Person and Family-Centered Approaches in Mental Health and Co-occurring Disorders Online Training Lesson #7: Organizational Practices that Support Person and Family-Centered Approaches

wordmarks: Institute on Community Integration, Research and Training Center on Community Living, and University of Minnesota

Welcome to the Minnesota Department of Human Services Online Training Program in Person and Family-Centered Approaches in Mental Health and Co-Occurring Disorders

Training Program Description: This training program is designed for professionals in the mental and chemical health community. It may also be useful to others with interested in supporting people with mental health conditions to live well. This training program supports learners in understanding the value in trends toward person and family-centered approaches in Minnesota. It provides context to this movement that is Minnesota specific and helps learners support the vision the Minnesota Olmstead Plan. The content provides both context and enhanced skills in these approaches and practices.

Directions: Please scroll down or click on the page on the menu to see additional content in the lesson.

The following lessons are included in this training program:

  1. Lesson #1: The Context of Person and Family-Centered Practices in Mental Health Services in Minnesota
  2. Lesson #2: The Journey to a New Vision
  3. Lesson #3: Cultural Responsiveness
  4. Lesson #4: Support for Relationships and Valued Social Roles
  5. Lesson #5: Supporting People with Mandated Services and Choice Limits
  6. Lesson #6: Individual Practices that Support Person and Family-Centered Approaches
  7. Lesson #7: Organizational Practices that Support Person and Family-Centered Approaches
  8. Lesson #8: Engaging in System and Community Level Changes

A Note about Language: This training program recognizes that the terms mental health professional and mental health practitioner are recognized titles have specific meaning related to scope of practice within the Minnesota mental health system. However, for the purposes of this training, the terms practitioner or professional are used interchangeably to indicate any person with professional responsibilities in the system. This includes clinical professionals such as psychiatrists. It also includes social services professionals such as case managers or peer specialists. If a specific role or scope of practice is important to content, that is made clear in content.

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“How to support professionals who want to make their support more person-centered but perceive the “systems barriers” (i.e. large caseloads, time constraints, billing needs, etc.) to be overwhelming and out of sync with what they learn in person-centered training. A concern is that professionals become jaded, discouraged, and don’t feel empowered or able to help shift the system and ultimately begin to reject ideas of person-centered support as idealistic.”
– Co-Creation Participant, New Brighton, MN

“(I) was given arts and crafts to occupy my time. I would like to be outdoors, especially fishing!”
– Co-Creation Participant, Mahnomen, MN

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A team meeting at an organization.

Welcome!

Here is a description of the lesson you are starting:

Your role in your organization may not include setting policy or distributing resources. If it does, you have a direct responsibility to work toward organizational alignment with these approaches. If not, you should still have a basic understanding organizational change. This can help you participate in organizational processes more successfully. It can help you advocate more effectively for necessary changes. This lesson provides an overview of necessary factors in organizational change. It helps employees at all levels of an organization understand potential roles and responsibilities in organizational change.

Learning Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able:

  • Support practices within your organization that align with person and family-centered approaches.

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Benefits to Organizations

An important benefit of this type of organizational change is being better at providing service that are meaningful to individuals. They are more likely to maintain or reclaim positive aspects of their lives when we look beyond symptoms and treatment compliance as measures of quality.

It’s important to note that beyond outcomes for individuals there are other benefits to organizations to adopting these approaches. Some of them include:

  • Staying in line with or ahead of funders and policy-makers who are expecting these approaches.
  • Increased staff satisfaction. Interactions with others are more likely to be focused on things that matter and less on procedure. Organizational policies, practices, and resources are more likely to align with expectations of work.
  • Share responsibility and accountability with person, family, community, and other professionals for outcomes.
  • An enhanced positive reputation in the community as an employer and provider of services.

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Your Role in Organizational Change

Regardless of your position in an organization, you must be able to participate as part of the change. In order to do that you need to have some skills in recognizing issues and providing feedback to others within your organization. Many organization struggle with initiative missteps. This can cause frustration on the part of employees and people supported. However, employees should be prepared to actually document issue objectively and share information with the appropriate people.

