Butler Collaboraitve for Families Knowledge Dissemination Conference Agenda The following conferences will be half-day (3-4 hours) sessions: First Aid: Participants will learn the skills necessary to prevent, recognize, and provide basic care for injuries and sudden illnesses until advanced medical personnel arrive and take over. Participants will have the knowledge and ability to provide emergency First Aid. This course will cover first aid for adults and children and will be offered twice a year. CPR: Hands-on skills training will prepare participants to respond to breathing and cardiac emergencies in adults and children. This class will be offered twice a year. Mandatory Reporting: Attendees will learn their responsibilities under the law. Class will include an overview of the Tarasoff case and “duty to warn”. This conference will be offered twice a year. Managing Stigma: Participants will gain an understanding of how mental health recipients are impacted by community perceptions. Professional Safety: Participants will increase their awareness of their working environment and learn how to be safe on home visits. This conference will enable participants to develop skills that will be useful within the workforce. Orientation to Butler County Human Services – Overview of family service agencies to help providers successfully guide families. Participants will receive an orientation to local agencies and other resources, including Children and Youth Services / Juvenile Court Services / Butler County Mental Health/Mental Retardation/Drug & Alcohol. An overview of the respective departments, systems and agencies and their collaborative roles in the community will be presented. Participants will come to know who the key contacts are for many different needs, learn acronyms, etc. Participants will also learn how their agency can help people through the Community Assets PA database system. This conference will be offered twice a year. One of the sessions will be held in conjunction with an agency fair, where all Butler County Human and Social Services agencies will be invited to participate in an informational gathering at the Butler Community College. This conference, which is collaboration with public and private partners, will improve workforce development by reducing the learning curve for professionals who are new to Butler County Human Services and establish criterion of basic professional knowledge needed in our system of care. Participants will obtain a working knowledge of the community based service agencies and supports and of the residential and hospital based services available to assist children and families. Professional Etiquette / Ethics-Treatment & Legal Aspects: Participants will gain an understanding of how they dress and how they interact with people affects client relationships. Conference participants will also study of the clinical and legal dilemmas faced by clinicians today.
Substance Abuse Treatment: Participants will learn how drugs and alcohol impact the family system. Grant Readiness / Basic Grant Writing: Participants will learn what their organization needs to do to be ready to apply for grant funding. Class includes ways to ensure program planning addresses areas that are important to funders. This class is targeted toward those individuals who are new to the proposal writing process. Students will learn the basic components and format of a grant proposal. They will come to understand the grant preparation, submission and review process. They will learn the general rules for proposal writing and the basic proposal components, including Problem Statement, Goals and Objectives, Methods, Evaluation, Sustainability, and Budget. This conference will expand the financing strategies available to family service agencies and enable them to be competitive in their grant seeking efforts. Psychotropic Medications Overview – Participants will gain knowledge of basic pharmacology including side therapeutic effects and effects along with the service recipient viewpoint on these medications and their effects. This conference will be offered twice a year. Development Challenges – Overview of Early Intervention and Mental Retardation programs. Mental Health Topics – Topics include: Definition of Mental Illness; Screening, Intake, and Assessments; Approaches to Mental Health Issues. Participants will gain a basic understanding of the mental illness disorders as listed within the DSM – IV, the multiaxial assessment systems used within the DSM - IV manual and the major diagnostic codes used within the DSM - IV manual. Participants will gain a working knowledge and an understanding of the major mental health disorders: anxiety, mood, psychotic, cognitive, dissociate, eating and sleeping, adjustment and personality. They will understand and recognize the many signs, symptoms and indicators associated with mental illness and understand the definition of mental health, within a continuum of mental health and health issues. They will also understand and be able to identify symptoms and dynamics of dual diagnosis and the need for collaborative efforts for better therapeutic outcomes for this population. Participants will understand and use appropriate screening techniques for mental health issues, understand and utilize appropriate techniques to develop an accurate historical picture of the client and other significant members of the “family,” understand and be able to evaluate mental status and assess potential danger to self or others, and be able to utilize a wide range of strength-based, family-centered assessment tools to determine the client’s level of involvement. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA): Participants will learn what they need to know to ensure that their transactions are being conducted in compliance with HIPAA.
The following conferences will be full-day (6-7 hours) sessions: Cultural Competency: Participants will gain a heightened awareness and sensitivity to the importance of cultural diversity and cultural competence in human service settings, including racial, ethnic, economic and geographic aspects. Attachment: Participants will learn treatment strategies for children and adolescents with attachment issues. Trauma: Participants will learn treatment strategies for children and adolescents experiencing trauma and/or post-traumatic stress. Participants will understand terminology in use to distinguish different types of abuse and trauma and understand what makes an event, relationship, or situation traumatic as opposed to problematic. Participants will demonstrate basic understanding of profiles of traumatic effects in mental health client and basic understanding of gender-related effects of trauma. Participants will definitions of trauma and abuse, understand the prevalence and impact of trauma and the effects of trauma in different population groups, and gain working knowledge of assessment options, approaches and tools. CAFAS – Child & Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale: Participants will understand how the Child & Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale assesses the youth's degree of impairment in functioning due to emotional, behavioral, or psychiatric problems and is useful for assessing outcome over time and for directing case management activities. This is a two day conference. Family Systems: An overview of how the Family Systems approach is an effective model in treating children and adolescents with mental health issues. Participants will understand the theoretical framework and dynamics of the family systems approach to mental health issues. Evaluation, Logic Models, and Program Outcomes: Participants will learn the basic definitions and terms used in creating logic models and the relationships among program components, gain the skills necessary to create logic models and develop a logic model for a specific program. They will also discuss measurement of program implementation, learn to develop indicators based on logic models and gain the skills necessary to develop a Data Collection Plan. They will also learn how to interpret, analyze and communicate evaluation findings. This class will enable participants to gather data for performance measurement and management.