Welcome to the New Quarterly Newsletter:
Spotlight on Young Adults!
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The Pacific Southwest MHTTC Team is excited to bring you this new quarterly
newsletter focused on all things youth and young adults (YYA) of transition age! Building youth-driven systems and services is critical for improving mental health experiences and outcomes, reducing health inequities that impact marginalized young people, and fostering a culture of recovery.
Spotlight on Young Adults
is dedicated to promoting resources, perspectives, and organizations that support YYA advocates, advocates for YYA, and YYA-serving professionals.
Reach out to our YYA Co-Leads,
Gwen
and
Kristin
, to let us know what you think of
Spotlight on Young Adults
! What would you like to see more of? Who do you want to hear from?
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Kristin Thorp, MPP
Youth Program Director (Youth MOVE National)
Kristin has ten years of experience in advocacy and youth leadership and program development with a special focus on the mental health and criminal justice systems. She currently serves as a Youth Program Director, where she is a national technical assistance provider on the development, implementation, and sustainability of quality youth programming and supports organizations develop meaningful and mutual partnerships with youth, young adults, and system leaders to advance best practices for youth engagement. Kristin is an advisor on the System of Care Children’s Mental Health Initiative and supports the implementation of national evaluation efforts by conducting qualitative and quantitative research, utilizing data to determine and define technical assistance needs for grantee communities. Prior to joining Youth MOVE National, Kristin was the Continuous Quality Improvement Coordinator for Maine’s System of Care. In this role, she offered technical assistance, training, and consultation to government agencies, providers, and communities on incorporating and embedding trauma-informed principles and practices and developing a youth guided system. Kristin has utilized her own lived experience, passion, and expertise in the field of positive youth development to bridge multiple perspectives to promote trauma-informed approaches to recovery.
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Gwendolyn White
Co-Lead Young Adult Services and Supports
Gwendolyn is a content expert on transition to independence and successful adaptation of adult roles and responsibilities for youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions and their families. She provides technical assistance to jurisdictions on system reform strategies that involve improved outcomes for youth and young adults of transition age. For over 35 years, Gwen has worked on developing innovative approaches to mental health service delivery for children, young adults, and families. Gwen has played many roles in supporting families, youth, and young adults in multiple settings and systems, including: medical, education, early intervention, child welfare, and behavioral health. She currently serves as the Co-Lead of the Young Adults of Transition Age initiative at PS MHTTC. Former positions include serving as the Healthy Transitions Team Lead for the Healthy Transitions Training and Technical Assistance Center at the Center for Applied Research Solutions; Senior Policy Associate and content specialist on young adults of transition age at Georgetown University, National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health; and Project Director for three Systems of Care grants in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
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My name is Amanda Lipp.
I'm a documentary filmmaker and advocate in the mental health field. My passion comes from my own lived experience going through psychosis and psychiatric hospitalization during college.
I learned first-hand going through the system that storytelling is a powerful tool that can promote healing and systems innovation
. As such, my mission is to partner with organizations and participants in telling recovery-oriented stories, and for those stories to have a larger impact on systems and society.
Indeed, filmmaking is both an art and a science. My creative approach is grounded in social psychology, entertainment-education, and digital advertising. In other words, how can storytelling reduce stigma, or help facilitate earlier access to care? Research has shown that narrative communication can help increase public awareness about health topics (
citation here
), and engaging youth with early-stage psychotic disorders in order to facilitate timely treatment remains a major public health challenge (
citation here
).
I believe this is the next frontier in mental health care: leveraging technology and storytelling to promote wellness and streamline access to care. For example, a short film series I made about Youth Episode Psychosis in New York is intended to be an engagement tool about a treatment program called OnTrackNY within Columbia University Medical Center.
- Learn more about my filmmaking approach and check out other mental health films here.
- Check out NYC First Episode Psychosis series here, and stay tuned for more films releasing in summer 2020!
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Gifts You Can Offer to
Youth Advocates Right Now
Johanna Bergan, Youth MOVE National
I have always found a special need for space to sit in a group and let free flow discussion and processing happen. This is especially important, and a source of nourishment, in the midst of change-making. Our network is active in intense change-making right now. As individuals working to find our place in building an anti-racist society, and as collectives, finding our way in building the future youth deserve.
