Mental Health Institute for Washington State Providers

2025

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About the Institute

The purpose of the Mental Health Institute is to train and expand the knowledge base of the behavioral health workforce to increase equity and inclusion for underserved populations in Washington state.

 

Specifically, the Institute is designed to provide training and support to Washington State health care providers who work with: 

  • Children, youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs
  • Underserved (e.g., racial/ethnic/gender/sexual minority) populations
  • Individuals managing co-occurring disorders
  • Older adults

Each training track will provide multiple sessions of live teleconference workshops focused on a specific topic area related to the track. The sessions will use interactive teaching strategies like breakout rooms, role plays, audiovisuals, etc., to foster an environment of a collaborative learning community. Lived experiences from impacted communities will be highlighted throughout the workshops as a pedagogical strategy. Considerations around diversity, equity, and inclusion and social determinants of health will be addressed in each track.

SPACE IS LIMITED: these will be interactive sessions on camera, and some will include breakout sessions.

 

Eligibility
This event is specifically for Washington State attendees who are part of the behavioral health workforce.
Organizers
SPIRIT Center (Supporting Psychosis Innovation through Research, Implementation, & Training), University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Washington State Health Care Authority; CREATIV Lab, and the WA INCLUDE Collaborative, Center on Human Development & Disability.

If you have any questions please contact us at uwspiritlab@uw.edu 

Tracks and Learning Objectives

Co-Occuring Disorders

Sessions offered August 23rd –  October 11th, 2024.  Learn More ➞

Close to half of adult individuals diagnosed with a severe mental illness will also have a substance abuse disorder. Drugs of abuse affect a disproportionate amount of people receiving community mental health services, yet many services for mental health and substance use problems remain separated.  Best practice guidelines indicate that these services are integrated for best outcomes.

  • Increase knowledge of the connection between mental health and substance use, and their collective impact from a biopsychosocial perspective.
  • Learn how to formulate presenting concerns from an integrative perspective and choose from a menu of treatment strategies as appropriate.
  • Understand how to apply principles of social justice by learning about how substance use is related to structural factors and hearing from persons with lived experience of responding to co-occurring disorders.

Track Lead: Jeffery Roskelley, LICSW

Learn More About Jeff's Work

Jeffery Roskelley is a licensed independent clinical social worker training and consulting for the SPIRIT (which stands for Supporting Psychosis Innovation through Research, Implementation and Training) Lab at the University of Washington. Jeff graduated from the University of Utah with a Master of Social Work degree in 2008, and has worked in several different settings including hospice, as a co-occurring assessment specialist at the University of Utah and as a co-occurring specialist for the Lake Whatcom PACT team in Bellingham WA, where he currently resides. Jeff’s area of specialty is in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis and for Substance Use Disorder. Since 2013 he has been training Assertive Community Treatment Teams in WA state in co-occurring disorders treatment and cognitive behavioral techniques for severe mental illness. Jeff was trained and received consultation in CBTp with the original Washington state cohort in 2015, trained by Jennifer Gottlieb, PhD from the Harvard Medical School and provided direct clinical CBTp counseling to clients at Sunrise Mental Health from 2015 to 2018, receiving supervision from Sarah Kopelovich, PhD, from the University of Washington. Currently, Jeff provides individual private counseling in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, addressing a wide range of clinical issues, ranging from anxiety and depression to obsessive compulsive disorder and psychosis. In addition, Jeff is a clinical supervisor for social workers. Finally, last but not least, Jeff is an ardent dog lover and a dabbler in chi gong.
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)
Sessions offered September 27th –  November 22nd, 2024.  Learn More ➞

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) show higher rates of mental health concerns than the general population. However, they have been historically underserved by behavioral health agencies. One reason they are commonly turned away from mental health services is because clinicians express a lack of knowledge and confidence to work with this population.   Training activities offered in this track will focus on adaptation of commonly used therapeutic strategies to be utilized with clients with IDD and co-occurring mental health concerns.  Training will focus on increasing skills and knowledge that providers can immediately use with their clients and share with their colleagues to better serve this population.

  • Increase knowledge and skills in treating co-occurring mental health conditions among individuals with IDD, to increase clinicians’ confidence in serving this population.
  • Apply adaptations of commonly used therapeutic approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for individuals with IDD to aid them in processing information and behavioral strategies.
  • Include voices of those with lived experience to improve care for historically underserved communities, highlighting the value and importance of serving this population.

        Track Co-Lead: Jim Mancini, CCC-SLP                              Track Co-Lead: Rachel Earl, PhD

Learn More About Jim's Work

Jim Mancini, co-founder of Welcome Inclusion (WIN), is a speech-language pathologist and directs education, training and outreach programs at the Seattle Children’s Autism Center. He has worked in the field of autism spectrum disorders for over 15 years including four years in Baltimore, MD, at the Kennedy Krieger Institute as a research speech language pathologist and periods of time at the UW Autism Center and Seattle Children’s Neurodevelopmental Clinic. Jim teaches several classes including classes for parents recently receiving the diagnosis of autism and curates the monthly Autism 200 lecture series at Seattle Children’s. Jim has a special interest in social justice activities and is engaged in increasing health equity for culturally and linguistically diverse families in King County.

