In this Issue...

• Our Suicide Prevention Research (September is National Suicide Prevention Month)
• Upcoming Webinar: Reducing Attrition Among College Students w/Mental Health Conditions
• New Tip Sheet: Resources for Addressing Social Determinants of Health in Worcester, MA
• Lifeline for Moms - Resources for Practitioners
• Toolkit for Hiring Clinicians & Best Practices Resource Guide
• New STAY Tuned Podcast Ep. 11: Progress is NOT Linear
• In Case You Missed It

September is National Suicide Prevention Month

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a month to remember the lives lost to suicide and recognize the millions who grapple with suicidal thoughts. It's also a time to acknowledge the profound impact on individuals, families, and communities. During this significant month, we invite you to explore the groundbreaking research being conducted by our teams at UMass Chan Medical School and iSPARC, aimed at preventing suicide and improving mental health outcomes.

• An Interview: Suicide Risk Detection and Management in the ER
• A Webinar: Suicide Risk Detection & Management in Clinical Settings
• A Study: Developing an App to Reduce Suicidality in ER Patients
• A Brief: Detecting and Intervening on Suicidality in ERs: The ED-SAFE Study
• Taking Suicide Prevention into Primary Care Settings
• Our DeafYES Center has a Deaf-accessible “Question, Persuade, Refer” (QPR) video training series. The Question. Persuade. Refer. (QPR) training for suicide prevention teaches everyday people the warning signs of a suicide and how to respond.

Register for Our Upcoming Webinar

Shattering Myths: Performance, Attrition, and Executive Functioning of College Students with Mental Health Conditions

Date | Time: Thursday, September 21, 2023 | 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm EDT

Presenter: Michelle G. Mullen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry at UMass Chan Medical School

Description: This webinar will discuss recent findings of Dr. Michelle Mullen and team on academic persistence of college students with mental health conditions. The high rate of dropout from college among this population has long been attributed to symptoms and poor grades. However, Dr. Mullen’s research showed that the Focused Skills and Strategy Training (FSST) program significantly improved the retention rates of college students with mental health conditions. FSST is a 12-session compensatory cognitive remediation intervention aimed at improving executive functioning skills. The session will describe the intervention, recent research findings, and discuss alternative explanations for attrition about this group of students.

Hot Off the Press

Tip Sheet: Resources for Addressing Food Insecurity and Other Social Determinants of Health in Worcester, Massachusetts

Strong communities start with healthy families and addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) for families is key to building healthier communities. Examples of SDOH are where people live, the environment they live in, their employment and/or education, their socioeconomic status, and access to resources and basic needs such as food. This tip sheet is a list of resources available in the Worcester, MA community to help families and community partners navigate local and state resources to address food insecurity and other social determinants of health.

Lifeline for Moms Offers Important Resources

Lifeline for Moms is about helping communities optimize perinatal mental health as perinatal mental health conditions are the leading cause of maternal mortality or pregnancy-related death in the United States. The center offers several resources to help obstetric care clinicians identify and care for patients with mental health conditions. Check them out below

Technical Assistance Program Updates

We now have two resources available as part of our Technical Assistance program. They are available for download by MA DMH members and contracted providers, as well as others benefiting from the information.

The ACCS Foundational Training Curriculum - Ten modules provide standardized, foundational training for onboarding and orienting new staff hired to work with the persons served by Adult Clinical Community Services (ACCS).

A Guide for Interviewing, Selecting and Hiring ACCS Clinicians - This guide describes a process for interviewing and hiring Adult Community Clinical Services (ACCS) clinical staff using best practices.

The iSPARC Technical Assistance Program is responsible for providing basic and intensive technical assistance (TA) services to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and its contracted providers.

New Products for Young Adults

STAY Tuned Podcast Ep. 11: Progress Isn't Linear, You Might Even Need A Detour Out of School

Graduate high school, graduate college, get a job. A deceivingly simple timeline that young adults were expected to follow since they were kids. In reality, life is messy and we're here to tell you detours along the way are normal and there's more than one way to reach your goals. In this episode, we bring on Maya Ingram, a Project Director here at UMass Chan Medical School. Maya tells her story of how she navigated the ups and downs life has thrown at her all while paving the way for her career.

In Case You Missed It

• From Lifeline for Moms: Dr. Nancy Byatt Discusses the Importance of Maternal Mental Health and the New Postpartum Depression Pill
• From CeKTER: Electronic Job Coaches Improve Employment Outcomes for People with Disabilities
• From Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research: STAY Tuned Podcast Episode 10: Too Sick to Work? Breaking the Narrative
• Young Adult Tip Sheet: My "Must Have" Papers - Managing the Paperwork of Adulting
• Young Adult Tip Sheet: Applying for a Job: The Young Adult's Guide

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