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 Feb. 1, 2024
In this issue...
Reflections from Oregon Health Authority's Child and Family Behavioral Health Director
Winter ice storms kept much of the state sheltered at home last month. Many people were out of power for days, and roads were undriveable.
The houseless community was in a difficult position as temperatures were well below freezing, and counties offered warming shelters to keep them safe from the storms.
You can visit the 211 website if you want to learn more about these shelters.
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During this state of emergency, the state and the community stepped up to protect those less fortunate. It makes one think that if we treated houselessness as a constant state of emergency, no one would have to sleep outside. OHA is committed to providing services for the houseless population and eliminating health inequities by 2030. It will take everyone’s involvement to make it happen.
February marks Black History Month, and sadly, last month Dexter Scott King, the third child of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, passed away in January. King was 62, and he was named after an Alabama church where his father served as pastor.
He was seven years old when his father and civil rights movement icon was assassinated in 1968. Dexter Scott King was chairman of the King Center and president of the King Estate. He devoted his life to preserving his father's legacy.
The CFBH unit is dedicated in dismantling the birth-to-prison pipeline that affects so many of our Black and Brown communities and neighbors. With this in mind, many members of our unit are completing or re-taking the Michigan League for Public Policy’s 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge. However, we are taking it much slower so we can fully integrate the information into our work and our thinking. Unit members have been meeting since November and it is creating connection, communication and keeping anti-racism at the front of our thinking.
February also brings the Lunar New Year, and 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. In Chinese culture, the dragon represents dignity, health, honor, success, luck and strength. This feels promising for the year ahead, and it’s our intention to bring the dignity of the dragon into all that we do. I am looking forward to a productive year filled with honoring our community.
In December 2023, OHA awarded a contract to REAP, Inc for statewide coordination of Youth SAVE (Suicide Assessments in Various Environments), an Oregon-grown suicide risk assessment and safety planning training. This training program is one of the key pillars in our suicide prevention Big River programming. OHA would like to extend a sincere thank you to the Oregon Pediatric Society and to the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs for their excellent care and work launching this training program.
While it will take some time for the new Youth SAVE team to reset and relaunch the availability of Youth SAVE, we believe it is in good hands for its next chapter. Mark Jackson, executive director at REAP says, “REAP’s leadership of Youth SAVE will offer our state an exciting community-based approach to suicide prevention training for professionals, including our dedicated staff working with youth across diverse districts in our state.” If you are interested in being trained in or becoming a trainer for Youth SAVE, please contact Youth SAVE Project Director, Monica Parmley-Frutiger at monicap@reapusa.org.
About REAP
REAP empowers the next wave of leaders by supporting over 1,000 youth through their year-round multicultural leadership program. Since 2001, REAP has focused on leadership development, discipline equity, academic enrichment, civic engagement, entrepreneurship, youth voice, social-emotional support, and behavioral health services. They prioritize populations facing disparities in equity, socioeconomic, academic and health.
Their core programs, including Solutions, Renaissance, Reflections, and Young Entrepreneurs, engage students to see within themselves and empower them to become the leaders they are. REAP has become a valuable resource for educators, business leaders, elected officials, and parents, by delivering positive social benefits for schools and all our communities. Learn more by visiting their website.
About the team:
Mark Jackson: as co-founder of REAP Inc., he serves as the executive director. He brings over 30 years of youth direct service, nonprofit management, and organizational leadership experience.
Mark has provided visionary and strategic leadership in both the nonprofit and public sectors that engage business leaders, grant makers, educators, community leaders, students, and parents. He is best known for his passionate work in the areas of youth advocacy, diversity equity and inclusion (DEI), mental health, education equity, leadership, coalition building, policy advocacy, and project management. Passion for student voice and leadership is what underscores his unwavering commitment to empowering culturally diverse students to meet their potential while challenging system leaders and educators to engage beyond implicit and complicit biases.
