LEBANON, NH - Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) will offer a special program Tuesday, June 13, 2017, to present and discuss a broad set of patient care and research initiatives in which the health system is involved, all geared to addressing the needs and challenges of delivering care for mental health and substance use disorders in New Hampshire and in the region.

"No Health Without Mental Health: What's Happening, What's Needed and How You Can Help" will be held from 4-6:30 pm in Auditorium H of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. The public and journalists are invited.

The program will include clinicians and researchers in primary care and behavioral health from across the D-H system and from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. Dr. Alan I. Green, professor and chair of psychiatry at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and at Geisel, will give the keynote address, "Mental Health: The Challenge of our Time" beginning at 4 pm. Three subsequent panel discussions will address specifics of care, research and community engagement.

The goals of the presentation are to define the problems faced by society through insufficient knowledge, acceptance, identification of, and treatment for behavioral health issues; and to activate more colleagues, individuals and families, businesses, and organizations to spread effective practices and take action to integrate mental wellness as a core component of health.

The first panel, "D-H Clinical Initiatives," will be moderated by Dr. William C. Torrey, Vice Chair of Clinical Services in Psychiatry at D-H and co-chair of D-H's Substance Use and Mental Health Initiative (SUMHI), and will cover programs like D-H's Perinatal Addiction Treatment Program, an emergency room recovery coach program, and a new protocol for screening substance abuse in adolescents.

"D-H Research Initiatives" will be moderated by Dr. Matthew Friedman, professor of psychiatry at the Geisel School and senior advisor (formerly executive director) of the Veterans Administration's National Center for PTSD. Research around the use of technology to treat behavioral disorders, treating adolescent cannabis misuse, the impact of media and marketing on children's behavioral health, and financing behavioral health care will be the focus of the discussion.

The "Community Action" panel will be moderated by Dr. Sally Kraft, Vice President for Community Health at D-H and co-chair of SUMHI. The panel will examine programs like "Change Direction NH," Medicaid's Delivery System Reform Incentive Program, the "All Together" collaboration between D-H and the state aimed at substance misuse prevention training, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness's suicide prevention training program.

In addition to the live presentation in Auditorium H, the event will be live-streamed starting at 4 pm at https://video.dartmouth-hitchcock.org/media/Global+2/1_dkfar49z.




Posted 6/7/17