Reflection Activity

Directions:

Listen to the three voice clips on this page. When you are done, select one of the three and answer the following questions. Write or type out your responses if possible in full sentences.

  1. Identify the problem in objective language. Describe the likely impact of this type of action on people supported, employees, and the organization.
  2. If this problem occurred in your organization who could influence or manage a change in practice? List the position title of this person here. (If you don’t know the answer to this question, find out.)

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An employee speaking with a supervisor.

Being willing to engage is important.

Prepare Your Organization for Success

Management cannot make change on their own. Each employee is important to these changes. Much of this lesson is a description of actions that management and organizational leaders must take in order to create a responsive organization. However, those initiatives are supported and made useful through active employee engagement and advocacy. Whatever your role in an organization you can be part of positive changes.

Appropriately engaging management includes a number of things. It’s important that employees use the systems they have available to them to inform management of issues. For example, speaking to supervisors, attending committee activities, or completing employee surveys. It includes being able to provide a clear description of the issue and the impact. It includes being willing to be part of the solution and also understanding the viewpoint of management. In includes being able to prioritize, collaborate, and compromise. In the lesson on individual practice, it was recommended that you track and organize your experiences. Having clear, factual information will help you participate most effectively.

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An organizational PATH being done.

Some person-centered processes work well for groups and organizations as well.

Setting a Vision

Setting a strong vision and reviewing current capacity are two important steps in organizational change. (Or any change). A strong vision supports clarity in actions. An assessment of capacity including strengths, gaps, and priorities helps bring this vision to life. Organizations that understand where they want to go with these practices and what they are capable of will make more progress on plans they develop. Plans will be focused on the right things. They will be ready for opportunities when they arrive, such as grants or pilots of programs that align with the vison. They will be able to sort good opportunities from ones that may be less helpful.

One way of combining vision setting and planning is to use an established person-centered planning process in the organization. This can be done with teams, units, committees, etc. Two forms of person-centered planning that have been used successfully include Planning Alterative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH), or Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP©).

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A small town main street.

If community issues are part of the barriers, outreach may be part of the plan.

Conducting Assessment and Building a Plan

Once a vision is set, it’s important to define measures of success that make sense. Does the current information gathered focus on things like recovery and inclusion? (This is different than focusing on medical model indicators such as less days in the hospital.) Does it measure people’s satisfaction and productivity? If not, consider what you want to capture and how you plan to go about it.

It’s important that you use these measures to assess the organizations strengths and areas where it might need to grow to achieve the vision. This growth might include more active outreach to the community as well as internal changes.

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Align Resources Appropriately

Ongoing efforts must be backed by resources in order to make substantial progress. It’s important to find and support internal champions for change. They must be given the time, resources, and support to make these changes happen. Good communication is essential to helping employees and people served understand what is happening.

Directions: Click each item to learn more.

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Policies, Practices, Environments and Tools

There are many aspects to organizations that can make people feel unwelcome, unappreciated, or unsafe. All of these statement are samples of policies, practices, environments or tools to that are not very person or family centered. Take a minute to match these into policy or practice or environment or tool. When you are done consider your organization. Do you see things like this?

Directions: This is a matching exercise. Click a “statement” to select it, and then click an “answer area” to try and get a successful match. Keep trying until you successfully match each “statement”.

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Work Collaboratively and Creatively With Others

Working creatively with others can help engage the current system resources more efficiently. It can help identify gaps that need to be filled. Below are some considerations in this work.

  • Make sure there is a person or family-centered description and action plan that guides all actions on personal support teams. Use the organization’s or team vision and assessment to define actions within or between organizations.
  • Identify areas where people’s needs (as individuals or as groups) are consistently not met.
  • Look for role confusion or overlap on the part of professionals or organizations. Be willing to work with others to clarify, reduce duplication, and enhance responsiveness or comprehensiveness.
  • Reach out to other organizations that may complement or enhance the ability to complete work in person or family-centered ways. Think creatively about partnerships. Reach out to faith communities and advocacy organizations. Consider collaborating with local business, housing boards, specialty courts, and clinical practices. These connections can organize a more concerted community effort to support people with mental illness and their families.
  • Join forces with local advocacy groups and other constituents to legislatively advocate for change.
  • Take time to develop formal or informal agreements in writing that clarify benefits, roles, resources, and outcomes/goals. Be consistent in communicating and in developing these relationships.