 Mark Jackson, Executive Director at REAP
Anderson DuBoise: Anderson is a dedicated African American man with nine years at REAP Inc, who passionately supports youth in education and mental health. He serves on the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators (COSA) mental health steering committees, serves as a Youth SAVE trainer, and organizes mental health summits. As a Master of Arts candidate in clinical mental health counseling, Anderson aims to apply his expertise in client support.
 Anderson DuBoise, Strategic Initiatives Manager at REAP
DeShawn Williams, MSW, LCSW: DeShawn has excelled as a therapist and trainer for over 17 years, focusing on restorative practices and trauma-informed care. DeShawn has been committed to suicide prevention as an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) trainer since 2010, and a Youth SAVE trainer since 2020. As a private practitioner, DeShawn passionately serves youth and families of color in Portland with a specialization in supporting Black and African American individuals. By creating a safe and inclusive space, DeShawn empowers his clients to explore their journey to healing and growth.
 DeShawn Williams, MSW, LCSW; Therapist, ASIST and Youth SAVE trainer
Monica Parmley-Frutiger, MSW, LCSW: Monica brings two decades of expertise from her work as a K-12 school social worker, trainer, clinician, and consultant. She was an instructor in the Mental Health, Social Service and Addictions Counseling Program at Mt. Hood Community College for two years and has been teaching in the School of Social Work at Portland State University since 2012. Monica has been a registered ASIST facilitator since 2010 and is also a trainer for safeTALK and Oregon CALM (Counseling on Access to Lethal Means). She was one of the co-developers of Youth SAVE for Behavioral Health and Youth SAVE for Primary Care. Monica serves as an active member of the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Clackamas County and is a member of the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide.
 Monica Parmley-Frutiger, MSW, LCSW
Tanisha Tate Woodson, PhD, MPH: Dr. Woodson is an evaluator and social scientist with extensive experience designing, implementing, and managing collaborative projects and programs on various topics including early childhood education, family engagement, behavioral health, and youth development. Across her portfolio, Dr. Woodson uses culturally responsive and equitable evaluation approaches and methods to address structural inequities that systematically marginalize groups across identities of race, class, and gender. She is committed to a collaborative and participatory process that elevates the voices of stakeholders and ensures they play a meaningful role in the program design and implementation process. Currently, Dr. Woodson serves as the Director of the Oregon House Bill 2016 Grantee evaluation, leading a team to assess programs supporting African American and Black students. Concurrently with this role, she offers coaching and consulting to nonprofits, academic institutions, and philanthropic organizations, emphasizing equity and community impact. Dr. Woodson strives to bridge the gap between science and social service, making evaluation research accessible for meaningful policy and program improvements.
 Tanisha Tate Woodson, PhD, MPH
Tatiana Nguyen, MSW: Tatiana Nguyen is a recent Master of Social Work graduate. She worked with REAP Inc. from 2021-2022 as a Youth Essentials Coordinator and has returned to the team as a Mental Health Counselor with the REAP Behavioral Health Program. Passionate about youth advocacy and access to care, Tatiana strives to use her clinical and direct service experience to create trauma-informed and culturally responsive support for clients and their families.
 Tatiana Nguyen, MSW
 Oregon Pediatric Society (OPS) has been awarded a contract from OHA for pediatric suicide prevention, including management of the Youth SAVE Primary Care training for healthcare professionals.
“The OPS has delivered professional training, clinical quality improvement, and peer support about child and adolescent behavioral health to Oregon and national pediatric medical trainees and providers since 2013. We are excited to continue this legacy of outreach, education, and excellence,” says Julie Scholz, MBA, OPS executive director.
OPS led the development of all the current Youth SAVE modules, and OHA remains grateful for their significant contribution, flexibility, collaboration and creativity throughout the past 3 years. For more information about the pediatric healthcare trainings available through OPS, including Youth SAVE Primary Care, please visit their website.
