I am back from attending the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors NASMHPD Research Institute's18th annual conference of State Mental Health Agency Services Research, Program Evaluation and Policy in Arlington VA. I posted notes on all of the presentations that I attended so you can read about those as you like. They also promised to have slides available on their web site so you can get more detail as well (the abstracts are already available from the link above).
NRI was interested in getting more participation from research institutes like MIMH and offered us an all expenses paid trip to the meeting (as well as individuals from two other Institutes). As the newest Division Director at the Institute I got asked to attend. While NRI paid my way they did not ask me to write about the experience and they may have never even considered that someone would blog their conference. So the comments (and errors in those comments) in this and the other posts from the meeting are my own.
It was interesting that while NRI paid for our attendance, they made no efforts during the meetings to meet me (or I presume the other research institute attendees) or to have us meet together to explore their goals for our participation. While I was exhausted from the rounds of presentations this seems like a missed opportunity that I suggest they address if they do this again.
When I first looked at the two and a half day program there was lots of stuff that seemed of interest. After all, I have been working in public mental health for over 25 years so how could presentations for the NRI be uninteresting. The night before I read the abstracts and plotted out my selections. However, I was beginning to get cool feet and felt that I might be in for the usual sort of conference "fluff" that was long on flash and short on substance. One of the reasons for this is that a couple of the presentations were reporting anew the same sort of work I had read 25 years ago.
Well I was wrong. The presentations were anything but fluff. They were solid, data supported, presentations that showed states effectively using information to make changes to improve the lives of their citizens. Outstanding!
I have always been an "L" and believe that government could (and should) be a source of help for those in need. As a single individual I cannot have much impact of the mental health needs of my fellows. But as a member of a community, which is what a state represents, our united efforts and dollars can have a positive impact. Those attitudes have taken a beating in recent years, but the programs presented at this conference and the states hosting them have shown this can be true. They have helped excite me and restore my belief in the power of the community, as represented by our governments, to be a positive force in the lives of those in need.
To me, this is great outcome and well worth my time and effort. Thanks for the invitation, I'll be back!
To make it easier to find them, here are the available posts: