Regional Center Hosted Events
The Great Lakes ROTA-RC offers a virtual learning community featuring opioid & other substance use, as well as mental health, treatment, recovery and harm reduction education events for professionals, para-professionals, volunteers, and students in a variety of fields supporting the Great Lakes community. These virtual learning opportunities will be hosted by Great Lakes ROTA-RC’s Cooperative Extension partners in Region 5, and feature a range of experienced professionals. Find out more, and get registered below. Not on our mailing list? Sign up HERE
A Closer Look at the Farm – Mental Health, Wellness and Risk
During this session participants will identify unique stressors, risks, and factors supporting farmers, family, rural life and agriculture workers.
Session Objectives
- Indentify unique stressors impacting daily rural life, work/life balance and agriculture
- Assess impact of stressors on daily life, morale and job satisfaction for agriculture workers, familes and communities
- Assess the impact of uncertainty as related to aspects of farming and the business of agriculture
- Identify opportunities for access to wellness services
Presenters: Ted Matthews and Fiona Doherty
Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Time: 10:00 – 11:15 AM CST
11:00 AM – 12:15 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Kelly Cabral (cabral.48@osu.edu) with any questions
Know Your Resources:
Rural Health Information Hub
Your first stop for rural health information.
The Rural Health Information Hub, formerly the Rural Assistance Center, is funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to be a national clearinghouse on rural health issues. We are committed to supporting healthcare and population health in rural communities.
The RHIhub is your guide to improving health for rural residents—we provide access to current and reliable resources and tools to help you learn about rural health needs and work to address them.
Presenters: Erin Kunz
Date: Thursday, December 14, 2023
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM CST
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
Public Health Vending Machines
Join us for a webinar about an innovative way to reduce the harms of substance use and overdose: public health vending machines. These machines provide the community with access to harm reduction supplies, including sterile injection equipment, naloxone, and drug testing strips.This webinar will describe
- The state of the science on public health vending machines
- Installation of public health vending machines in northern Minnesota in collaboration with the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa.
- Lessons learned implementing machines
Presenters: Sean Allen, Laura Palombi, Pamela Hughes
Date: Tuesday, January 8, 2023
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM CST
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
Early Warning Signs and Suicide Prevention Best Practices in Children and Youth
2 part session
Attendees will learn strategies, interventions, accommodations and modifications to help students flourish emotionally and socially in school settings and in the community. The presenter will describe sings and symptoms of mental illness in children and youth, including developmental differences from infant and early childhood through transition age youth. Resources will be shared to help educators, families and other professionals connect children and youth with appropriate levels of care when needed. A comprehensive school wide toolkit for prevention, intervention and postvention of suicide and will be discussed and shared with participants.
Presenters: Deborah Cavitt
Date: Tuesday, January 23 and Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Time: 12:00 – 2:00 PM CST
1:00 AM – 3:00 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
Know Your Resources:
Opioid Response Networks
TBC
Presenters: Jess Draws, Adrijana Pusnik, Rachelle Greller, Norman McCloud
Date: Friday, January 26, 2024
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST
12:00 – 1:00 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
Recovery Oriented Systems of Care
Attendees will learn strategies, interventions, accommodations and modifications to help students flourish emotionally and socially in school settings and in the community. The presenter will describe sings and symptoms of mental illness in children and youth, including developmental differences from infant and early childhood through transition age youth. Resources will be shared to help educators, families and other professionals connect children and youth with appropriate levels of care when needed. A comprehensive school wide toolkit for prevention, intervention and postvention of suicide and will be discussed and shared with participants.
Presenters: Kris Kelly
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Time: 10:00 – 11:30 AM CST
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
Psychoactive Substances Research
This session will review some of the theoretical underpinnings of the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds with a focus on psilocybin as a treatment for substance use disorders. The state of the literature and current ongoing research in this space at University of Wisconsin will be discussed.
Learning Objectives
- Discuss the state of the science as it relates to psychedelics as potential treatments for SUDs.
- Describe typical study designs and procedures in psychedelic clinical trials.
- Discuss challenges to implementation of clinical models for psychedelic medicine administration.
Presenters: Dr. Randy Brown
Date: Monday, February 5, 2024
Time: 11:00 – 12:00 AM CST
12:00 – 1:00 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
Know Your Resources:
Great Lakes Technology Transfer Center
Join us for an informative webinar as we introduce you to the resources and expertise provided by the Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC), Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC), and Great Lakes Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC). Funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), these three programs serve the behavioral health in HHS Region 5: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. All three Great Lakes programs are hosted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS).
