Join us for a SAMHSA–Sponsored Webinar on Improving Access to Care

Jun 4, 2020

Join us for a SAMHSA-Sponsored Webinar, “Improving Access to Care by Partnering with and Minimizing Law Enforcement in Mental Health Crisis” on Wednesday, June 10 at 2:00 p.m. ET. 

What Will it Cover?

People with mental illness — just like people with any medical condition — need a range of treatment, services and supports, depending on an individual’s unique needs. Unfortunately, our current mental health system was never built to meet the needs of the nearly 45 million Americans who have a mental illness. Without an effective mental health system, communities have relied on the criminal justice system to provide mental health care and as a result, every year over 2 million people with mental illness are booked into America’s jails and prisons.

Law enforcement, in partnership with mental health professionals and advocates, have worked for decades to divert people with mental illness from the criminal justice system. While many of these efforts have improved access to care and improved responses to people experiencing a mental health crisis, many front-line personnel continue to ask: “divert to what?”

In this webinar, two models of crisis care will be examined that promote community-based support with a focus on minimizing law enforcement in crisis through proper partnership including the Rapid Integrated Group Healthcare Team (RIGHT) and the Retreat Model of Crisis Urgent Care. The RIGHT Care program includes specially trained and equipped police officers, paramedics, and mental health professionals who respond as a team to safely and effectively manage patients who are experiencing behavioral health emergencies. The Retreat Model of Crisis Urgent Care emphasizes a physical layout that is an open retreat and staff with lived experience who provide 24/7 outpatient lobby with immediate care, 23-hour temporary observation recliners, sub-acute crisis stabilization with 2 – 4 day average length of stay. 

Topics and themes: 

• Mental health
• Law enforcement
• ​Crisis care

There will also be time for Q&A.

Who Will Be Presenting?      

Shannon Scully, serves as Senior Manager for Criminal Justice Policy for NAMI. She advises NAMI’s network of over 640 state and affiliate organizations on issues related to pre-arrest diversion, care and treatment in jails and prisons, re-entry, and the criminalization of people with mental illness. She has a Master of Public Policy from American University in Washington, D.C.
 
Paul Galdys, serves as Deputy CEO FOR RI International. Paul has advocated for the advancement of compassionate, high quality, outcomes-based, recovery-focused services and he has been instrumental in the evolution of strategies to create sustainable community-based crisis programs that align with the Crisis Nowexceptional practice standard. Paul is a former board member of NAMI Easy Valley in Arizona.

Kevin Oden, serves as Director of Homeless Solutions in Dallas. Kevin was recently promoted from his previous position, Public Safety/RIGHT Care Team Coordinator, where his duties included managing the daily operations of the RIGHT Care Program, conducting data analysis, and the reporting of program performance and strategic initiatives. 

 
It is highly recommended that you test your connection to Adobe Connect in advance of the webinar to ensure access. If you encounter any difficulty testing your connection or logging into the webinar, please contact Technical Support by calling 1-800-459-5680. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected] via email or at 703-682-5187.
 
We do not offer CEU credits however letters of attendance are offered upon request. Closed-captioning is available for this webinar. After the webinar, a recording will be made available online.