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An employee training.

Let employees influence when and how they learn new skills.

Value Employees

It is difficult to find employees who can engage in person and family-centered approaches when they don’t feel appreciated or supported themselves. Organizations must consider employees needs if they want them to use these approaches reliably. This sets a tone that everyone matters and everyone deserves respect.

Some ways to value employees include:

  • Be clear about person and family-centered expectations and reward and recognize people who achieve these.
  • Help employees identify and work from their strengths. Support them in areas where they struggle more.
  • Provide influence over development opportunities. Encourage a learning environment and give employees some time and space for this.
  • Compensate and schedule employees fairly. Give them time off to refresh.
  • Make sure employees are properly trained and have reasonable resources and support for person and family-centered actions.
  • Clarify where employees have an opportunity to be creative on their own. Be clear also about what must be checked with a supervisor.
  • Train and support supervisors to be their best. Provide support for them in decision-making.

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A person speaking in front of legislators.

Organizations as a whole can have positions on funding and policy.

Support System Change

The resources and views of the surrounding community can have a strong impact on an organizations success in supporting people. Organizations can be part of community advocacy. When they do, progress will be greater. Organizations can identify problems and potential solutions. This is very valuable to state government and advocacy groups who can leverage this work. Some things to consider engaging your organization in include thinking about the following:

  • Working toward inclusive communities free from discrimination and stigma.
  • Taking time to map community assets and finding allies in this work.
  • Collaborating with state or county government, insurers, and advocacy and social justice groups to develop solutions of legislatively advocate.

Conclusion and Review

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Conclusion

This lesson was meant to help you achieve the following learning objective:

  • Support practices within your organization that align with person and family-centered approaches.

Lesson Review

In this lesson you learned:

  • All employees in an organization can and need to participate in changes if they are going to be sustained.
  • Being able to organize, prioritize and communicate issue effectively is something each employee should be able to do.
  • A strong vision and a plan for success is needed in organization that want to go beyond mandates. A PATH or WRAP plan can support this process in units, groups, or organization-wide initiatives.
  • Person and family-centered organizations must value their employees. They must collaborate with others for the betterment of the whole community.

Reviewed Trainings and Resources as Part of the Person and Family-Centered Approaches in Mental Health and Co-Occurring Disorders Training Development Project

Introduction to this Resource List

This list was developed as part of a training project to help mental health professionals, practitioners, and others in the mental health community in Minnesota enhance their ability to deliver services in person and family-centered ways. The project included identifying what training and resources were already available in Minnesota and how well they might meet the needs of the mental health and behavioral health community. There was a special focus on those in Targeted Case Management roles. A standard protocol that included a review tool and at least two reviewers was used to ensure products were reviewed consistently. The following materials were reviewed and ranked as being likely to be helpful to Mental Health Targeted Case Managers or those in similar or related roles.

Materials Developed by The Learning Community on Person-Centered Practices

The Learning Community on Person-Centered Practices

TLCPCP is an organization and a global volunteer community. It focuses on supporting people who have lost or may lose positive control because of society's response to the presence of a disability or other conditions. It does so through training and development of person-centered practices. The Minnesota Department of Human Services Disability Services Division and other divisions have invested in disseminating training materials developed by TLCPCP. They have also supported development of trainers in Minnesota. The following two trainings are commonly available in the state. TLCPCP also supports other types of training. To locate trainings in Minnesota you can go to http://pct.umn.edu. Certified trainers are also listed on The Learning Community’s website. Some local trainings listed at the Minnesota site are free; others have a fee.

