Monday, April 8, 2013

Join us to Discuss the Future of Mental Health Care at the AAS Conference, Austin, TX, Thursday, April 25th!


On Thursday, April 25th at 1: 30 p.m. I will be presenting, along with three of my favoite colleagues, Aaron Blackledge, TonyWood and April Foreman, at the Crisis Center Conference at the American Association of Suicidology's annual conference in Austin.  

The topic of our panel discussion will be, "Crisis Chat 10.0:  An Online Ecosystem for Mental Health Service Provision and Why It Makes Sense for Consumers and Providers."

We will be talking about the future of mental health care starting with the problems in our current system including the glaring fact that 50% of people that suffer from a mental health problem never get any help for their disorder (NIMH).  As mental health professionals and systems influencers, why are we not held accountable for this failure in access and treatment by the vulnerable population we serve?  

Aaron, Tony, April and I have envisioned a future model for mental health service provision that emanantes from a online services portal.   

We start with breaking down mental health care to it's basic concept that a caring connection with another human is what helps and heals.  If a connection is all it takes, then why make it so hard for people in need to connect to people who can help?  

Why put up barriers of time, place and person?  Why not make it easy for someone in crisis, or anyone at all in emotional pain, to reach out to someone who cares?

We will explain this comprehensive online mental health services portal, one that allows consumers of mental health services to access help where, how and when they want it, and one that can be funded by insurance companies, government and private pay, among other sources, because it provides better service AND it is cheaper than our current system!  The time is right!

We look forward to seeing you there!