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Substance Use Disorder

Image by photosforyou from Pixabay

Wednesday, September 6, 2023
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET
REGISTER

Black and African American (B/AA) communities, especially those in rural areas, are often overlooked in discussions about improving mental health and substance use treatment services. There is a growing need for provider organizations to enhance the quality of care for B/AA individuals.

Join us for a powerful roundtable discussion about the impact of social justice concerns, COVID-19, and challenges of providing care in rural communities. As we build on the discoveries from previous focus groups, this event will amplify conversations regarding workforce shortages, accessible technology, and funding limitations, while highlighting solutions and provider recommendations to address these disparities.

This event is sponsored by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and the Morehouse School of Medicine’s African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence. Victor Armstrong, MSW, national director of Soul Shop for Black Churches, will moderate the discussion with panelist representatives from:

  • Bootheel Counseling Services — Sikeston, Mo.
  • Georgia Pines Community Service Board — Thomasville, Ga.
  • NC Counts Coalition — Raleigh, N.C.

By attending the session, you will be able to:

  1. Discuss the current health care disparities of B/AA populations in rural areas;
  2. Increase your awareness of challenges regarding access, engagement, recruitment, retention, and outcomes for mental health and substance use care providers in rural areas; and
  3. Identify solutions and strategies for supporting community partnerships to reduce disparities.

Prepare your team for challenging events through trainings and sessions being offered at the 2023 RCPA Annual Conference A Decade of Unity! Workshops will focus on some difficult topics but will be certain to improve your team’s treatment of patients as well as their own, personal well-being. View the full brochure here, and claim your early bird rate, your hotel, and your discount today so you can gain direct access to workshops such as:

  • Ethics, Suicide, and Coercive Practices: Are We Doing More Harm Than Good?
    • Examine cultural and societal values in relation to suicide, including a discussion on whether physician-assisted suicide is a human right.
  • Reducing Health Disparities Through a Collaborative Approach to Value-Based Contracting
    • Learn about Highmark Wholecare’s intervention into minority adolescent treatment for STIs, which reduced racial/ethnic disparities through Medicaid VBC payment models.
  • Measurement-Based Care: Exploring the Value of a Coordinated Approach in Pennsylvania
    • Analyze the implementation of measurement-based care models across Northeast Pennsylvania through Greenspace Health and Northeast Behavioral Health Care Consortium.
  • Attracting and Retaining the Best Talent: Mitigating Bias in Hiring, From Sourcing Through Onboarding
    • Discover ways in which bias presents itself during the hiring process and how to manage it so that you can find and keep great talent.
  • The Dialectical Behavior Model of Living
    • Study the Dialectical Behavior Model of Living in order to assist neurodivergent individuals in managing their social, emotional, and environmental processes.
  • Debriefing: Supporting Staff and People Supported Through a Traumatic Event
    • Be a leader for your team by utilizing debriefing tactics in order to help your employees when traumatic experiences happen in the workplace.
  • Treating Problematic Sexualized Behaviors Through a Systemic Model
    • Identify warning signs of problematic sexual behavior in adolescents and learn how to approach and treat such behaviors with cultural and ethical considerations.
  • Machine Learning: New Tools to Improve Youth Mental Health Outcomes
    • Hear from Gemma Services on how they improved their PRTF and Outpatient programs through a data analytics firm and the creation of an Insight Generator tool.
  • RCPA Captive Health Plan: NON-CE Offering
    • Learn about the RCPA Captive Health Care program, including benefits, costs, and savings potentials for your organizations.
Register today!

In addition to an impressive roster of speakers, our 2023 Conference will have an exciting array of sponsors and exhibitors. We thank those who have signed on thus far! If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting, visit here for more details or contact Carol Ferenz, Conference Coordinator, with any questions you may have. Keep up-to-date and register today for #rcpaconf!

Message from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing:

This Fall is shaping up to be one of the most consequential federal legislative periods in recent years.

Lawmakers are treating the time between September and December as one of their last and best chances to pass meaningful, bipartisan legislation and secure funding for key behavioral health programs and services before the 2024 election cycle dominates the conversation.

So, it’s the perfect time for us to come together and demand our elected officials prioritize solutions to address the nation’s ongoing mental health and substance use crises.

Register Now!

Register now to join our Virtual Public Policy Institute on Wednesday, October 18. Together, we’ll embark on an afternoon of virtual advocacy where we’ll directly contact elected officials about issues like:

  • The behavioral health workforce shortage;
  • Establishing CCBHCs in federal law;
  • Expanding access to substance use care and treatment; and
  • Investing more in the nation’s crisis care infrastructure.

