Rural Mental Health Connections Webinar Series
Rural Minds Presented THE NEXT RURAL MENTAL HEALTH CONNECTIONS WEBINAR:
INTRODUCTION TO THE RURAL YOUTH MENTAL WELLNESS PROGRAM
Presented By Rural Minds
TimeStamps
00:00 — Welcome & Introductions
02:28 — Program Overview
07:26 — Dr. Schleider: Project YES & Single Session Interventions
30:30 — Charlie Moser: Serving on the Youth Committee
33:10 — Audience Q&A
56:23 — Where to Find the Program & Closing ThoughtsGrowing up in rural America comes with its own set of mental health challenges. Isolation, limited access to care, and a culture that often prizes self-reliance over asking for help can make it especially hard for rural youth to recognize what they're going through — or to know where to turn when they need support.
To help close that gap, Rural Minds launched the Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program, an initiative dedicated to building awareness, reducing stigma, and connecting young people in rural communities with trusted mental health resources.
Join Rural Minds for this one-hour webinar introducing the program — featuring insights from a leading researcher in youth mental health interventions alongside young rural advocates who helped shape the program's outreach and direction.
Jessica Schleider, PhD
Dr. Jessica Schleider is founding director of Northwestern University's Lab for Scalable Mental Health, where she builds brief, accessible interventions designed to reach young people who might otherwise go without support. Her research has shaped how scalable mental health care is delivered nationally. She shares what the science says actually helps rural youth get the support they need.
Adriel (McMahan) Rigsby
Adriel Rigsby leads the Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program at Rural Minds. She grew up in Elkmont, Alabama, where she saw firsthand how stigma keeps rural youth from asking for help, and that experience continues to shape her work. She introduces the program and the vision behind it, alongside the young advocates who helped build it.
Charlie Moser
Charlie Moser is a Cornell University graduate whose path toward rural psychiatry began on his family's cattle farm in Montvale, Virginia, and grew through his work with NY FarmNet supporting farmers' mental health. He served as president of Virginia FFA and brings firsthand experience of the stigma and gaps in care rural communities face. As a member of the Rural Youth Mental Wellness Program committee, he spoke to what rural youth need most from a program like this.
Presenters:
Asheton Medlin
Student - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Peer Support Programs Director
Adriel McMahan
Lead on the Rural Teen and Young Adult Mental Health Pilot Progam - Rural Minds
Please note that Rural Minds™️ is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Any and all political opinions, whether directly stated or implied, reflect only the viewpoints of the speaker, and not the viewpoint Rural Minds.
If you or someone you know is suicidal or in emotional distress, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline connects you with a trained crisis counselor who can help. It is free, confidential, and available 24/7.
If you have a life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital emergency room.
ArchivES of past webinars
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September 25, 2024: Improving Access to Medicines for People Living with Mental Illness
DR. MADELAINE FELDMAN, Rheumatologist - New Orleans, Louisiana; Vice President of Advocacy and Government Affairs - Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations
ALFRED PENCE, Pharmacist - Stanford, Kentucky
This webinar features a panel discussion regarding access to medications. Getting access to the medications you need shouldn’t be hard. Unfortunately, health insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) keep adding new obstacles that patients have to overcome just to get the medications they need at their local pharmacy. Learn more about how we can change the current system by limiting the control of these dominant healthcare organizations.
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August 21, 2024: Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act on New Treatments for Mental Illnesses
CANDACE DEMATTEIS, Policy Director for the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD)
This webinar features a presentation on the current Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes drug price-setting provisions that will result in less research for new medicines that can be prescribed in a pill or capsule form. Known as the “pill penalty,” this one piece of the IRA threatens the development of future breakthrough drugs that treat mental illnesses, cancer, and many other diseases.
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July 11, 2024: Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage: Changes Under the Inflation Reduction Act
JOEL WHITE, President, Council for Affordable Health Coverage
This webinar features a presentation on The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), one of the most consequential healthcare laws since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, and the biggest change to Medicare coverage since the creation of Medicare Part D in 2003.
Webinar viewers will gain an understanding of how to access these new benefits and the potential unintended consequences of these changes.