Person-Centered Thinking- Two Day Training (now modularized)

Person-Centered Thinking is equivalent to a full two-day training. Training is completed in groups. The terminology and strategies of this training are aligned with some state and national regulations in the area of person-centered practices. The curriculum is generic and skills are transferable to any setting including mental health settings. A wide variety of professionals could benefit from this training. This can include professionals from any scope of practice who:

  • Are brand new to these skills and concepts.
  • Want to understand these skills and concepts in a broader context than individual practice.
  • Want to revisit these skills or expand their repertoire of strategies and approaches.
  • Want to network with others in and out of their agency around these practices.

The concepts and strategies in this curriculum have meaning and are useful in mental health practices. However, the examples in the core curriculum focus mostly on adults, are not all mental health related, nor always current to the context of community living. Content does not explicitly support deeper understanding of equity or diversity issues and does not use examples that represent diversity. Though there is a small portion in the new version on culture, on the whole, the curriculum does not attend to these issues. In addition, there is no specific tie in to how to use these practices to ensure family-centered practices. Trainers in this curriculum have various backgrounds. It would be important to select a training with a strong background in mental health services and supports if that is an important training need for your group.

Picture of a Life Two-Day Training

Picture of a Life is two-day training that provides in-person learning and applying person centered thinking and planning tools to develop a person-centered description. The process is focused on helping a person envision the life they want in their community. The training include a co-trainer with support needs and others who are this person’s natural or paid supporters. Trainees get a chance to watch and participate in interviewing processes and enhance their discovery skills. Values of choice, control, direction, and shared power are modeled in the training.

The quality of the training is highly dependent on the skill and knowledge of the facilitator and the willingness of the co-training and supporters to share. Participants will likely benefit more if they attend a session where the co-trainers needs are similar to those of the populations they support. There will be no explicit connection to the mental health practices of recovery, peer support, or cultural and equity practices if the facilitator does not have these skills, knowledge, and orientations. Person-Centered Thinking (described above) is required training before attending Picture of a Life.

Person-Centered Counseling Training Program

The Person-Centered Counseling Training Program is a blended learning model that embeds the Person-Centered Thinking skills and planning skills into online modules. The target audience for this training is counselors through the Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) and others who are engaging in development of No Wrong Door systems. The online component is available in Minnesota via DirectCourse. For full review for this audience please see description below. For more information on the in-person day of training, contact The Learning Community for Person Centered Practices.

Materials Available Through the DirectCourse

DirectCourse is a national online curriculum for direct support professionals and similar professionals who support people to live in their communities. It is available in Minnesota through support from the Department of Human Services. The training programs and curriculum are self-paced, competency-based, and multimedia. The following materials from DirectCourse were reviewed for the mental health community.

College of Recovery and Community Inclusion (CRCI)

This online training was developed by Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities. It consists of approximately 38 hours of self-paced training for community based mental health workers. The set of available courses is listed below.

  • Understanding Community Inclusion
  • Cultural Competence in Mental Health Service Settings
  • Introduction to Mental Health Recovery and Wellness
  • Mental Health Treatments, Services and Supports
  • The Effective Use of Documentation
  • Universal precautions and Infection Control
  • Seeing the Person First: Understanding Mental Health Conditions
  • Professionalism and the Community Mental Health Practitioner
  • Understanding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
  • Understanding Trauma and Its Impact

The courses in the College of Recovery and Community Inclusion can be helpful to any practitioners interested in recovery-based inclusion and self-determination models. The suite of courses in CRCI doesn’t use term “person-centered” but aligns with these approaches. They cover the scope of all mental health professionals. This material can be useful to support planners in mental health in apply the Minnesota Olmstead Plan expectations in their work. These courses consider culture and evidence-based practices. Incorporation of family into support is not included substantially.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services has purchased a limited amount of seats in Minnesota that are available for free. Contact Nancy McCulloh at mccul037@umn.edu. Rates for broader access will vary based on organization size. Information can be obtained by contacting Bill Waibel at Elsevier, b.waibel@elsevier.com.