While great progress has been made by Congress and the Biden-Harris administration in the past few years, more must be done to ensure everyone everywhere has access to comprehensive, high-quality mental health and substance use care.

This is your time to make a difference. With your help, our unified voice will cut through the noise and ensure mental health and substance use programs are front and center during a busy legislative Fall.

We look forward to seeing you.

The Jana Marie Foundation, Aevidum, Prevent Suicide PA, Pennsylvania Network for Student Assistance Services (PNSAS), STAR-Center at the University of Pittsburgh, and Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Youth Suicide Prevention Grant are pleased to share a resource guide for communities for National Suicide Prevention Month. Within the month of September, the week of September 10–16 is recognized as National Suicide Prevention Week, with Sunday, September 10 marking World Suicide Prevention Day. This year’s theme is “Creating Hope Through Action.”

The resource guide provides examples of activities that you can implement in your organization or community to raise awareness of the importance of suicide prevention. This includes ideas for events, training, social media posts, virtual backgrounds, a sample proclamation, and more.

Please feel free to share this resource guide with partners in your communities that can work together to create hope and prevent suicide.

If you have any questions, please follow up with Perri Rosen or RCPA Policy Director Jim Sharp.

The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) will host technical assistance webinars on substance use disorder (SUD) confidentiality and Act 33’s impact. DDAP is seeking input through a short “SUD Confidentiality Survey” to tailor the webinar topics to the audience’s needs. The survey is open until 6:00 pm on September 22, 2023. To participate in these webinars and other monthly DDAP technical sessions, email DDAP’s ASAM Transition inbox for calendar invites. Questions about SUD confidentiality regulations can be directed to DDAP’s Division of Program Licensure electronically.

Don’t miss your chance to catch the early bird registration rate for the 2023 RCPA Annual Conference A Decade of Unity! Early bird rates end Friday, September 8, 2023. View our registration brochure to see our full schedule, including networking and Connections Hall events, as well as information on booking your hotel room. Complete the brochure and reserve your seat at the early bird discount rate today!

We also wish to extend our thanks to those organizations that have already contributed and shown their support! Sponsor and exhibitor spots are filling up quickly, so complete the sponsor/exhibitor brochure today! As a reminder, sponsors, exhibitors, and advertisers who wish to be listed on the website, the mobile app, and in the conference program must submit all materials by September 8. In order to be considered for booth self-selection, a completed contract with payment must be submitted, and no reservation is considered complete without payment. If questions remain, please contact Carol Ferenz, Conference Coordinator.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

RCPA has launched the first of what we hope will be many blogs. Our intention is to write commentary about the most important issues facing substance use disorder and mental health treatment providers in Pennsylvania, providing not only the facts of the situation, but our views and opinions on them. Our work with and on behalf of our members as well as our personal experiences will largely drive this blog. We know what is important to you. After all, you set our agenda. But if you have an idea about what we should be covering or an opinion or comment about what we’ve written, we want to know. We look forward to your thoughts as our new effort to provide thought leadership and foster dialog on the day’s most important behavioral health issues unfolds [visit main blog page].

RCPA will be hosting our golf outing to support the RCPA PAC on Monday, October 9, 2023, in conjunction with the Annual Conference. Conference attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, and presenters can now register to participate at the Dauphin Highlands Golf Course, 650 S Harrisburg St., Harrisburg, PA 17113. Registration starts at 10:00 am, lunch will be held at 11:00 am, and the shotgun start begins at 12:00 pm.

Not a golfer, but would still like to support the RCPA PAC? For your convenience, you can now make a personal online contribution, which will provide financial support to state legislators or representatives who have demonstrated a strong, consistent, and positive interest in our legislative priorities.

We would like to thank our tournament sponsor Erie County Care Management, Inc. for their support. Sponsorships are still available for this worthwhile cause. We hope you will consider becoming a golf outing sponsor; it is a great way for your organization to receive name recognition and an opportunity to support the RCPA fundraiser.

Many thanks to our beverage & hole sponsors to date:

  • Novak Strategic Advisors
  • Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
  • Warfel Construction
  • Firetree, Ltd.
  • Christopher S. Lucas & Associates
  • Ceisler Media & Issue Advocacy
  • Pinnacle Treatment Centers, Inc.
  • Salisbury Behavioral Health, a division of RHA Health Services