Program Description:
This training will help clinicians explore their own thoughts and reactions to suicide in order to help them remain regulated when someone on their caseload becomes suicidal. Understanding and recognizing a variety of vulnerabilities to suicide will be addressed, including both long and short term risk factors for the general population and the relationship of diagnoses on Axis I and Axis II to suicide risk. A step-by-step guide to managing suicide before, during and after acute suicide crisis will be presented. Research related to effective prevention and intervention strategies will be discussed.

Program Presenter:
Ronda Oswalt Reitz, PhD, earned her PhD from theUniversity ofKansas in psychology. She currently works for the Missouri Department of Mental Health developing DBT programming. She provides consultation and supervision to staff in both public and private mental health settings in theU.S. She was the previous DBT Program Coordinator forFultonStateHospital..

 If this will be your first time joining one of these presentations, no pre-registration is required, but we do encourage you to view our test video at your convenience.  This may be seen by clicking here.  

Over the years, the National Alliance on Mental Illness Family-to-Family program has helped over 1,000 local families deal with mental illnesses.

On Wednesday night, graduates of the program gathered to celebrate it’s 25th anniversary.

Missi Berquist is proof of the programs success.  She attended the program 15 years ago, to learn more about schizophrenia.  She was so moved by the classes, that she ended up teaching them.

“It really was a lifesaver,” said Berquist.  “After the 12 week course educational course, I really felt a lot more confident dealing with all the aspects of that particular disorder.”

Dennis Groce shares how the program helped him.

“The benefit I would say is how to deal with family members that are going through an illness,” said Groce.  “The perspective of turning it around, and thinking about that illness from the family members standpoint, is pretty important.”

Both Berquist and Groce agree, that the family to family program has forever changed their lives.

“Whether you have someone that is suffering from a mental illness or not, I would say it’s extremely important to have a program like this in the community.” said Groce.

The next Family-to-Family session begins in March.  View coverage of the event from 12News/WSEE Reporter, Jamison Hixenbaugh at http://www.erietvnews.com/story/16602888/25th-anniversary-of-family-to-family-program.

Presented by Julie Lynn Ryan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, this webinar will review emotion regulation strategies for children and adolescents experiencing irritability and difficulties managing their emotions. Ryan’s clinical and research projects have focused on anxiety, depression and disorders of emotion regulation in children and adolescents. She was trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy by Dr. Alec Miller during her clinical internship at Montefiore Medical Center.

 NJCTS presents online seminars for parents, educators and professionals on topics of interest to the Tourette Syndrome community at no-cost to participants. TS is a neurological disorder in which as many as 1 in 100 people show symptoms.

Click here to donate now!

Post-traumatic Stress or PTSD can be caused by events of a single occurrence in a person’s lifetime or occur repeatedly, such as in the case of ongoing physical abuse or an extended or repeated tour of duty in a war zone. The severity of traumatic events and duration of exposure are critical risk factors for developing PTSD.

Proximity to a traumatic event can determine whether a person develops PTSD. For example, a person who was working in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 has a much greater chance of developing PTSD than a person hearing about the attack on television.

The signs of the poorly integrated traumatic experience can appear unexpectedly and unpredictably. A flashback or intrusive nightmare can occur without warning, representing unprocessed memories of the traumatic event. As long as thoughts, memories and feelings associated with the trauma remain shut off from the actual event, it is difficult for people living with PTSD to access their inner experiences because the normal flow of emotion remains deeply affected by the traumatic event. For decades, trauma survivors have described being under-responsive (hypoarousal) or over-responsive (hyperarousal) to all types of events—even if they are unrelated.

However, because PTSD is the result of a traumatic event that occurs during the life of an individual, genetic predisposition does not play as a predominant role as it does in mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and ADHD. This is not to say that certain individuals are not inclined to react to traumatic events that may produce negative outcomes, but there is not a gene that “gives you” PTSD.

The Symptoms of PTSD

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. Mental health professionals use the manual to determine and help communicate a patient’s diagnosis after an evaluation; hospitals, clinics, and insurance companies in the US also generally require a ‘five axis’ DSM diagnosis of all the patients treated. The DSM-IV criteria for identifying Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) require that symptoms must be active for more than one month after the trauma and associated with a decline in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The three broad symptom clusters can be summarized as follows:

1. Persistent Re-experiencing

A person experiences one or more of the following:

• recurrent nightmares or flashbacks;
• recurrent images or memories of the event—these images or memories often occur without actively thinking about the event;
• intense distress of reminders of the trauma; and/or
• physical reactions to triggers that symbolize or resemble the event.

2. Avoidant/Numbness Responses

A person experiences three or more of the following:

• efforts to avoid feelings or triggers associated with the trauma;
• avoidance of activities, places or people that remind the person of the trauma;
• inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma;
• markedly diminished interest in activities;
• feelings of detachment or estrangement from others;
• restricted range of feelings; and/or
• difficulty thinking about the long-term future—sometimes this expresses itself by a failure to plan for the future or taking risks because the person does not fully believe or consider the possibility that they will be alive for a normal lifespan.

3. Increased Arousal

A person experiences two or more of the following:

• difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep;
• outbursts of anger/irritability;
• difficulty concentrating;
• increased vigilance that may be maladaptive; and/ or
• exaggerated startle response

 Patterns of Trauma Response

There are various ways in which PTSD can be exhibited:

       Acute Stress Disorder is diagnosed when responses to a traumatic event occur and last for less than a month. For many people, these acute symptoms resolve over time, often with the help of a support system or treatment.

       PTSD is identified when disabling symptoms persist for months or years after the traumatic event(s). These symptoms interfere with daily functioning and meet specific diagnostic criteria.

       Acute PTSD is diagnosed when an individual has symptoms for less than three months.

       Chronic PTSD is diagnosed when someone has symptoms for more than three months.

       Delayed-onset PTSD appears months—sometimes more than year—after the initial trauma. In many cases, the individual may have had some symptoms before, just not enough to meet the diagnostic criteria. Many people with delayed-onset PTSD demonstrate dissociation to suppress their reactions and avoid thoughts of the event. Numbing and/or avoiding symptoms are associated with a worse prognosis in the long run for many people.

A group of panelists presented views on various mental health topics. Pictured (from L-R) are: Sheila Silman, MS, NAMI Board President; Mandy Fauble, PhD, LSW, Director of Crisis Services at Safe Harbor Behavioral Health; Missi Berquist, Board President of the Mental Health Association of NWPA; Bob Whooler, moderator and Director of the Nonprofit Partnership; Trisha Cloyd, MBA, Manager of Family Education at Stairways Behavioral Health; Mary Anne Albaugh, MD and Medical Director at Erie County Offices of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and Denise L. Kolivoski, MBA, Executive Director of NAMI of Erie County.