Person-Centered Counseling (PCC) Training Program

These online materials were explicitly designed for the No Wrong Door System of Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS). It considers all populations, all ages, and all methods of payment for LTSS. Person-Centered Thinking and Planning skills are a core of the training program. There is a whole course on family caregiving and other lessons on family involvement. However, content is not strictly focused on mental health.

This content would be best for disability generalists who have a portion of their potential recipients living with serious mental illnesses. Another potential target audience is staff affiliated with Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics or Behavioral Health Homes or similar services, where clinicians and LTSS and community professionals need to have a coordinated understanding of person-centered practices across clinical and community settings. This curriculum needs to include a one-day in-person training in PCT to be considered complete as far as PCT skills. It would need a skilled training to support groups in organizing a blended learning model for above purposes. It is not ideal as core training for MH TCM because of the more broad disability focus but is rooted in recovery principles, self-determination, and culturally responsive services.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services has purchased a full contract for this curriculum in Minnesota that makes training available for free and/or with minimal administrative costs. Go to: https://mn.gov/dhs/partners-and-providers/training-conferences/directcourse/to learn more.

Materials through the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health

The Yale Program for Recovery and Health, Person Centered Approaches has a focus on research, consultation and tools in the area of person-centered approaches in mental health and co-occurring disorders.

The following resources related to authors and researchers at this program were reviewed.

Partnering for Recovery in Mental Health: a Practical Guide to Person-Centered Planning

Partnering for Recovery in Mental Health is a practical guide for conducting person and family-centered recovery planning with individuals with serious mental illnesses and their families. This guide represents a new clinical approach to the planning and delivery of mental health care. It emerges from the mental health recovery movement, and has been developed in the process of the efforts to transform systems of care at the local, regional, and national levels to a recovery orientation.

This is a very solid and recommended resource that looks comprehensively at person and family-centered practices in planning specific to mental health conditions and co-occurring conditions. It provides context to recovery, self-determination, cultural needs, family support, and shared power. It is a good overall resource that would be helpful to any professional working with people with serious mental illnesses and required to complete support or treatment plans, including targeted case managers.

This book is authored by Janis Tondora, Rebecca Miller, Mike Slade and Larry Davidson and was published in 2014 by Wiley-Blackwell. It is available online as an ebook or from booksellers in hard copy, for an approximate cost of $42.00.

Getting in the Driver’s Seat of Your Treatment: Preparing for Your Plan

This resource is a downloadable booklet for organizing information a person might want in a treatment or support plan. It is meant to help people organize their thoughts and information in ways that are likely to yield person-centered goals and approaches in a treatment plan.

The strengths of this resource include: It is easily downloadable from a public site. It is concrete, process-oriented, flexible and applicable to many circumstances, and written in plain language. It gives people structure and context to taking the time to identify their goals and preferences in key areas outlined in the Person-Centered Informed Choice Protocol (DHS, 01/17). It asks people to consider including people important to them in the process. It would be a great foundation for developing a person-centered plan. Professionals and practitioners for all level of practice in mental health would benefit from being familiar with this tool. Case managers, support planners, and those in similar roles would benefit the most. There is a Spanish language version available.

Limitations of this resource include: The rights information is specific to the state of Connecticut (but could be easily customized to Minnesota). It provides little context for bigger picture aspects of history and professional responsibly. While it may work with a variety of cultures and circumstances, it does not support practitioners in how to adapt for a variety of cultures and circumstance. Family and natural supporters are considered as support but not as people who may need support. Information would need more work to translate into an operational treatment plan. Literacy would be an issue with this tool if used without assistance.

Authors are Tondora, Miller, Guy and Lanteri. Published in 2009 by Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health.

This online resource is available as a .pdf document at no cost:

Materials Offered Through the Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery

The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery promotes mental health recovery through education, training, and research based on WRAP©. (Wellness Recovery Action Plan). It is a peer run, non-profit organization that provides training, consultation, and program activities to support the wellness, recovery, community inclusion and peer support journeys of individuals. They work with the owners of WRAP© materials at Advocates for Human Potential (AHP) to ensure the fidelity and quality implementation of WRAP© Facilitation in the health care system. There are a variety of training and consultation options offered through Copeland.