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May 9, 2024: Managing Tardive Dyskinesia in Rural America
TODD DONOVAN, President, Board of Directors, National Alliance on Mental Illness-New Hampshire
DR. MARK FRYE, Psychiatrist, Mayo Clinic
This webinar features Todd Donovan, President of the Board of Directors, National Alliance on Mental Illness – New Hampshire, sharing his lived experience managing tardive dyskinesia in his rural community. It also features Dr. Mark Frye, a psychiatrist with Mayo Clinic, providing medical expertise and perspective on screening for TD and managing the condition when living in a rural area.
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March 27, 2024: Rural Mental Health Resilience Program Launch Webinar
DAVE ROBERTS, Member, National Grange e-Membership Working Group; Executive Committee Administrator and Treasurer, National Grange’s Nations Council of Organizations
SUSAN HANKS, President - Rio Linda Grange ; CFO/Treasurer - California State Grange
This webinar features a conversation about the Rural Mental Health Resilience Program and demonstrations of how to easily access program materials.
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November 8, 2023: Managing Mental Illness in Rural America
CHRISA HICKEY,
Author, speaker and mental health advocateMONICA TAYLOR-DESIR, MD, MPHPsychiatrist, Mayo Clinic
This webinar presents one woman’s lived experience with managing her adult son’s mental illness and overcoming barriers to mental healthcare in rural Wisconsin, and a community psychiatrist sharing her expertise treating patients in rural America.
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September 19, 2023: Rural Suicide Awareness & Prevention Training Webinar
BECKY WISEMAN, LCSW-R
NY FarmNet Family Consultant Case SupervisorThis webinar provides suicide awareness and prevention training from Becky Wiseman, LCSW-R, a mental health professional with an approach that’s relevant to people living in rural communities.
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June 21, 2023: MENTAL HEALTH SLEEP, NUTRITION, EXERCISE AND MINDFULNESS
JOSEPH DZIERZEWSKI, PhD
National Sleep FoundationDAWN GRITTMAN, PharmD, CPHQ
National Alliance on Mental IllnessEM SKEHILL
Mental Health AmericaThis webinar focuses on the mental and physical health benefits of sunlight, sleep, nutrition, exercise and mindfulness. We will also share tips about how to help boost mind and body wellness.ere
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May 10, 2023: RURAL MENTAL HEALTH CAREGIVER CHALLENGES WEBINAR
TRAVIS CARLSON
Writer and FilmmakerBRITTNEE HENRY
Mental Health Caregiver and Advocate Communications and Marketing ProfessionalThis webinar features two rural caregivers sharing their stories of lived experience providing care for their loved ones, and free resources for the mental wellness of rural caregivers
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September 13, 2022: Rural Suicide Awareness and Prevention webinar
MONICA KRAMER McCONKEY, Professional Counselor
NATHAN LAWSON, Farmer and Rural Mental Health Advocate
This webinar features people from rural America sharing their experiences of being personally impacted by suicide, information to help prevent suicide and free resources for rural mental health and suicide awareness and prevention.
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May 24, 2022: Intro, Pete Pompper; Spotlight on Jeff "Ditz" Ditzenberger
FOUNDER, TUGS
Pete Pompper, National Grange Community Service Director, provides an overview of the National Grange and the partnership with Rural Minds to provide mental health resources to rural communities. Jeff “Ditz” Ditzenberger, a Wisconsin farmer who shares about his personal experience with attempting suicide, living with mental illness, and founding TUGS, a mental health nonprofit.
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April 13, 2022: The Power Of Sharing Lived Experiences
PANEL OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
Content for this webinar focused on the power of sharing lived experience and confronting mental health challenges. In addition to a personal story about overcoming mental illness and attempted suicide, the event featured medical validation of the benefits of peer support for mental health and access to relevant information and services.
Speakers: Jeff "Ditz" Ditzenberger (TUGS), Mark A Frye, MD and Pravesh Sharma, MD (both from Mayo Clinic), Michael Pollock (DBSA), Jeff Winton (Rural Minds)
The Rural Mental Health Connections webinar series focuses on such topics as:
Lived experiences of people trying to end the stigma surrounding mental illness
The value of participating in peer support groups and sharing lived experience with mental illness
The impact of digital healthcare technology and telemental healthcare services
Initiatives and expansion of national support group networks with launch of rural mental health support groups
Collaboration for greater education and less stigma around mental illness by talking about it openly
Community resources for dealing with mental illness and family mental health support
Q&A about mental illness and trends in rural mental health
