The 2016 National Dialogues on Behavioral Health’s (NDBH) 57th annual conference will be held in New Orleans at the Renaissance Arts Hotel in New Orleans from October 23 through 26. The conference theme is "Promoting Individual, Family and Community Mental Wellness and Resilience”.
The focus of the conference is to identify short- and long-term solutions to maintaining mental wellness by applying research-based approaches for communities and across the lifespan of individuals and their families.
“Mental health experts are frequently called upon at the time of a crisis to diagnose and treat a problem, but rarely are they preemptively sought out to use their knowledge to “inoculate” individuals, families and communities, to protect and preserve community safety and mental wellness. It is time to change this illness/disease-based approach by preemptively applying therapeutic interventions commonly used after traumatic events, and the new knowledge from the fast emerging sciences of resilience and brain development/ neuroplasticity. We can, and need to, establish a focus on better preparing individuals, the family unit and communities, to face challenges to their emotional and mental wellness," said NDBH President Jan Kasofsky, PhD.
NDBH conference participants will hear from and interact with national experts to explore and identify new preventive approaches to mental wellness and resilience. Speakers will focus on understanding the biological and behavioral responses to trauma and discuss how to preemptively implement normalized interventions.
The pre-conference program begins Sunday, October 23, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. and explores the science and literature of personal, family, and community resilience and looks at the practical applications of specific techniques to strengthen both individuals and communities. A morning panel discussion on October 24 will feature a presentation on the underlying neurobiological, genetic adaptations and the research-based therapeutic interventions for trauma and stress that can be exploited for interventions to promote mental wellness and resilience. The afternoon session will focus on how resilience involves more than just “bouncing back” and includes the ability to cope with unanticipated shocks and disasters. Some strategies include: risk analysis, integrated and holistic approaches, partnerships, knowledge management, and a social capital focus.
On October 25, the goal of the morning session is to understand how resilience can be promoted at different stages of life, from early childhood through old age. The afternoon session will share approaches that can be used to build community resilience including social cognitive theory approaches such as self-efficacy and self/human agency as they pertain to resilience. There will be additional presentations on the use of technology related to the ability to identify hot spots for focusing efforts to build community resilience. Presenters will also explore the use of existing and emerging technologies that are supporting initiatives related to personal and community resiliency including GIS systems, analytics, and smart phone applications.
The program will conclude with a morning discussion of social and mass media campaigns addressing critical factors targeting individual and community resilience. Specific examples will be shared along with available outcome data from these efforts.
Conference registration and a more detailed listing of topics and presenters, including national speakers, is available at www.nationaldialoguesbh.org. Early registration is encouraged.