Save the Date: 7th Annual Conference on Psychology and Mental Health

On Friday, Dec. 14, the Wilder Foundation and Canvas Health will host "Moving toward Gender Competency: Using the Gender Affirmative Lifespan Approach (GALA) to guide mental health care for transgender and gender diverse children, adolescents, and adults". CEUs will be available. Watch our website and your email for registration details soon!

Psychological Interns Celebrate Graduation!

Our 2023-2024 psychological interns recently celebrated successful completion of Canvas Health’s Doctoral Internship in Clinical and Health Service Psychology.

Doctoral interns Stephen Costello, Rebecca Carr, and Danielle Petruska actively engaged in diverse areas of psychology such as individual psychotherapy, clinical and forensic evaluations, and adherent DBT services, accumulating a total of 2,080 hours since their initiation.

This accredited internship by the American Psychological Association (APA) presents an exceptional and multifaceted experience. Throughout the year, interns participate in an array of training opportunities, spanning outreach, program development, outcomes measurement, trauma-informed care, cross-discipline collaboration, consultation, research, and more, allowing for a comprehensive skillset development.

Expanding consent conversations with the help of cooking, bike metaphors, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

I’ve been watching “Nutrition by Kylie” a lot on YouTube lately. Surprisingly, this series has posed a unique opportunity to talk about the depth of consent conversations.

Kylie is a registered dietician with a recurring series on cooking “unexpected” foods. She often showcases things we’ve been taught absolutely aren’t included on a healthy plate: things like salty spam wedges or a bowl of instant ramen. Kylie’s goal isn’t for viewers to cut out flavors that they love—in fact, her mantra is always “focus on what you can add to, not what you can subtract from, your meals.”

This simple concept of being additive instead of restrictive is directly applicable in consent conversations.

While I could spend hours lecturing about things that you absolutely cannot do (like not having sex with someone who is drunk or who hasn’t clearly and verbally consented), it would be a disservice, especially to young people, to stop the conversation there.

Young people are hungry for information about how to find someone they are compatible with and how to treat their partner right. If we focus solely on listing all the limitations in a relationship, we miss the opportunity to go deeper to ensure consent in other aspects of relationships.

Read more of this blog post written by Jasmine Lee, Abuse Response Prevention Services.

Success Story: Overcoming Barriers to Employment

Margaret*, a 60-year-old client who had been unemployed for over 13 years, was referred to Canvas Health's Partnering for Jobs program by her therapist. The goal was to find part-time employment that would allow her to earn extra money while staying under the SSA Substantial Gainful Activity limit to preserve her Social Security benefits.

Despite her eagerness to work, the client faced significant challenges due to physical and mental health symptoms that affected her sleep, ability to stand for long periods, and work pace. She was also concerned about building good relationships with co-workers.

Working closely with her Partnering for Jobs staff and therapist, the client first focused on improving her physical health to prepare for employment. Once she felt more comfortable physically, they moved on to interview preparation, building her confidence along the way. Together, they identified a job that interested her, and she applied.

Margaret was successfully hired, and accommodations were discussed and provided to support her in her new role. She continued to receive follow-up support from her Partnering for Jobs staff to address any issues that arose at work.

Fast-forward to today: Margaret has been able to perform her job with the necessary accommodations, earning extra money for new clothes and vacations. While work relationships remain a challenge, she continues to work through these issues with her therapist.

Margaret's story highlights the Partnering for Jobs program's ability to offer personalized support and accommodations in helping individuals overcome barriers to employment and achieve their goals.

Celebrating 20 Years with Canvas Health!

In our Staff Showcase series, we're highlighting individuals who make Canvas Health an exceptional mental health provider. This month, we're shining a spotlight on Sarah Melby.

Sarah is truly an expert in understanding our complex billing requirements. She helped us implement our previous EHR Profiler more than 15 years ago, and she was a valued project team member on the Credible implementation project which went live in February 2021. Thank you to Sarah for 20 years of dedicated service to Canvas Health!



Read more about Sarah's Canvas Health story here.