AMHCA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2007

New Orleans

July 26-28

 ALMHCA  received SEVERAL NATIONAL awards this year!

AMHCA' s Mental Health Counselor of the Year:  Judith Harrington

AMHCA' s Outstanding Community Service Award:  Irene McIntosh

AMHCA' s Outstanding Chapter of the Year Award  ALABAMA!!!

We congratulate our winners and our Chapter is honored to serve! 

Quinn Pearson presented at the AMHCA Conference for the third year in a row!

Quinn, one of ALMHCA's Past-Presidents offered an hour-long session entitled, "Psychotherapy-Driven Supervision" on Saturday afternoon at the Annual Conference held this year in New Orleans.  Congratulations to Quinn who is always such a wonderful representative of our ALMHCA membership!

ALSO

Anita Neuer and Gary Williams presented at the AMHCA Conference for the second time!

Gary and Anita also presented in New Orleans this year.  There presentation titled "Understanding and Treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A Primer" was be delivered on Friday. 

Three ALMHCA members are Nationally Recognized for Efforts in Suicide Prevention!

Three counselors and counselor educators are receiving national attention in suicide prevention and intervention circles.  

Judith Harrington has been accepted as one of fourteen persons selected from a competitive pool of physicians, psychologists, counselors and social workers as a Scholar for a special training institute hosted in Washington, D.C., by the American Association of Suicidology and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center.  This program will feature national experts and researchers in the suicide prevention movement, and will engage the scholars in rolling out a state of the art curriculum to colleges, clinicians, and employee assistance professionals around the country.   Judith has been active in suicide prevention work since 1983, and has been the Bereavement Coordinator and SOS Support Group Facilitator at the Crisis Center in Birmingham since 2001 and is an active member of the Alabama Task Force on Suicide, along with having been a frequent presenter on suicide prevention with mental health professionals for many years. 

Mary Bartlett, also an active member of the Alabama Task Force on Suicide, will attend the Washington, D.C., event put on by the AAS as a special delegate sponsored by a grant from the Alabama Child Death Review Department of Public Health.  Only eight spots have been created for extra delegates to attend the institute and Mary has qualified herself as an attendee by writing her dissertation as a doctoral candidate at Auburn University on suicide prevention techniques, by presenting on suicide to mental health professionals and communities, and by authoring a nationally refereed journal article on no-suicide contracts with Jeane Lee.  Mary is a clinician and is licensed in three states. 

Jeane Lee, of Alabama State University, and Mary Bartlett have presented locally, at the state level, and national level about their important research about the myths and ineffectiveness of “no-harm contracts” and have published an article in the Death Studies journal this past year.  Jeanne has also been active with the Alabama Task Force on Suicide.  The citation for their article is Lee, J. B. & Bartlett, M. L. (2005).  Suicide prevention:  Critical elements for managing suicidal clients and counselor liability without the use of a no-suicide contract.  Death Studies, 29, 847-865. 

Suicide ends the lives of over 500 Alabamians each year (approximately 100 more than the number of homicides each year).  There are many myths and inappropriate beliefs about suicide.  National and state initiatives are attempting to train the public and mental health systems that suicide is a psychiatric emergency which if treated effectively can prevent death. From the AAS web site… “There are currently almost 32,000 suicides annually in the U.S. It is estimated that for every suicide there are 6 survivors. Based on this estimate, approximately 5 million American became survivors of suicide in the last 25 years.”