Center for Inclusive Transition, Education, & Employment (CITEE)

Now is the Time 2021 Conference Speakers

Elisabeth Cannata: Why Care About Evidence Based Practice?

Why Care About Evidence Based Practice?

Description:

There continues to be emphasis on Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) as the aspirational standard for behavioral health providers and systems of care. While Evidence-Based Treatments (EBTs) offer the promise of better outcomes based on strong research design and findings, implementation science tells us that buy-in from multiple stakeholders and a commitment to a careful and ongoing process of exploration, installation, and system evaluation is necessary to achieve successful and sustainable implementation. Elisabeth Cannata, Ph.D. is a provider with over 30 years of experience in the delivery of services to children and families across behavioral health, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems in Connecticut. She has extensive experience in the successful implementation of multiple EBTs and is regularly invited to participate on system transformation initiatives. Dr. Cannata will provide insights and lessons learned from Connecticut's experience in launching, expanding, and sustaining a robust service continuum with multiple EBTs over the past 20 years. Her presentation will include observations about the potential benefits of EBP from the perspectives of funders, policy makers, provider organizations, clinicians, and families, and will share some of CT's successes and innovations in the development of its system of care.

Bio:

Elisabeth Cannata, Ph.D. is Vice President of Community-Based Family Services and Practice Innovation at Wheeler Clinic, a large non-profit healthcare provider organization in Connecticut. In this role, she has overseen the implementation of several evidence-based treatments and promising practices for youth and families. She has also partnered with model developers in piloting and studying the effectiveness and transportability of model adaptations. A keen interest of Dr. Cannata is in the areas of workforce development for Evidence-Based Practice and for integration of primary and behavioral health care. She has co-authored articles on those topics and is the creator of the highly successful graduate level course Current Trends in Family Intervention: Evidence-Based and Promising Practice Models of In-Home Treatment, which is taught in masters programs in social work, marriage and family therapy and counseling programs in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. Dr. Cannata has received several recognitions for her advocacy work to promote the system of care for children and families in Connecticut, including being a past recipient of the Connecticut Psychological Association’s Award for Contribution to the Health and Well-Being of Connecticut’s Children and current appointment by the DCF Commissioner to tri-chair the legislatively mandated Connecticut Children’s Behavioral Health Plan Implementation Advisory Board. She is also on the Leadership Team of the Child and Family Evidence-Based Practice Consortium, an international community of implementation specialists, program developers, administrators, faculty, and researchers interested in improving the lives of children, youth and families through effective program selection, implementation, and workforce development.

LSS: Research, Training and Vision - LSS Leading the Way!

Session Description:

Lutheran Social Services (LSS) has made learning and development of our employees a priority to enhance service delivery and increase positive outcomes for participants. To achieve this, the LSS Clinical Services Team reviewed evidence-based practices that fit within our service needs and created a Training and Development Plan. This presentation will review the steps the Clinical Managers took to create the Training and Development Plan, the important conversations that are making it successful, and new concepts to improve development.

Bio:

Samantha Feryance MSE, LPC, Lutheran Social Services Community-Based Program Manager/East Region Clinical Manager
Samantha has 10 years of experience in the mental health field. She started her career at Hope House as a sexual assault advocate then transitioned to Columbia County Community Support Program as a case manager. Following these experiences, Samantha began her tenure at Lutheran Social Services working in several children’s programs as a therapist and service facilitator. After shifting to a leadership position, her passion was to develop helpful tools and training materials to increase the knowledge and comfort of direct employees in their service provision. Through her current position, Samantha has assisted in creating agency resource guides, training plans, and focus on program training to support employee development. Samantha also sits on the Children Come First Advisory Committee as a co-chair and the System of Care Advisory Committee overseen by Wisconsin DCF.

Brittany Nessel, MS, LPC, CSAC, ICS, Lutheran Social Services West Region Clinical Manager/Community Based Program Manager
Brittany has over 15 years of experience in the field of human services. Brittany holds Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Clinical Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC) and Independent Clinical Supervisor (ICS) licenses. Brittany has worked in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California. Most of her clinical experience has included providing services to adults with co-occurring disorders (MH and AODA) involved in the criminal justice system. Brittany has a long history in providing trauma services, intensive AODA services, and crisis management services. Brittany started with LSS in 2012 as an In-Home Family Therapist; in 2013 Brittany transitioned into the role of Supervisor for the Community Transition Center in Eau Claire. After successfully growing and expanding that program, Brittany was promoted to Program Manager overseeing 6 SUD/Correctional treatment programs. Brittany was in that role until July of 2020 when she was promoted to West Region Clinical Manager overseeing the clinical services in the agency. She is also a Clinical Supervisor for a number of different LSS programs. Brittany is a Motivational Interviewing Trainer and believes in a person centered approach when working with clients and staff.

