A SAMHSA sponsored webinar presented by the National Federation of Families and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) took place Tuesday, July 9, 2024 from 1:30-3:00pm Eastern Time titled “Mental Health and Substance Use Challenge Prevention and Recovery: Poverty as an Equity Issue”.
Description: Poverty creates barriers to equity within all of the Social Determinants of Health—economic stability, safe environment, social and community well-being, and access to quality education and healthcare. In this panel discussion, the Association of State Health Officials and the National Federation of Families bring together individuals with professional and lived expertise to discuss the impact of poverty particularly on access to behavioral health services along the continuum of prevention, crisis intervention, and sustained recovery.
Kimberly Meyers, family member with lived experience of parenting a child with mental health challenges, will share her story of accessing—and at times being unable to access—support services while living in poverty. She will explain what was and was not helpful in her child’s recovery journey, the support services that would have benefited her family, and what she wishes policy makers could understand to better support individuals with serious mental illness and emotional disturbance living in poverty.
National Federation of Families Executive Director Lynda Gargan, PhD, will share her years of experience working across the nation providing technical assistance and training to ensure that all individuals are afforded the opportunity to live in the community of their choice, as well as her wealth of experience in community-based behavioral health at the local, state, and national levels. Dr. Gargan will explain how family peer support services span prevention, crisis intervention, and recovery for families of children across the lifespan experiencing mental health and/or substance use challenges—increasing equity to access to services for these families. She will also share her personal story of growing up in one of the most impoverished areas of West Virginia and the lack of services and supports that were available in her coal mining town.
We will also hear from Rebecca Roth, Director of the Office of Policy, Planning, and Research for the West Virginia Department of Human Services, Bureau for Behavioral Health, about West Virginia’s approach in policy and programming, across the continuum of care, for people living in poverty, with a particular focus on people with serious mental illness and/or serious emotional disturbance living in rural areas, such as access to treatment and other behavioral health services, utilizing telehealth, and transportation support. Working with partners to fully understand the opportunities provided by funding mechanisms and policies at the state and federal level as levers is important to consider.
Speakers:
- Kimberly Myers, Financial Systems Analyst
- Lynda Gargan, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National Federation of Families
- Rebecca Roth, Director of the Office of Policy, Planning, and Research for the West Virginia Department of Human Services, Bureau for Behavioral Health
If you have any questions, please contact Kelle Masten via email at kelle.masten@nasmhpd.org or Paige Thomas at paige.thomas@nasmhpd.org.
Live closed captioning and ASL interpreters will be available for this webinar.
Thank you!