Rural Mental Health Connections Webinar Series

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

CHRISA HICKEY,
Author, speaker and mental health advocate

MONICA 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.

BECKY WISEMAN, LCSW-R
NY FarmNet Family Consultant Case Supervisor

This 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.

JOSEPH DZIERZEWSKI, PhD
National Sleep Foundation 

DAWN GRITTMAN, PharmD, CPHQ
National Alliance on Mental Illness

EM SKEHILL
Mental Health America

This 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

TRAVIS CARLSON
Writer and Filmmaker

BRITTNEE HENRY
Mental Health Caregiver and Advocate Communications and Marketing Professional

This 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

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.

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.

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)