In 2019, the release of “Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America” offered compelling research revealing inequalities in care and outcomes for Black youth in the United States. In response to this alarm, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) created the Black Youth Suicide Policy Institute.
- Ten Oregon delegates representing education, faith communities, behavioral health, peer support, lived experience, and youth attended the policy institute in Baltimore, Maryland July 17-19, 2023.
- Together with seven other states, they began a process to enact a shift in policy, practice, and culture in creating wellness and preventing suicide among Black youth.
- Shortly after the inaugural policy institute in 2023, Still Ringing the Alarm: An Enduring Call to Action for Black Youth Suicide Prevention was released, offering further compelling data and a call to action.
The rising rate of Black youth suicide in Oregon is reflected in the data and experiences of the community. According to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the suicide rate among Black youth aged 10-24 in Oregon increased by 36.6 percent between 2018 and 2021.
James Dixon, Black Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator at Multnomah County Health Department, and a member of the statewide Black Youth Suicide Prevention Coalition offered his insights on this work in Oregon. “Healing among our youth involves creating a supportive environment where they feel safe, heard, and understood," James stated. "Unfortunately, systemic barriers have historically hindered the holistic healing of Black youth. For healing to occur, these barriers must be dismantled, access to culturally competent mental health care should be provided, and the voices of our youth must be heard and valued in decision-making processes.”
Oregon continues to respond to the alarm through the statewide Black Youth Suicide Prevention Coalition, which has established foundational structures to support the ongoing development of culturally centered work. In fall 2023, the coalition received a $20,000 grant from the Oregon Alliance to Prevent Suicide to begin strategic youth engagement. Shortly after, Oregon became a recipient of the Transformative Transfer Initiative (TTI) Grant from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, which will be supplemented by matching dollars from OHA. These funds will support youth engagement, including paid leadership experience for those who guide and lead this work.
In February 2024, the coalition will host two virtual mixers to invite youth to apply for leadership in the coalition and to engage broader participation in upcoming town halls. Dishanta Kim, OHA Behavioral Health Equity Strategist and coalition member reflected, “Just the ability to have youth lead our work and initiatives is a win for me. I believe that if we can get these youth included and centered now, they are the future for their age group as well as the blueprint for the youth coming of age.”
After virtual mixers and youth leadership applications are received, youth will help create hybrid and in person town hall meetings for Black youth and learn from their stories. These experiences combined with data will help create a trauma-informed, equitable policy that will decrease suicide for Black youth in Oregon.
 Inviting Black youth ages 14-21: You are the voice of change!
Join the Black Youth Suicide Prevention Coalition for an empowering, uplifting, and connecting experience at the Black Youth Wellness Mixer.
Connect with other Black youth across Oregon for an hour of virtual fun and activities. You'll also learn about our statewide prevention and wellness work and leave with ways to continue the conversation and create change.
Follow this link to see the flyer and please share with your networks.
Details:
Two virtual mixers, choose your date:
Together, let's center the wellness and joy of Black and Brown communities in Oregon.
Questions? Please email us at: byspc@reapusa.org. #BlackYouthMatter #PreventionWorks #JoinTheCoalition
This project seeks to further the current research around Black wellness, telomere length, and the healing power of connection to consciousness, culture and ancestral wisdom.
Research has shown that opportunities to connect with culture in these ways can slow or even regrow telomere length in one’s cells, which in essence, extends a person’s bio-physiological age. Follow this link to view “If these cells could talk.”
Thirty leaders, healers, educators and champions for Black youth wellness in Oregon have been accepted into the inaugural cohort of the Life-sustaining Practices Fellowship.
- In the first year of this three-year project, led by Doctors Tiffani Marie, Kenjus Watson and Shante Stuart-McQueen, the selected Fellows will be brought together to experience healing through connection to consciousness, culture, and ancestral wisdom. The project leaders will use their research-based Apocalyptic Education Wellness Framework throughout the fellowship to increase protective factors and facilitate healing opportunities among the Fellows.