Scott Caldwell: Getting Ready for Evidence-Based Practice: Exploration Matters

Session Description:

Although many evidence-based programs and practices (EBPs) exist for delivery with youth and families, a recent estimate shows that only 1% to 3% of provider organizations actually achieve successful implementation. Ineffective implementation wastes valuable time and resources, and typically results in suboptimal outcomes. The Exploration Stage is a critical, yet often overlooked, stage of implementation through which a provider organization can thoughtfully consider, select, and begin preparation for EBP implementation. This presentation will identify and describe key Exploration Stage activities, including forming an implementation team, engaging an EBP selection process, and involving key stakeholders. For county administrators, agency leaders, supervisors, and champions of change, participants will gain useful exploration tools and activities for any future EBP initiative. Learning objectives: 1) Be able to describe the purpose of the Exploration Stage; 2) Be able to identify two benefits of forming an implementation team; and 3) Gain some initial familiarity with exploration tools and activities.

Presenter: Scott coordinates, trains, and consults in two evidence-based practices (SBIRT, Motivational Interviewing) at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in Bureau of Prevention Treatment and Recovery. The heart of this work involves guiding provider organizations to consider, adopt, and ultimately work toward successful EBP implementation.

Bio:

With three decades in human services in roles of practitioner, coordinator, evaluator, trainer, and consultant, Scott is currently leading a statewide initiative in the implementation of evidence-based practice (motivational interviewing) at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in the Bureau of Prevention Treatment and Recovery. This presentation on Getting Ready for Evidence-Based Practice: Exploration Matters is partly based on his 10 years at DHS—providing over 350 trainings to thousands of human service professionals—and the realization that we cannot simply train our way to the implementation of evidence-based practice.

Tim Markle: Bridging the Gap: Youth Health Care Transition -- Let's Get Personal

Session Description:

Join Tim Markle from the Youth Health Transition Initiative, and Hunter Markle, Tim's son for their session Bridging the Gap: Youth Health Care Transition -- Let's Get Personal. Tim and Hunter will start with the basics of what Youth Health Transition is and why it is important. As they explain different skills that can be taught along the way, Hunter will illustrate with examples from his own experience. Hunter will discuss his transition from his perspective as an Autistic Young Adult who is also challenged by anxiety and depression. We will close with some overall thoughts on transition Mental Health Care.

Bio:

Tim Markle has worked at the UW-Madison Waisman Center for over 12 years. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Southern Regional Center for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs and with the Youth Health Transition Team. Tim works on developing curriculum for different audiences and loves presenting. For "“Bridging the Gap: Youth Health Care Transition -- Let's Get Personal,” Tim will be joined by his son, Hunter. Hunter is 23 years old and is working on figuring out what he wants to do for work. He is autistic and loves to share his journey of how he is taking charge of his own health care. Tim is also founder of Forgiveness Factor and is a contributor to the International Forgiveness Institute. His passion to help people learn how to forgive has led him to teach courses, seminars, keynotes, breakouts and offer weekly forgiveness boosts. He will be talking about the Role of Forgiveness in Suicide Prevention.

Tim Markle: The Role of Forgiveness in Suicide Prevention

Session Description:

Forgiveness is an important aspect of good mental health. Yet, few of us are given the resources to learn how to forgive. When we look at suicide prevention, we can see where learning to forgive others and oneself can be a part of the prevention toolkit. We will look at Dr. Enright's Forgiveness Process and link it to suicide prevention. We will also discuss the important role forgiveness has to play in suicide recovery. Tim Markle is founder of Forgiveness Factor and incorporates his personal mental health journey and his journey of forgiveness to help people live healthier, more forgiving lives. You can learn more at www.forgivenessfactor.org.

Bio:

State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS)

Session Description:

The State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) was awarded a four-year federal grant in 2017 for a program titled State Youth Treatment Initiative. The purpose of this grant was to provide funding to improve treatment for adolescents and/or transitional aged youth with substance use disorders and/or co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders by assuring youth statewide access to evidence-based treatment. DHS collaborated with the UW Madison Population Health Institute for the evaluation of this program. The grant is coming to an end in September of this year. Over the course of the grant, many lessons have been learned about how to implement an evidence based practice to fidelity in community treatment settings. The project coordinator, Jason Cram, and the evaluators, Janae Goodrich and Rachel Amos will share with you the interventions that were used to address common barriers during program implementation and recommended strategies for future implementation of evidence based treatment programs in community settings.

Bio:

Jason Cram is the Children, Youth, and Family Section Supervisor at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Jason oversees the administration of programs across Wisconsin including the State Youth Treatment Initiative, coordinated specialty care, wraparound programs, youth justice diversion programs, parent peer supports, youth crisis programs, and youth primary substance use prevention. He is currently working on an initiative to address service gaps for children with complex needs. Additionally on behalf of the State, Jason is responsible for the advancement and continued development of the children’s system of care in Wisconsin. Jason has prior experience working with the adult forensic population and sexually violent persons both in the community and in institutions.