This space of community dialogue does not always just occur. And many youth advocates right now may not have access to a safely held peer group to experience this form of nourishment. But each of us can be active in facilitating such a space.
I view the act of facilitation and process of holding space as just one way I can contribute my gifts to support current anti-racist advocacy work. I’m not traditionally trained in any of this but have rather grown in skill through trial and error. I feel confident that you, too, can offer facilitation and space to your peer community. I offer you these three pieces of wisdom as you begin.
- Take time to prepare yourself emotionally. Holding space for others takes the energy of your own. I find a brief centering activity a few minutes before opening space is essential for me. This isn’t the time for my amp-up song but rather a time for an inward focusing on breathing reflection and affirmation.
- Opening and centering the group is important. Take a few minutes to share why we are gathering together and any expectations (or lack of expectations) that exist. In recent facilitation sessions, this has included naming that we are experiencing racist systems, we are working actively to be anti-racist, and this work is occurring because of the death of black people at the hands of police. Put out the real heart of the dialogue in this opening. Expectations of the group can be informal to formal. Some groups may want to establish group norms; other groups will already have an established culture of community and a facilitator may simply open with a statement that all are welcome to share or to not share, with respect.
- Do more listening than talking. Your role is to actively listen, affirm, and gently guide the dialogue forward (only when needed). Use phrases like “I am hearing you say … is that right?” and “What that inspires for me is…”
When in doubt, use your breath. Breath can be used collectively, to offer transition points or closing to the group. Simply asking everyone to take three deep breaths together can close out a dialogue. You may use your own breath to help you hold back from speaking into the space too much or to create extra time to center a response or pivot youR need to share with the group. Silence is a valid part of a dialogue.
Should you bravely move forward into facilitation roles, I offer these guiding affirmations – Whoever comes are the right people. Whatever is said is what needs to be said.
Be well, Johanna
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A special note of thanks to the brave facilitators who have inspired my interest in this unique gift, and in this time, especially to Adrienne Maree brown and her gift to the world in the form of the book Emergent Strategy.
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Meet the Voice from the Field:
Johanna Bergan
Johanna Bergan
(Youth MOVE National) is an advocate for youth with lived experience in the mental health system who is now working in the field of youth engagement to promote and encourage the inclusion of youth voice in policy change. Johanna has twelve years of experience adv ocating for important changes in the mental health system. Johanna intentionally provides ongoing support, coaching, and mentoring to emerging youth leaders and the leaders of youth driven organizations to further strengthen the national youth movement.
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Partner Showcase:
Youth MOVE National
Youth MOVE National (YMN) is a youth-driven organization that has been fighting for the inclusion of authentic youth voice since 2007. Youth MOVE’s strength comes from its connection to chapters all across the country. There are more than 65 chapters in more than 30 states and tribal territories, all with young adults working toward improving the mental health, juvenile justice, education, and child welfare systems in their local communities. YMN employs a data- and network-informed approach on understanding how best practices can move programs forward by meaningful partnerships with youth and young adults. You can learn more by visiting
Youth MOVE National’s website
or
signing up for email updates
straight to your inbox.
Key Resources:
- #Things2Consider: Creating a Youth Advisory Board. This tip sheet guides organizations on receiving structured input from young adults on youth programming, engagement, outreach efforts, and creating youth-driven projects.
- A Guide to Youth Recruitment. This guide asks organizations and agencies to reflect on their current youth outreach efforts and provides concrete steps on developing effective messaging and tactics moving forward.
- Assessment of Youth/Young Adult Voice at the Agency Level (Y-VAL). The Y-VAL is a validated tool intended to measure support for the meaningful participation of youth and young adults in advising and decision making at the agency level.
- YMN Blogs. YMN shares weekly blogs from both staff and guest writers exploring a range of topics and current events.
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COMING THIS FALL:
Professional Learning Community
Stay tuned for the relaunch of our Professional Learning Community this September! Last fall, the Pacific Southwest MHTTC introduced the California Transition Age Youth Professional Learning Community. We’ve had a great year and have covered an array of topics--from low-barrier services, to working with LGBTQ+ youth, to racism--and have had some robust conversations along the way. Upon reflection, we’ve realized this community would be of value to the entire Pacific Southwest Region.
