Cultural bridges theme of mental health conference

BOWLING GREEN, O.—As mental health and medical professionals know, culture matters. It is important to be familiar with and understand clients and their families in terms of their particular culture in order to perform accurate and helpful assessments and interventions.

Hence, it is incumbent upon clinicians to develop the self-awareness, group-specific knowledge and multicultural skills to work effectively with clients who are culturally different from them.

The Douglas G. Ullman Conference on Children’s Mental Health at Bowling Green State University takes as its theme this year “Crossing Cultural Bridges: Translating Principles of Multicultural Competence into Action.” The conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 17 in 101 Olscamp Hall. It is aimed at clinical and school psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, probation officers and pediatricians.

The session will focus on enhancing participants' understanding about how culture (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, life cycle, religion, language and immigrant status) shapes how we think and behave.
Presenter Paulette Moore Hines, Ph.D., will utilize lecture, videos, exercises, case analyses and group discussion to address basic principles of multicultural family intervention.

Hines is the executive director of the Center for Healthy Schools, Families and Communities and director of the Office of Prevention Services and Research, divisions of University Behavioral HealthCare, at the University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDMJ) of New Jersey. She is a clinical assistant professor at UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and was one of the founding faculty of the Multicultural Family Institute of New Jersey. Hines also serves as co-director of the Cultural Competence Training Center of Central New Jersey and is chief psychologist for University Behavioral HealthCare.

The program is the 11th in a series of conferences on children's mental health that honor and continue the innovative work of Douglas G. Ullman, a former professor of psychology at BGSU and a founding board member of the Children's Resource Center, a comprehensive, multidisciplinary community mental health program. A nationally known scholar, he dedicated his career to the training of child psychologists and to the promotion of evidence-based prevention, early identification and treatment of children.

The cost of the conference is $139, and may include CEUs. To register, call BGSU’s Office of Continuing and Extended Education at 419-372-8181, or register online at http://cee.bgsu.edu/page90375.html.


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(Posted February 22, 2011 )