DMH UCLA Public Mental Health Partnership PMHP

Presented by Jennifer Wisdom, PhD, MPH, ABPP

Intergenerational Communication Challenges introduces generations (from boomers to Gen Z) and identifies how each generation has its own experiences, worldviews, and perspectives. Dr. Wisdom will solicit ideas from attendees on how intergenerational challenges show up in their workplace and describe how these challenges in the workplace can be associated with generational perspectives, such as different views on what it means to show respect or display loyalty. Dr. Wisdom will provide strategies for communicating across the generations, both for older generations (boomers and Gen X) to communicate with younger generations (millennials and Gen Z), and vice versa. This training is intended for field-based mental health and outreach workers in Los Angeles County.

Presented by Danielle Farmer, MSEd, LCSW. Studies show that 83% of U.S. workers suffer from work-related stress, with 25% naming their job as the number one stressor in their lives (The American Institute of Stress, 2022). These rates are even higher for individuals in social service settings due to factors such as emotional labor and the traumatic realities that clients may face. These factors place outreach workers at higher risk for work-related traumatic stress. Therefore, it is vital that field-based outreach workers are equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to understand how work-related stress develops and self-care practices to combat it. This training will define and explore concepts related to work-related stress such as burnout, vicarious trauma, and the physiological impacts of chronic and/or traumatic stress. Participants will discuss the history of self-care, its roots in radical community movements, and how it relates to field-based outreach workers. Participants will learn a plethora of self-care practices using a holistic approach and will have work time to create an individualized wellness plan for themselves using learned self-care practices. This training is intended for field-based mental health and outreach workers in Los Angeles County.

Presented by Elizabeth Mackey, LMSW and Chelsea Simms, LCSW, MSW. This training will focus on models of integrated care, including integrated, coordinated, and co-located care models, and related skills for practicing care coordination across systems. The importance of coordinated care will be explained through the social determinants of health (SDOH) framework, highlighting integrated care/care coordination as an intervention that mitigates the impacts of SDOH. This training will teach providers how to identify key care partners within systems, as well as advocacy and collaboration best practices. Attendees will be given an overview of chronic health conditions common within populations experiencing serious mental illness (SMI) and being unhoused, and how non-medically trained providers can support access to and continued engagement in primary and specialty medical care. This training is intended for field-based mental health and outreach workers in Los Angeles County.

Presented by Chelsea Simms, LCSW, MSW, Danielle Cameron, ACSW, MSW and Larry Fernandez, LCSW, MSW. Group therapy can be an effective and impactful therapeutic intervention for consumers of community mental health services, providing a space for processing, peer support, and social skills practice. This training will explore both the practicalities of starting and maintaining a group within a community mental health setting, as well as specific evidence-based interventions and modalities that can be used to ensure a group remains helpful and supportive to participants. This training is tailored for community mental health providers working in field-based settings in Los Angeles County.

Presented by Danielle Cameron, ACSW, MSW and Chelsea Simms, LCSW, MSW. Group therapy can be an effective and impactful therapeutic intervention for consumers of community mental health services, providing a space for processing, peer support, and social skills practice. This training will explore both the practicalities of starting and maintaining a group within a community mental health setting, as well as specific evidence-based interventions and modalities that can be used to ensure a group remains helpful and supportive to participants. This training is tailored for community mental health providers working in field-based settings in Los Angeles County.

Presented by Paul Brodwin, PhD. In this session, participants will review the recurring ethical issues faced by case managers who work with people with severe mental illness, learn the definitions of "ethical dilemma" and "moral distress," and how to distinguish between them in practice, and lastly, through interactive case studies, gain experience in recognizing and resolving ethical concerns about boundaries, equity, and the gap between personal ideals and workplace realities.