Overview

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.

Goals

• 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.

Sessions

All times in Pacific Time (PT)

Facilitators

Seema L. Clifasefi, PhD, MSW

Seema L. Clifasefi, PhD, is an associate professor and codirector of the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center at the University of Washington-Harborview Medical Center. Her research lies at the intersection of substance use, mental health, criminal justice and housing policy. Since 2006, she has been part of several collaborative academic/community-based research partnerships evaluating the effects of individual and community-level harm reduction programs and interventions designed for people with lived experience of homelessness and substance use problems, including Housing First.

Susan E. Collins, PhD

Susan Collins, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and faculty at Washington State University and the University of Washington School of Medicine. At Harborview Medical Center, she codirects the Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center with her colleague, Dr. Seema Clifasefi. Dr. Collins has been involved in substance use research, assessment and treatment for over 25 years and has disseminated this work in over 7 dozen book chapters, abstracts and peer-reviewed articles. In 2013, Dr. Collins received the G. Alan Marlatt Memorial Research Award for her contributions to alcohol research. In 2015, she was invited to speak on her work at the White House and was honored with the New Investigator Award for her Harm Reduction Treatment development in the University of Washington Science-in-Medicine Lecture Series. She also brings her own lived experience as a person in recovery from addictive behaviors and as a woman embedded in families with the intergenerational experience of substance use disorder and harm. Currently, she works with multidisciplinary research and clinical teams, community-based agencies, and people who use substances to codevelop a toolbox of evidence-based treatments that empower individuals to reduce their substance-related harm and improve their quality of life – even if they are not ready, willing or able to stop using. 

Ken Kraybill, MSW

Ken Kraybill, MSW, Senior Trainer, has worked at the intersection of healthcare, behavioral health, homelessness and supportive housing for more than 35 years. He is a Senior Trainer for C4 Innovations, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of care provided to marginalized and vulnerable people. Ken has 18 years of direct service experience working as a behavioral health practitioner and supervisor in homeless services. For the past two decades, he has been developing curricula and facilitating in-person and online training nationally in best practices including motivational interviewing, trauma-informed practice, trauma-informed supervision, outreach and engagement, recovery support, critical time intervention, and resiliency and renewal for care providers. He is a member of the international Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). Ken has an MSW from the University of Washington in Seattle and an undergraduate degree from Goshen College in Indiana.

K. Michelle Peavy, PhD, MAC, SUDP

Dr. Michelle Peavy is an Associate Professor in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University and Director of Training at PRISM (Promoting Research Initiatives in Substance Use and Mental Health). She is a licensed clinical psychologist and holds specialized credentials in treating substance use disorders. She has spent most of her professional life working within substance use disorder treatment settings as a clinician, a clinical researcher or both. As such, she has interests in interventions targeting substance use, as well as clinical training and workforce development for professionals working with people with substance use disorders.

Jeffery Roskelley, LICSW

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.

Abbey Wellemeyer, Certified Peer Counselor and Recovery Coach, MPA

Abbey Wellemeyer identifies as a person living in recovery from substance use disorder, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. After beginning her recovery journey Abbey chose to pursue a bachelor’s degree in an area she felt would benefit her community: Elementary Education. During that time, she became interested in working in program planning and development, seeing it as a way to change and sculpt systems, thus completing a master’s degree in Public Administration. Motivated by the meaningful work of reducing barriers to achieving healthy and safe lives and by working to increase the opportunities to access healthy and safe conditions for living, Abbey eventually became a Recovery Coach and Certified Peer Counselor finding an invaluable personal and professional niche working in behavioral health spheres.