Locally people can connect and take seminars through the Kaposia which is an International WRAP© Center for Excellence.

Seminar I: Developing Your Own WRAP©

The Developing Your Own WRAP© workshops is co-facilitated by WRAP© Facilitators in a variety of formats and agendas, including 8-12 week WRAP© groups, 2-3 day workshops, retreats. Participants in these workshops will learn how to develop their WRAP© as a personalized system to achieve their own wellness goals. These workshops are for anyone and can apply to any self-directed wellness goals. WRAP© is a safe, effective wellness process that has an evidence-base for supporting mental health recovery. It is s self-directed, peer supported process that the person engages with in ways that they prefer. WRAP© is an ongoing processes of reflecting on and engaging approaches and lifestyles that support personal wellness. Processes can be used by individuals and organizations to move to a true recovery and self-determination focus in services and supports. WRAP© has proven to be an effective approach to working with children, youth, and families and caregivers to improve relationships, feel more hopeful, create support systems, learn to self-advocate, and put a greater focus on their personal overall wellness.

WRAP© must be delivered with fidelity in order to meet the evidence based criteria. This include that participation in WRAP© be completely voluntary, that at least two peer facilators who are skilled, trained, and mentored facilitate this process, materials are appropriate, and all processes align with the values and ethics of WRAP©. (To learn more about fidelity download and read the document The Way WRAP Works!.) Professional who have their own WRAPs can benefit from the process and also understand the value and power of WRAP© in supporting recovery.

WRAP© is voluntary, focused on wellness, owned by the person, and avoids clinical or medical language. It is a powerful tool for helping people reconnect with hope, personal responsibility, and personal strategies for recovery. However, it is not something professionals can have access to without a person’s permission and it is not something professionals can require of people. If people chose to complete a WRAP© on their own, it can support their ability to more clearly define many of the aspects of the PCICTP. It is something to recommend, especially to people who have lost touch with what recovery and a life worth living means to them. However, there can be no expectation that people participate unwillingly or in order to receive services.

The cost for this entry course ranges from $100-400.00 approximately. Locally, there may be a possibility for a need-based reduction in the fee or waiving of the fee.

References

Credits

The content of materials developed through this contract was co-created with members of Minnesota’s communities. Co-creation include structured and open-ended conversations as well as listening sessions. It also included seven structure co-creation processes conducted in different parts of the state. These sessions include professionals and people with lived experience or their families. Community members were also invited to review and edit the content of online materials (Community Reviewers). Participants were kept informed about ongoing progress through a website. 

The following sessions helped to shape refined definitions and areas of focus after the initial environmental scan was complete.  

  • African Mental Health Summit (2017)- Open-ended conversation with a large group regarding goals, definitions, and gaps.
  • American Indian Mental Health Conference (2017)-Structured conversation with a smaller group around goals, definitions, and priorities.
  • DHS Mental Health Division –Structured conversation with a larger group around definitions and priorities.
  • Parent Catalyst Leaders Group (Hennepin County) – Listening session with parents who were newer to the system and guided by more experienced parents around gaps and challenges.

There were seven (7) Co-Creation Groups (in 6 communities) Rochester, Duluth, Mahnomen, Minneapolis, St Paul (2), and New Brighton.  A total of 89 people participated in these groups. Participants included a spectrum of people with a variety life experiences and backgrounds. These processes were developed to support the maximum engagement of each participant.  The following people attending a co-creation session:

