� Many Americans in minority communities remain at a disadvantage in learning about and receiving mental health services, including substance abuse treatment, even as the carry Nation becomes more than aware of mental health concerns and effective treatments.
In the ongoing endeavor to educate communities and close the gap of mental health disparities, the American Psychiatric Association Office of Minority and National Affairs (OMNA) will hold a daylong workshop, OMNA on Tour: Co-Occurring Disorders-No Longer Double Jeopardy, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 22, featuring mental health experts who will discuss improving mental wellness outcomes for underserved populations in the Los Angeles area with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.
OMNA on Tour is a traveling education program intentional to inform communities or so the nation about the significance and impact on community upbeat of ethnic and racial disparities in mental health. The go aims to foster coaction among a variety of stakeholders with the goal to develop local activity plans to eliminate mental health disparities.
OMNA Director, Annelle Primm, M.D., M.P.H., APA extremity experts and other mental health professionals will wage constituencies from a wide-eyed variety of disciplines, such as merely not circumscribed to psychiatrists, primary care physicians, meaning abuse treatment providers, community leaders, and local mental health organisation administrators.
"We are pleased to carry our fifth OMNA on Tour in Los Angeles, focusing for the first time on co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders with a call to action for prevention and recovery in diverse populations," aforesaid Dr. Primm. "Our sincere hope is that this program volition enlighten the Los Angeles community nigh the impact of co-occurrent disorders on overall wellness."
"In addition, we need to encourage strategic collaboration among a variety of stakeholders including consumers and families, wellness professionals of all types, the religious belief community, the correctional system of rules, the social service system, and legislators and policymakers," Primm said. "Through such action, concerned citizens pot make a difference by ensuring that people in need of treatment for mental illness and substance abuse in communities of color receive high character, culturally relevant care and experience recovery in order to lead enriching, healthy lives."
The Los Angeles tour stopover will feature many honored speakers, including Annelle Primm, M.D., M.P.H., director, Office of Minority and National Affairs, American Psychiatric Association; Marcia Goin, M.D., clinical professor, Keck School of Medicine of USC; Carl C. Bell, M.D., president and CEO, Community and Mental Health Council & Foundation, Inc. and clinical professor, Psychiatry and Public Health at the University of Illinois at
Chicago; Donald R. Vereen, M.D., M.P.H., theater director, Community-Based Public Health, University of Michigan, School of Public Health; Nancy Carter, executive director, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Urban Los Angeles; and, Michelle Clark, M.D., chief psychiatrist, South Central Health and Rehabilitation Program.
The daylong event will cover topics from the prevalence, impact and prevention of co-occurring disorders for the practitioner and consumer to discussions on what is working in the communities.
About the American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the nation's leading medical strength society whose more than 38,000 physician members specialize in diagnosis, discourse, prevention and research of mental illnesses including heart and soul use disorders. Visit the APA at http://www.psych.org and http://www.HealthyMinds.org.
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