The primary mission of the Great Lakes TTCs is to equip the behavioral health workforce with free, expert-led training and technical assistance on the latest evidence-based practices that lead to better treatment outcomes.
Join this session to:
- Gain a deeper understanding of SAMHSA’s Technology Transfer Center program and its role in advancing behavioral health services. - Learn about the specific functions and services offered by the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC, and their relationship to the Great Lakes ROTA-RC
– Discover how these centers are well-positioned to respond to emerging issues in prevention, treatment, and recovery in the Great Lakes region
Presenters: Jeanne Pulvermacher
Date: Monday, February 12, 2023
Time: 11:00 – 12:00 AM CST
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Location: online webinar
Please contact Amanda Coorough (amanda.coorough@wisc.edu) with any questions
About the Presenters
Ted Matthews is a mental health practitioner with over 30 years of experience in counseling in rural areas. His focus for the past two decades has been farmer mental health support. He has been the director of mental health services during five natural disasters. Matthews provides outreach training and public speaking related to farm stressors, nationwide. He will discuss mental health and wellbeing as well as factors impacting families and communities within agriculture.
Fiona Doherty, MSW, is a PhD Candidate in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. She received her Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and later worked as an Extension Support Specialist in a statewide position with Cornell. Doherty’s community-engaged, interdisciplinary research is driven by the pursuit of social justice and community well-being in the context of global environmental change. She will share data from a two-year, community-engaged research project conducted in collaboration with the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA).
Erin Lord Kunz, Information Specialist, RHIhub, is an information specialist with the Rural Health Information Hub. She focuses on indexing and writing about rural health resources, organizations, and data related to the Region C states and topics such as chronic disease, health disparities, health care access, schools, social determinants of health, human services in rural areas, maternal health, and more. In this presentation she will discuss how to best utilize the RHIhub website to support work in rural health.
Dr. Sean T. Allen, DrPH, MPH, is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Allen has conducted several studies pertaining to the public health of people who inject drugs over his career, including evaluating the public health benefits of naloxone dispensation at public health vending machines.
Laura Palombi, PharmD, MPH, MAT, is the Associate Dean for Students and an Associate Professor in the Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy – Duluth. Dr. Palombi is also a consultant for area treatment court teams. She has established relationships with public health professionals, healthcare systems, and providers and has a strong background in providing effective, multi-pronged education on topics including harm reduction and opioid-emergency response.
Pamela Hughes, Ms. Pamela Hughes (enrolled member of Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation) has an extensive record of serving on Minnesota state-wide substance use and homelessness task forces and initiatives. She currently works with Dr. Palombi at the University of Minnesota on projects that aim to mitigate substance use harms among Minnesotans.
Deborah Cavitt is an advocate, trainer, and project director or Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health (MACMH). Cavitt gives presentations and works on projects with schools, children, youth, parents and professionals to increase understanding and reduce the stigma related mental health disorders. As a parent coach and advocate, she helps families navigate systems on their journey of raising a child with mental health challenges. Deborah has a master’s degree in human services with specializations in mental health and substance use counseling and a bachelor’s degree in education. Before joining MACHM, she worked as a prevention specialist and grant coordinator for substance abuse treatment agency in Iowa City. Preceding her mental health and substance use prevention work, she was a teacher for over twenty years, working on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Northern Minnesota.
Jess Draws …
Adrijana Pusnik …
Rachelle Greller …
Norman McCloud …
Kris Kelly is a Project Manager for the Peer Recovery Center of Excellence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and subject matter expert on peer recovery support services. Kris has developed best practices for integrating recovery supports into a wide variety of systems and services. As a former ED and Director of Programs of a Recovery Community Organization, Kris is a leader in the peer support movement in Minnesota. Kris has presented at state and national conferences on topics ranging from supervision in peer recovery support services, integrating peer support services into behavioral health organizations, and recovery-oriented systems of care.
Dr. Randy Brown serves as a consulting physician in addiction medicine at UW Hospital (where he is the Director of the Center for Addictive Disorders), the UW HIV/AIDS Comprehensive Care Center, and at the UW Multi-Disciplinary Clinic for Alcohol-Related Liver Disease. He has been a certified prescriber of buprenorphine as adjunctive treatment for opioid dependence since 2001. He is also the Founding Director of the UW Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program, the Director of the Madison VA Interprofessional Advanced Fellowship in Addiction Treatment.
Jeanne Pulvermacher, is the assistant director of the Great Lakes Addiction (ATTC), Mental Health (MHTTC), and Prevention (PTTC) Technology Transfer Centers based at the UW–Madison Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS). She also serves as the co-director of the Great Lakes ATTC and an Advisory Board member of the Great Lakes ROTA-RC.
