mālama Recovery Services and Ho῾okūola Hale
Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center

Makani Tabura was raised with three brothers by his mother and grandparents on their tiny family farm on the island of Lana‘i. From a young age, he was instilled with a deep understanding of the importance of culture, connection to higher power (Akua), the land (‘aina), and the people (Na Po‘e Kanaka). During high school and college years, Makani mentored and worked with at-risk youth at his mother’s youth center on Lana‘i, as well as with local and national organizations such as Na Pua No‘eau, Pacific American Foundation, and the Native Hawaiian Education Association. He shared his cultural knowledge and taught concepts of traditional cultural beliefs of health, wellness, and fitness. Combining his grandmother’s teachings as a nurse and cultural practitioner, and Makani’s studies in exercise science, hula, and health and wellness from Hawai‘i College of Health Sciences, Makani created cultural activities, programs, and curricula for various hotels and resorts throughout Hawai‘i. He developed the first Hawaiian-based health and fitness programs for the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Hale Koa Hotel, and Sheraton Resorts. Currently, Makani is the lead cultural educator at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center’s Ho‘okūola Hale and Mālama Recovery Services. Makani has developed a successful, culturally-based SUD recovery curriculum, and he prides himself on ensuring that everything he does personally and professionally is culturally-based and balanced with traditional knowledge and Western practices. Makani’s primary responsibility, gifted to him by his Kupuna (ancestors), is to preserve, perpetuate, and practice traditional Native health, wellness, and healing to improve the lives of his family and the community.

Cook County Jail Takes ‘SMART’ Approach to Addiction

August 11, 2023

Inside a living unit at Cook County jail, detainees talk openly about substance abuse and what it has done to their lives, examining the choices they have made and discuss the changes they can make.

Shaheed Johnson is eager to participate in the session, which is part of the Sheriff’s Men’s Addiction Recovery Treatment, or SMART, Program.

“You could put the same time and energy into getting high as you can into doing the right thing and becoming a positive member of society,” he said.

The SMART program, and a sister program called “THRIVE” for female detainees, grew out of a realization that overdose deaths countywide are skyrocketing…especially those involving fentanyl.

“The fact that we have this horrific opioid epidemic going on meant that we were going to have issues with it here, both with people inside and people passing through it,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

One of the keys to the success of Cook County’s addiction treatment programs is their use of medically-assisted treatment. Cook County’s Cermak Medical Services is the only jail in the state offering such a program.

“We have had excellent results,” said Dr. Patrick Ennis, who is the director of the Opioid Treatment Program at Cermak Hospital. “The studies really show that methadone and buprenorphine prevent overdose, in the long run.”