Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
May 18, 2006, Vol. 06-59

Free Training Teleconference
Transition to Adulthood: Strategies for Overcoming Stigma and Achieving Positive Outcomes for Young Adults

Please Join Us

The SAMHSA Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma Associated With Mental Illness invites you to participate in a free teleconference training titled, "Transition to Adulthood: Strategies for Overcoming Stigma and Achieving Positive Outcomes for Young Adults."

Date: Thursday, May 25, 2006
Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Eastern Time)

To participate in this training teleconference, please complete the online registration form located at http://www.promoteacceptance.samhsa.gov/archtelPDF/EBIReport_FINAL_Tagged.pdf. For additional teleconference information, please refer to the Training section of the SAMHSA ADS Center web site or contact a technical assistance representative by e-mail at promoteacceptance@samhsa.hhs.gov or by telephone at 1-800-540-0320. Please pass this invitation along to interested friends and colleagues. Please note: Registration for this teleconference will close at 5:00 p.m., Eastern time, on Wednesday, May 24, 2006.

Training Sponsor

This teleconference is sponsored by the SAMHSA Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma (ADS Center), a project of the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The session is free to all participants.

Training Summary

Young people with emotional or behavioral difficulties face a series of challenges in today's society. These include an uncoordinated and unresponsive service system, a culture that stigmatizes them for being different while overlooking their strengths, and lowered self-esteem coupled with limited peer acceptance, making it difficult to seek or accept help. - G. Fitzgibbon, et al., "Vocational Rehabilitation Approaches for Youth," in H.B. Clark & M. Davis (Eds.), Transition to Adulthood: A Resource for Assisting Young People with Emotional or Behavioral Difficulties, p. 75

Young adults with mental health problems often encounter daunting challenges. In addition to the difficulties that all youth face between the ages of 18 and 24, these individuals must cope with the added burden of an invisible disability. Often finding it difficult to locate and keep jobs, young people with mental illnesses require support from special programs and skilled mental health service providers in order to achieve successful transition across the domains of employment, education, living situation, and community-life adjustment. Unfortunately, due to differing eligibility criteria, many transitioning youth lose their access to these supports when they turn 18. This is a policy issue that may be considered discriminatory.

While most anti-stigma programs for transition-age youth focus on the special support required for academic success in a college environment, few programs target the larger number of young people with mental illnesses entering the workforce without going to college. For young people moving out of the more sheltered environment of secondary school, stigma may appear to challenge them at every turn as they try to fit into the adult world of work. This situation represents a gap in nation's ability to assist youth in gaining and succeeding in employment.

Coworkers and supervisors may be misinformed about mental health issues and uncertain about how to interact with young colleagues faced with mental health concerns. This need not keep transition-age youth from obtaining and keeping a job. The workplace can be an overwhelming environment, but with support, young adults with mental illnesses can achieve success.

Please join the staff of the SAMHSA ADS Center on Thursday, May 25, 2006, as we discuss the diverse skills and supports required to help young people overcome stigma and succeed on the job. In addition to reviewing the effects that stigma and stigma-reduction programs have on transition-age youth, speakers will examine research and strategies for effectively working with young adults, families, and employers. The training also will feature one young person's first-person account of overcoming stigma in the workplace and accessing effective services.

Training Goals

Familiarize training participants with the characteristics of transition-age youth and the challenges they face.

Identify how stigma and stigma reduction influence transition-age youth.

Provide research information on, a model program about, and strategies for effectively working with youth, families, and employers.

Provide a first-person example of one young adult's success overcoming stigma in the workplace and accessing needed services.
Event Speakers

Hewitt B. "Rusty" Clark, Ph.D.
Dr. Clark's is professor and director of the Transition to Independence Process (TIP) with the Department of Child and Family Studies of the University of South Florida's Florida Mental Health Institute. His current research focuses on transition of youth and young adults with behavioral/emotional difficulties into employment, education, independent living, and community-life adjustment. His other research has included analysis and positive behavioral support strategies for child and family interventions in home, school, and community. He has worked on community aftercare service strategies for youthful offenders to improve skill competencies, increase pro-social engagement, and reduce the rate of criminal activities. Dr. Clark also conducts a research project involving process and outcome measurement systems for evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of multifaceted interventions in complex social settings.

Kimberly Bisset, Ed.D.
Dr. Bisset is the employment and training manager at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. She supervises the development of teaching curricula, training, career counseling, job development, workforce development and job placement services, and she assists in the realization of the Center's mission to help individuals recovering from psychiatric disabilities acquire self-sufficiency through training and gainful employment. In 2002, Dr. Bisset co-managed the Jump Start Program-a career development and mentoring program that matched young adults (aged 16-26) with severe psychiatric disabilities with mentors who themselves had a psychiatric disability. She also has been continuously involved in anti-stigma activities, collaborating with non-profit and corporate partners to reduce negative perceptions of young adults with psychiatric disabilities. She also seeks out new partnerships with companies, schools, and career centers, presenting to them about t!
he dangers of stigma and ways to reduce it in families, communities, and the workplace.

Third Speaker, TBA

Presentations

Speaker presentations will take approximately 60 minutes and will be followed by a 30-minute question-and-answer period. Participants will receive confirmation of their registration by e-mail shortly before the scheduled conference date. This confirmation message will include telephone dial-in instructions and a link to presentation materials posted in the Training section of the SAMHSA ADS Center Web site.

The SAMHSA ADS Center is a program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services.

About the SAMHSA ADS Center
SAMHSA's Resource Center to Address Discrimination and Stigma (ADS Center) helps people design, implement and operate programs that reduce discrimination and stigma associated with mental illnesses. With the most up-to-date research and information, the ADS Center helps individuals, organizations and governments counter such discrimination and stigma in the community, in the workplace, and in the media.
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The Center for Mental Health Services is a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services.