Making Informed Choices: How to Assess the Need for and the Availability of Mental Health Services in your Community (2/19)

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COVID-19 has expanded the level of stress and anxiety in healthcare workers in ways that we could not have imagined, leaving many trying to decide whether they should go it alone or seek support. This workshop addresses how to determine whether support is advisable and how to find mental health and related services in the community. It begins by examining the barriers to accessing care, including societal and self-stigma, cultural and ethnic biases, availability, accessibility, and some basic concerns related to a person’s ability to pay. We will discuss the types of services available, who provides them, and what the commitments to participation are. The services discussed will include peer support, individual and group counseling, and holistic and pastoral approaches as well as traditional psychiatric care. At the conclusion of the event, we will discuss strategies for self-evaluation and the determining the next steps in care and support. 

Participants will be able to:

  1. Recognize whether support is advisable and how to find mental health and related services in the community.
  2. Identify barriers to accessing care, such as self- and societal stigmas, cultural and ethnic biases, availability and accessibility, and basic concerns related to a person’s ability to pay
  3. Discuss types of services available, who provides them, and commitments to participation

Please note that this livestreamed webinar is a repeat of the December 10, 2020 livestreamed webinar.

Dr. Richard Pulice, PhD

Professor of Public Health, Regis College

Richard Pulice is an experienced motivational speaker, trainer, teacher and researcher, who focuses on issues related to social justice and equity for persons with disabilities. He presently serves as a Professor of Public Health at Regis College (Weston, MA) and is a Professor Emeritus in Social Work and Public Health at the College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY). While at Saint Rose, he was the founding Director of The Institute for Community Research and Training and the Coordinator of the Public Health Program. In 2019, Dr. Pulice was appointed as a Permanent Visiting Professor of Social Science, Psychology and Public Health at the University of Kisubi in Entebbe, Uganda. Dr. Pulice has graduate degrees in community clinical psychology from Marist College, in public health from Columbia University, and in social welfare from Brandeis University. He completed a Research Fellowship at the Columbia University School of Public Health in Psychiatric Epidemiology. In addition, he has had advanced training in health economics, research design and statistics (quantitative and qualitative), labor mediation, clinical practice and gerontology. Dr. Pulice has over 40 years of experience in public and mental health. Among other experiences, Dr. Pulice has consulted on program development for mental health services in the Netherlands, and worked in Puerto Rico, Romania, the Czech Republic and Uganda on issues related to the social reintegration and economic self-sufficiency of people with disabilities. He served as a Trustee for the Commission on the Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), as a grant and peer reviewer for several federal, state and private organizations and as a Mentor for the IREX Community Solutions Program (a program sponsored by the US State Department).  

In 2015, he was awarded a grant and was designated a Specialist in Global Public Health by the Fulbright Organization. In his home communities, he has served as a Trustee for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany, a volunteer for the Homeless Action Committee in Albany NY.  Relocating to Massachusetts in 2015, he is as a volunteer for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, a member of the Knights of Columbus and is the State Chairman for Special Olympics for the K of C in Massachusetts. 

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