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Ortho adds intensive full day session to Research & Policy conference

November 10, 2014

The American Orthopsychiatric Association will be sponsoring an all-day intensive workshop entitled, “Ready for Change? Fostering Systems and Communities Responsive to the Behavioral Health Needs of the Next America.” The workshop will detail the evidence for dramatic generational change in our society and the ways in which those changes manifest themselves in the mental health needs of the younger generation. Developing programs and policies likely to respond to their needs implies cultural change and devising responses to cultural change, but it also requires a more affirmative approach. It requires making settings and communities psychologically healthier and more responsive to the needs of people in their current contexts. Through a combination of presentations and small group discussion, this workshop seeks to address some of the most vexing questions facing behavioral health in the Next America. 

Okay Network faithful, get yourself registered for the conference and be sure to add this rare opportunity pre-conference session to your schedule. Note that there is a separate fee for this day-long session.

About the presenters:

paultaylorPaul Taylor is a senior fellow at the Pew Research Center. He is the author of The Next America, a new book examining generations and the country’s changing demographics. Taylor previously served as the center’s executive vice president, where he oversaw demographic, social and generational research. From 1996 through 2003, he served as president and board chairman of the Alliance for Better Campaigns. Before that, he was a newspaper reporter for 25 years, the last 14 at the Washington Post, where he covered national politics and served as a foreign correspondent. From 1992-1995, he was the Post’s bureau chief in South Africa and reported on the historic transformation from apartheid to democracy. He also covered four U.S. presidential campaigns. Taylor is also the author of See How They Run (Knopf, 1990) and co-author of The Old News Versus the New News (Twentieth Century Fund, 1992). He twice served as the visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, in 1989 and 1995.  He graduated in 1970 with a bachelor’s in American Studies from Yale University. Taylor has lectured at numerous colleges and frequently discusses Pew Research studies in print and broadcast media.

garymeltonGary Melton is a professor of pediatrics and of community and behavioral health at the University of Colorado. Dr. Melton is the 2014 winner of the APA Senior Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. Previous honors include early-career contributions to the public interest through scholarship and advocacy (1985), public service through professional practice as a community psychologist (1999), and international advancement of psychology through scholarship and advocacy on human rights (2005).  He has also received awards for scholarship and public service from APA Divisions 18 and 37, the American Orthopsychiatric Association, the American Professional Society on Abuse of Children, the American Psychological Foundation, Prevent Child Abuse America, and Psi Chi.

The author of more than 350 publications, Melton has grounded his work in embrace of community—respect for human dignity for everyone, no matter how small, and promotion of norms of inclusion and humane care in the settings of everyday life.  To that end, much of his work has been in legal architecture—design of public policy and local practice in ways that they create structures and processes to facilitate expression of community values.

In general, Melton’s approach has been to embed assistance “naturally” within primary community institutions, ideally in ways that they fulfill an ethical maxim that “people shouldn’t have to ask.”  He was co-principal investigator of the early community trials of multisystemic treatment, an intensive home- and community-based approach to treatment of children and adolescents.  His work led to the development of statewide school mental health services in South Carolina and the introduction of a legislative package for reform of child and family services in Nebraska.

maryarmstrongMary I. Armstrong, PhD has over twenty-five years  experience in children’s behavioral health, public sector managed care, children’s health insurance, child welfare services, specializing in state and local government organizational structures, program development and evaluation, policy analysis, and consultation. 

She currently is the Director of the Division of State and Local Support, Department of Child and Family Studies at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. She is responsible for the administration of the Division of State and Local Support including the direction of evaluation and research activities, and specialized consultation, training, and technical assistance to public sector entities nationally and in Florida. 

Current activities include a national study of financing strategies and structures that support effective systems of care, evaluation of child welfare privatization and IV-E waiver in Florida, out-of-home treatment alternatives,  and the role of informal supports for parents with children with serious mental health problems. For the past 5 years, she has been a member of the Advisory Committee and a faculty member for the Policy Academy on Developing Systems of Care for Children with Mental Health Needs and Their Families, sponsored by the National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health at Georgetown University. She is co-chair of the national Outcomes Roundtable for Children and Families and a member of the National Advisory Board of the Quality Improvement Center for the Privatization of Child Welfare Services.

Formerly, Dr. Armstrong was Director of the Bureau of Children and Families at the New York State Office of Mental Health. In this role she played a leadership role in the development of a system of care for New York’s children with for children with serious emotional problems and their families. She is an active member of the National Association of Social Workers and has many publications in both professional journals and textbooks.

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