- In year two, the Fellows will be given the opportunity to create an intervention or experience for the young people they work with, using what they learned in the fellowship experience.
- In year three, the project leads will seek to develop a framework or guide to allow others to facilitate healing for young people.
Meet the team:
Dr. Tiffani Marie is the daughter of Sheryll Marie, granddaughter of Dorothy Wilson and Annette Williams, and the great-granddaughter of Artelia Green and Olivia Williams, a long line of Arkansas educators. She is passionate about learning with and from youth, building with sacred and beloved community, sewing, music production, and connecting to the natural world.
Tiffani Marie is also the co-director of the Institute for Regenerative Futures and Professor of Teacher Education and Ethnic Studies at San Jose State University, where her research focuses on health disparities, the study of anti-blackness as a social determinant of health, and the embodiment of critical pedagogies as an attenuating agent of toxic stress in black children.
Her broader research interests integrate theoretical frameworks and methods from public health, critical race studies, and education and how more robust educational interventions may lead to greater health outcomes for youth.
 Dr. Tiffani Marie
Dr. Shanté Stuart McQueen is an Assistant Professor in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at Portland State University, whose work seeks affirming learning environments for Youth of Color by supporting teacher practice and teacher leadership through partnership initiatives. She holds a Master’s in Education and PhD from UCLA's School of Education.
Currently, she is focused on the implementation of restorative justice in schools and classrooms through two research projects: (a) a research-practice partnership with early career teachers integrating restorative principles into their mathematics instruction; and (b) an exploratory study seeking current and best practices for including Students of Color with disabilities into school-based restorative justice programming.
She is thrilled to join the Life Sustaining Practices project and in particular, hopes to understand more about the ways in which Black life is preserved, sustained and enhanced through the reconnection (or restoration) of Black young adults to their ancestral healing practices and through the relationships built through the process.
 Dr. Shanté Stuart McQueen
Dr. Kenjus Watson (he/him) is a father, partner, brother, uncle and son who is passionate about reaching back to grounded wisdom, seeding into present challenges, and bridging towards more loving and sustainable futures.
As an Assistant Professor in Urban Education at American University, he teaches courses in the EdD Educational Policy and Leadership Program within the School of Education. Watson also works alongside community responsive projects as research lead, educator, and co-founder of the Institute for Regenerative Futures in the College of Education at San Jose State University.
His interdisciplinary research has focused on the biopsychosocial impact of everyday anti-blackness and colonization (i.e., racial microaggressions) on Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, as well as the promise of school abolition, reIndigenization, and apocalyptic education to bring about healing and wellness for people and the planet. Kenjus earned his PhD in Education with an emphasis in Race and Ethnic Studies at UCLA.
 Dr. Kenjus Watson
There will be a total of 16 Fellows, which include:
Jocelyn Wensel, retired Army CPT, rising third year medical student at International University of Health Sciences and NAACP Eugene/Springfield Interim Managing Director and Healthcare Workforce Development Program Manager.
Bria Beale, Program Coordinator for The Blueprint Foundation
Koffi Dessou (he/him/his), Doctor of Business Administration. He is currently the Social Equity Director for the State of Oregon’s Department of Early Leaning and Care. As a consultant he focuses on social equity training, coaching and technical assistance, global business advising, organizational development guidance, emotional intelligence training, and culturally appropriate community engagement. He is the president of the Togo Community Organization of Oregon. He is connected to the African immigrant and refugee communities through IRCO/Africa House and other African ethnic-based community organizations in Oregon. He works closely with other leaders on community safety issues, and youth empowerment and leadership with organizations such as REAP USA, where he serves as a board member. He is interested in being involved in community engagement with researchers to serve as a bridge, helping both researchers and his communities to be aware and be part of health research programs.