  • Thomas Anderson, Minneapolis
  • Laura Armstrong, Minneapolis
  • Mina Blyly-Strauss, Minneapolis
  • Carol Brogan, Chatfield
  • Brenda Caya, Duluth
  • Mary Chazen, St. Paul
  • Rose Chos, Duluth
  • Cristina Combs, St. Paul
  • Jennifer Conger, Savage
  • Heidi Crees, Minneapolis
  • Debbie Crittenden, Bloomington
  • Tom Crittenden, Bloomington
  • Nicole Duchelle, Lake City
  • Polina Duchelle, Lake City
  • Amber Dukowitz, Duluth
  • Josephine Eades, Duluth
  • Karen Ellian, Duluth
  • Feisal Elmi, Minneapolis
  • Angela Elwell, Eagan
  • Amelia Fink, St. Paul
  • Kassandra Flake, Minneapolis
  • Mike Francis, Eagan
  • Carl Gardner, Minneapolis
  • Colleen Garman, Minneapolis
  • Gerald Geist Jr., Moorhead
  • Cathy Gillman, Cottage Grove
  • Triasia Givens, Minneapolis
  • Susan Govern, Minneapolis
  • Amy Granquist, Duluth
  • Jane Haas, Stillwater
  • Kristin Hale, Duluth
  • Ricky Hamm, Rochester
  • Keven Hardy, Rochester
  • Tom Haselman, Minneapolis
  • Vivian Henry, St. Paul
  • Jenny Isaacson, Duluth
  • Melissa Johansson, Maplewood
  • James Johnson, Duluth
  • Carolyn Keefner, Westminster, Co.
  • Jessica Kisling, Minneapolis
  • Bob Klade, McIntosh
  • Kay Knight, Duluth
  • Fonda Knudson, Fergus Falls
  • Jeanne Kolo-Johnson, Moorhead
  • Maggie Lemasters, Duluth
  • Jenny Linder, Duluth
  • Tulu Lope, Inver Grove Heights
  • Ginger Madeiros, St. Paul
  • Diane Marshall, St. Louis Park
  • John Martin, Minneapolis
  • Kristy Matzke, Rochester
  • Lamont Mayo, Minneapolis
  • Nick Mazzoni, Duluth
  • Alvin McCoy, Minneapolis
  • Willard McDonald, Rochester
  • Kurt Meyer, Minneapolis
  • Cari Michaels, St. Paul
  • David Moses, Rochester
  • George Nadeau, Minneapolis
  • Beth Nelson, Fergus Falls
  • Richard Oni, Birchwood
  • Peggy Ostman, Duluth
  • Jovi Parm, Minneapolis
  • Rose Plentyhorse, Minneapolis
  • Tyler Rinta, Minneapolis
  • Ruby Rivera, St. Paul
  • Michael Ruhl, Minneapolis
  • Ryan Sandquist, Minneapolis
  • Julie Scharver, Fergus Falls
  • David Schreyer, Two Harbors
  • Kelsey Shoden, Rochester
  • lenda Smith, Fergus Falls
  • Cora Spear, Burnsville
  • Jennifer Thomas, Maple Grove
  • Nelly Torori, St. Paul
  • Maria Tripeny, Bloomington
  • James Van Druten, Duluth
  • Sarah Vinueza, Minneapolis
  • Kenya Walker, St. Paul
  • Claudia Waples, South St. Paul
  • Eileen Ward, West St. Paul
  • Terry Wasnick, Duluth
  • Linda Weber, Rochester
  • Bryant Wheeler, Minneapolis
  • Tobias Wilde, Moorhead
  • Shannon Williams, Duluth
  • Tera Wiplinger, Rochester
  • (Wendy) Maxuan Wu, Minneapolis
  • Ann Zick, Osage

The authors for the online lessons were:

  • Susan O’Nell, Project Director
  • Jody Van Ness, Project Staff
  • Merrie Haskins, Project Coordinator

There were seven community reviewers recruited to review the content of online materials that were developed. These reviewer were mental health professionals and included family members of service users. The following people served in this role:

  • Allison Brockway – Sherburne County
  • Tamba Gordon – Hennepin County
  • Tom Haselman – Hennepin County
  • Jessica Kisling – University of Minnesota
  • Jane Lawrence – Community Reviewer
  • Jeff Olson – Headway Emotional Health
  • Dorothee Tshiela – Face to Face Health and Counseling

In addition Darrin Helt of the DHS Behavioral Health Division served as editor and approver. 

Web development, design, and media team:

  • Amanda Webster
  • Shawn Lawler
  • John Westerman
  • Kristin Dean
  • Sarah Hollerich