We hope you’ll join us in September! We will continue to evolve and build this community together, having ongoing discussions about the structure and how we spend our time together. Learning community sessions will be held monthly as 60-minute calls hosted on the Adobe Connect platform. We will ensure we find a time that enables more people from Region 9 to participate.
The target audience for this learning community is young professionals working with youth and young adults of transition age. This is a great opportunity for young professionals to build their capacity to work with youth and young adults and connect to peers doing similar work. As a community, we encourage members to serve as peer facilitators and be engaged to maximize the exchange of ideas and strategies for better serving youth and young adults. We also host guest subject matter experts to support strengthening skills and professional development.
Learning communities promote collective learning and the opportunity to apply that learning in a safe, collaborative environment
. We hope to see you this fall! Additional details to come…
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The Pacific Southwest MHTTC is pleased to partner with
The Catalyst Center
, with sponsorship from the California Department of Education and
Wellness Together
, to offer two webinar sessions to support the California school mental health workforce, school site leaders, and systems leaders. The aim of both sessions is to lift up rising practices: stories of resilience as providers innovate ways to help youth access behavioral health amidst a worldwide pandemic.
Session 1:
How might we partner with and listen to youth/students whom we marginalize, specifically in their telehealth experience during COVID-19?
Monday, August 3, 2020
Presented by Ahn Ta, LMFT, Assistant Director of Trauma Transformed; and Marissa Snoddy, LMFT, Clinical Director at RYSE Center in Richmond, CA.
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Session 2:
How might community-based organizations provide student support, and what can school systems learn from them, specifically related to COVID-19 telehealth?
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Presented by Francine Ostrem, PhD, LMFT, at Lincoln, mental health nonprofit in Oakland, CA; and Rozlyn Wing-Man Kwong, LMFT, Clinical Trainer and Evidenced-Based Practice Coordinator with Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services, Los Angeles.
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NEW RESOURCE:
Partners in Focus
This one-pager showcases the amazing work of organizations that are driving research, policy, and practice to improve systems for youth and young adults (YYA) of transition age. The one-pager links to brief features on several key organizations, including highlighted resources or campaigns. The PS MHTTC Youth and Young Adult Co-Leads created these brief features in collaboration with each organization.
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Additional Resources
A
new report
released by the
Justice Policy Institute
and
The Campaign for Youth Justice
explores how the harsh sentencing of youth as adults in criminal justice continues to be a problem across the nation. Despite the reforms of the last 20 years, youth that still frequently face harsh punishment and transfer into the adult system are disproportionately youth of color. The report finds that ending the adultification of youth by the justice system is an urgent and necessary component of any future reforms in law enforcement.
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The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) recently released a
report outlining ten core competencies
to address existing gaps in youth and young adult mental health systems. These competencies reflect values that translate into skills, attitudes, knowledge, and abilities of system participants. The core competencies are divided into two categories. Six are process-oriented: trauma informed care, positive youth development, youth friendliness, authentic youth engagement, cultural responsiveness, and disability awareness. The other four are mental health care content: Integrating physical and behavioral health, promoting prevention, addressing social determinants of health, and focusing on wellness. Check out the report
here
!
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Join the South Southwest MHTTC on August 3-5 for the
2020 Southwest First Episode Psychosis Conference
. The fully virtual three-day agenda will include nationally recognized plenary speakers, insightful young adults and family members, and opportunities to learn from and network with similar providers from across the nation. Registration is no-cost and up to 10.5 CEUs are available.
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Last month, Pathways RTC created a new tip sheet on
Telehealth for Transition Age Youth and Young Adults
. The tips cover unique topics related to YYA services, such as safety planning and how to hold Wraparound meetings in a socially distanced environment. The list was compiled via consultation with youth peer support specialists, clinicians, and supervisors who work with young people.
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Transitions ACR is currently recruiting for the
Sequences of Employment and EDucation (SEED) research study
to better understand how the
employment
and education experiences of young (ages 16-25) with serious mental health conditions change over time. Participation includes six 1-hour surveys over a 20-month period, and participants will be compensated up to $145 in gift cards for their time.
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Contact the Pacific Southwest MHTTC
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Disclaimer:
The views, opinions, and content expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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