Richard Arnold, Washington County Wraparound Coordinator and former School Counselor (BSD and PPS)
Heather Carmichael, Pastor, The Grove Church
Bear Light Asa Necessity. I am affiliated with Black Futures Farm, Black Food Sovereignty Coalition, Flip the Script, The Partnership for Safety and Justice (coalition), Black Joy Oregon, Afro Village Pdx
carmen brewton denison. Beginning her career as a visual artist, carmen's early work drew heavily upon histories of social intervention, global anti-colonial and anti-racist movements, and Black Queer Feminist critique. carmen's practice led to the co-founding of the Creative Activism Lab in 2013. She is a writer, artist, educator, and activist residing in Portland, Oregon. She serves as the Executive Director at non-profit organization Coalition for Racial and Educational Justice, formerly known as, Campus Compact of Oregon. In this role, she leads the visioning and implementation of racial justice programming in partnership with 2- and 4-year colleges and universities, K-12 schools, and government, non-profit entities, and grassroots initiatives across Oregon and the west coast. With this, she coordinates, designs, and facilitates CCOR community accountability and collaboration and institutional equity initiatives with campus and community partners across the country.
Vivian Koomson, University of Oregon Suicide Prevention Lab
Patrick Shaw, President 4Fathers
Julian Jade Cruz Foulks, Matchstick Consulting - Sources of Strength Oregon
Alexandrea Wilson, Wellness professional at Rahab's Sisters.
The Youth Mental Health Summit is an opportunity to meet, learn from each other, and create professional relationships that can transform systems that serve and support young people with both a mental health diagnosis and an intellectual or developmental disability. The Summit planning committee is seeking presentation proposals for the 2024 Summit to be held April 17, 2024. The summit is especially interested in innovative, engaging presenters dedicated to breaking down the silos of our two delivery systems.
Proposals are due Feb. 19, 2024, and can be submitted by following this link.
Intensive Treatment Services (ITS) capacity remains a critical concern to CFBH. Each week we receive data on capacity for acute psychiatric inpatient beds, psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) beds, and substance use disorder (SUD) residential beds. ITS programs include psychiatric day treatment programs, residential treatment programs, secure inpatient programs and acute psychiatric inpatient units.
Total PRTF bed capacity
This bar graph shows the number of PRTF beds in Oregon compared to the goal bed count of 286 PRTF beds. The red line is the number of beds our PRTF programs physically have, and the green columns represent the highest census snapshot for each month. PRTF beds specifically include three levels of residential care: secure inpatient program (SIP), subacute, and psychiatric residential treatment services (PRTS).
 SUD residential capacity
This graph shows the highest possible number of SUD residential beds compared to the highest number of SUD beds that were filled at one time during represented months in 2023.
 Referral and Capacity Management
We continue to make progress towards collecting referral and program capacity data in our new system, Referral and Capacity Management (RCM). RCM is a secure web-based platform designed as a tool for providers to manage referrals and waitlists to their programs. RCM will give providers a high-level view of their census and upcoming openings. During the first week in January, our information technology (IT) partners and our CFBH staff leading this project completed what our IT team calls a “bug hunt,” looking for errors and glitches in the system. As of January 24, the IT team is working diligently to correct all bugs found in preparation for program staff to begin training on the system come February!
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Supportive Transition Planning for Adolescents Transitioning from Psychiatric Hospitalization to School: A Systematic Literature Review and Framework of Practices, Students with behavioral health needs often find it hard in school. When they leave a psychiatric hospital and go back to school, things get even tougher. A study (with 20 sources) found that involving everyone, having someone in charge, giving recommendations, and having transition meetings can help create a plan for a successful return to school.
Find events, opportunities, trainings and resources in last month’s posting. Many of these trainings are also on our website. We will send updates mid-month — Look for the next one in your inbox on February 15.
For feedback and suggestions for our newsletter and information: kids.team@oha.oregon.gov.
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