Janae Goodrich is a Researcher and Principal Investigator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Population Health Institute. For over 13 years, Janae has been providing technical assistance with evaluation research to a variety of behavioral health programs serving populations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Most of Janae’s evaluation research work focuses on behavioral health programs serving youth and young adults and the criminal justice population. Janae serves as the Principal Investigator and oversees the evaluation research being conducted for Wisconsin’s Youth Treatment Initiative.

Rachel Amos is an Associate Research Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Population Health Institute. Rachel has assisted with evaluation research for the Youth Treatment-Initiative for two years, along with other adolescent health programs in Wisconsin. Rachel's role with Wisconsin's Youth Treatment Initiative is to provide the local sites with technical assistance and assist with the project evaluation.

Elizabeth Castillo: Chasing Grace -- Utilizing Theatre Arts and Storytelling as a Pathway to Recovery

Session Description:

"Chasing Grace," a musical written, directed, and produced by Elizabeth Addison Castillo is a story about the experience of primarily black and brown women and their personal journeys as they weather the roller coaster of challenges presented to them during a lengthy stay in addiction treatment. Over the last eight years, Elizabeth has also utilized the act of writing this show as a means of healing and thus a pathway in her personal recovery journey. The biggest gift and breakthrough has been her ability to forgive and love her past self who was in active addiction, and her ability to find more compassion and understanding for herself and others. This show has also allowed those who have participated as one of the cast members or audience members, to engage in conversation around how addiction has affected them and their family, and has acted as a mirror for their own personal healing needs. As a result, many have found themselves on their own path to recovery and able to have conversations with loved one's whose addiction caused them harm. In writing this show, Elizabeth has found a way to reclaim the narrative and offer that same gift to others. How could picking up the pen and writing and performing our own stories empower us and lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and others? How can this process lead us to love and forgive ourselves and each other? This session will include prompts and journaling exercises, viewing of a couple of scenes from the virtual performance of "Chasing Grace," and a group conversation around the creative process and utilizing the arts as a means of personal recovery. The goal is to have participants walk away with ways to engage with their own creative process and an understanding of how the arts can help in their recovery journey.

Bio:

Elizabeth Addison Castillo is a Composer, Lyricist, Playwright, Entrepreneur currently in the midst of launching her company, This is Treatment LLC, a production company that meets at the intersection of recovery and the performing arts, and workshopping her musical, “Chasing Grace” (formerly “This is Treatment) which recently had a virtual run with students from Rider University, and will be in production with Northeastern University in Spring 2022. She is the former Associate Artistic Director and founding member of The Dreamscape Project Group, an all-female theatre troupe dedicated to developing pieces that address diversity through dance, movement, music, and dramatic narrative. She was a teaching artist, director, playwright with the Improbable Players. Recently, she was appointed Artistic Director of the new theater company, 2ndAct, and is currently co-designing their New Works Department. This summer she was accepted into the Muse Mentorship program where she will be mentored by Broadway Composers & Musicians. She has received three grants: The Bob Jolly grant, Boston Opportunity Fund and, most recently, The Boston Foundation Live Arts Boston grant for her new one-ish woman musical, “F! Now what?!”, a story about what comes after graduating treatment. She has been featured in Scout Cambridge Magazine, Boston Voyager Magazine and The Boston Herald. During the pandemic, Elizabeth launched an online interview series entitled, “Chasing Beads.” And she is also currently in the process of becoming a Recovery Coach.

Black Olive Community Theatre - Telling Our Truth: Why Storytelling Works in Recovery

Session Description:

Our experience through Black Olive Community Theatre has shown that the act of storytelling appeals to different learning preferences. We will illustrate the connection between traditional oral- storytelling and the storytelling that takes place within the 12-recovery model. We will present this creatively via various art forms including poetry, song, musical instruments, and even visualization. Our group of performers are each in substance abuse recovery and are artists of various modalities. Among many other titles, we refer to ourselves as storytellers. Our stories presented will offer insight into the trauma of our youth to the link to our later drug use, then subsequent addictions. This one-hour session of education and entertainment will appeal to those practitioners whose targeted population is substance abusers in recovery who seek methods to keep those they serve imaginative and to keep them personally involved.

Bio:

Black Olive Community Theatre - founded by Chicago native, Oroki Rice - is a diverse community of adults and youth who love the spoken and written word. We offer novice and professional artists space to use their creativity for personal and collective healing. Although we began our physical base in the Midwest, we have benefited from the recent worldwide health pandemic which brought about an emergence of global relationships.

Nicole Bresnick (she/her/hers) - Boy into woman, growing into life.

Max Knighten (he/his/him) - I’m making 60’s the new 20’s!

LadyD - I am more than my past!

Oroki Rice (she/her/hers) - Art continues to save my life.