Learn More About Rachel's Work

Rachel Earl (she/her), PhD is a clinical psychologist who specializes in assessment and treatment of intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism. She has served families with autism and co-occurring mental health concerns as director of the Mood and Anxiety Program at Seattle Children’s Autism Center and now practices in the community at Child and Adolescent Psychological Services of Seattle. She is passionate about adapting evidence-based treatments to better serve neurodivergent children and teens and their families and is committed to providing neurodiversity-affirming care.
Social Justice & Inclusion
 

Sessions offered September 13th, 2024 –  April 25th, 2025.   Learn More ➞

People from racial and ethnic minorities have less access to mental health care, and the available care is frequently of poorer quality than that available to the white population. This track is focused on educational activities aimed at addressing these disparities and inequities in access to mental health care.  Training activities will create a space to generate and learn ideas and practices that can support participants in providing culturally and structurally responsive care, and move toward more collaborative, relationally oriented, and just therapeutic relationships.

  • Increase knowledge of how context, power relations, and structural factors contribute to the development of mental health concerns, community disruption, and distress.
  • Develop the ability to formulate collaborative interventions that contribute to resilience and agency, build on individual and community strengths, and support a movement away from pathologizing narratives about the people who consult us.
  • Provide culturally responsive interventions and ideas they can adapt to fit the needs of the people who consult them, therefore improving care for historically underserved communities.

If you would like to be notified when registration for the Social Justice and Inclusion track opens please fill out our interest form.

 

Track Lead: Dr. Akansha Vaswani-Bye

Learn More About Akansha's Work

Akansha Vaswani Bye, PhD, is an Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and completed an APA accredited internship at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. Her doctoral research focused on deprescribing and the importance of identifying rational and evidence-based prescribing practices grounded in informed consent and patient-centered care.

Akansha’s interests include the development and dissemination of family-centered and participatory models of care, culturally consonant and evidence-based practices, and non-pathologizing interventions. She is also interested in working on interventions that account for the impact of structural and social determinants of health on individuals diagnosed with SMI.

Older Adults
Sessions offered June 3rd –  September 26th, 2024.   Learn More ➞

The Institute of Medicine reported in 2012 that as many as 8 million people aged 60 and over had at least one mental or substance abuse condition and projected that number to rise to 14 million by 2030.1COVID-19 highlighted an increase in rates of anxiety and depression amongst older adults, exacerbated by the lack of access to mental health providers knowledgeable about mental health needs, services, and treatments for older adults.2,3,4 This training institute seeks to prepare the mental health workforce to address the unique needs of older adults.

  • Increase knowledge and skills in treating mental health conditions in older adults, as well as provider capacity and confidence in serving this population.
  • Provide high quality training in common elements of evidence-based practices found to be effective in meeting the mental health needs of older adults, and provide supported skill acquisition in specific interventions, including Problem Solving Treatment, PEARLS, and Behavioral Activation.
  • Include voices of lived experience from individuals experiencing mental health conditions in late life and peers providing evidence-based support to older adults, with amplification of voices from historically underserved communities.

If you would like to be notified when registration for the Older Adults training series begins please fill out our interest form.

 

Track Co-Lead: Dr. Patrick Raue, PhD                    Track Co-Lead: Brittany Mosser, MSW, LICSW

                                                                                                                                          

 

Learn More About Patrick's Work

Patrick J. Raue, PhD is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from SUNY Stony Brook in 1995. Dr. Raue conducts NIMH-supported research on training non-specialists in behavioral interventions; patient preferences and shared decision-making approaches for depression; and the effectiveness of psychotherapy for older adults.

Dr. Raue is Associate Director for Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions at the AIMS Center, and Director of the National Network of PST Clinicians, Trainers & Researchers. In these roles, he develops and leads implementation and training programs in a variety of behavioral health interventions. Raue’s clinical expertise includes the identification and management of mental health conditions in community and medical settings, including primary care and home health care.

Learn More About Brittany's Work

Brittany Mosser, MSW, LICSW is a clinical social worker with extensive experience working with older adults and their families, including those impacted by Alzheimer’s, medically complex older adults, and residents in sub-acute health care settings. Brittany is an expert in the delivery of evidence-based psychosocial treatments with older adults and caregivers, and has trained and supervised mental health providers in numerous EBPIs. In her current role, Brittany manages a broad range of research studies at the University of Washington focusing on delivery and implementation of EBPIs, digital mental health, and large-scale remote research. She earned her BA from Middlebury College and MSW from the University of Maryland. Brittany is interested in improving access to evidence-based treatments through increased training opportunities, engaging a variety of treatment providers, modified treatments, and digital health applications.