Join the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education for its Critical Issues forum, "Navigating Towards a Brighter Future: COVID-19 and Student Mental Health" on Thursday, March 4 at 1:30 p.m.

Learn how leaders can support the mental health of students as we navigate towards the end of the COVID-10 pandemic.

Keynote speaker, Dr. David Schonfeld (Director, National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement) will discuss key considerations for supporting school recovery. He will be followed by a panel on school-level strategies for addressing these challenges and a panel on the role of state policy makers in addressing student mental health. The complete panel lists are as follows:

Panel #1: What's Happening in the Schools
Dr. Terri McFadden, Immediate Past President, Georgia Chapter-American Academy of Pediatrics - Moderator
Mr. David Crooke, CEO, CarePartners of Georgia
Dr. Curtis Jones, Superintendent, Bibb County Schools
Dr. Tinisha Parker, Executive Director of Student Services, Gwinnett County Schools

Panel #2: State Structures: A Policy Conversation
Dr. Erica Fener Sitkoff, Executive Director, Voices for Georgia's Children - Moderator
Dr. Sarah Vinson, Chair, Children and Adolescent Behavioral Health SubCommittee, Georgia Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission
Ms. Kim Jones, Executive Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

Source

NAMI Georgia and the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee will present the second event under their Courageous Conversations around Diversity and Mental Health amid COVID virtual series. Join NAMI Georgia and DEI for a panel discussion on racial reconciliation, culturally competent mental health care, and decriminalizing mental illness.

Dr. Vinson is slated to present her Social (In)Justice and Mental Health presentation for a Grand Rounds at UCSF.

At the end of this presentation, learners will be able to:

• Identify the relevance of social justice in mental health in order to re-examine mental health and illness in the context of the U.S. society

• Discuss the impact of social hierarchies on diagnostic processes and classifications in order to better serve patients from marginalized communities

• Self-evaluate the concept of social justice advocacy in order to identify action steps that can be taken to advance justice

Insights is the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute’s annual policy conference. In accordance with safety protocols and in effort to expand the reach of GBPI’s research, advocacy and outreach expertise, GBPI is proud to host Insights 2021 entirely free and online on January 22, 2021 and January 29, 2021. Insights 2021 will feature two half-days of informative, engaging discussions as the 2021 Legislative Session gets underway.

This year’s keynote speakers are Dr. Dorian T. Warren and Dr. Valerie Rawlston Wilson.

• Dr. Dorian Warren is the president of Community Change, co-chair of the Economic Security Project and co-host of System Check. A progressive scholar, organizer and media personality, Dorian has worked to advance racial, economic and social justice for over two decades. Warren received his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. You can follow him on twitter at @dorianwarren.

• Dr. Valerie Rawlston Wilson is director of the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy (PREE), a nationally recognized source for expert reports and policy analyses on the economic condition of America’s people of color. Prior to joining EPI, Wilson was an economist and vice president of research at the National Urban League Washington Bureau. Wilson received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can follow her at @ValerieRWilson.

Dr. Vinson is a panelist for “A Path to Racially Equitable Health Care.”

The need remains urgent for solutions to fix the long-standing inequities in health care caused by systemic racism and exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adequate recovery needs to prioritize efforts to increase access to care, distribute COVID-19 vaccines and treatment equitably and provide economic relief for communities of color to meet their health needs. This session will provide insights about how the pandemic has affected health care in Georgia communities differently and opportunities we can advocate for to keep health equity at the center of the pandemic response and beyond.

This discussion will take place from 9:35am - 10:10am.

The world has been rocked in the last year with a pandemic, and political and social strife. Much of the country has experienced an awakening related to racial disparities due to the pandemic and civil unrest. Communities of color were and continue to be disproportionately impacted by these events. The Kennedy Forum remains dedicated to highlighting the realities of these inequalities but also to consider thoughtful and impactful solutions to breakdown stigma and discrimination related to mental health and increase access to information and resources. We convene on the celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, for he always stood for justice and equity, and recognized the unique and heartbreaking truth of the intersections of race, health, and wellbeing.

Registration is no longer available.

PRESENTAION OBJECTIVES:

• Identify the relevance of social justice in mental health in order to re-examine mental health and illness in the context of the U.S. society.

• Discuss the impact of social hierarchies on diagnostic processes and classifications in order to better serve patients from marginalized communities.

• Self-evaluate the concept of social justice advocacy in order to identify action steps that can be taken to advance justice.

During this virtual town hall presented by the APA Foundation, our adult, child & adolescent, and forensic psychiatry leaders, along with a Juvenile Justice legal expert, will participate in a discussion about what disruptive behaviors in youth mean, how to approach those behaviors as parents, school staff, and adults in communities, and how it relates to the School-to-Prison Pipeline.

Registration is no longer available.

This summer, we’ve seen a new generation of young people calling out to demand racial justice — finding their voices in the fight for a more equitable society. And yet behind those demands is the fear, pain, stress, and trauma that Black Americans, including children, struggle with every day. Images of police brutality, instances of daily discrimination large and small, and even the need to think, talk, and educate white people about the black experience are draining. All of it— with the inequitable effects of the pandemic — creates serious challenges for social emotional wellness and readiness to learn.

Parents of children of color provide support at home, but how can schools and educators acknowledge and help students navigate racial trauma? How can educators and communities acknowledge their own stress and pain? This conversation will address this critical question and identify concrete ways that educators and school leaders of all races can guide students through this traumatic time.

30 mins panel discussion; 15 mins audience participation and Q&A

Click here to view the presentation.