There is a strong connection between employment and recovery from mental illness!  IPS Supported Employment is an evidenced-based program that operates on 8 Core Principles and provides employment services to anyone with a mental illness that wants to work.  The Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch offers an IPS Program for youth and will share their success stories, annual outcomes and program goals.

Elizabeth Campoy is the IPS Supported Employment Program Supervisor at the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch (YBGR) in Billings, Montana.  She has developed the program over the past 5 years with outstanding outcomes and strong support from her organization.  Her professional experience in mental health and teaching has afforded her the knowledge and skills to train extremely effective Employment Specialists.  The program’s positive outcomes have continually increased due to high-quality employer contacts and a growing network of local agencies, clinicians, schools, and other human service organizations.  Behind the outcomes are staff that are fully invested in the practices of IPS and deeply committed to the mission of YBGR, “Caring people, preparing youth for life.”

Mark Lukach is a teacher and freelance writer. He is the author of the international bestselling memoir My Lovely Wife in The Psych Ward. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Pacific Standard, Wired, and other publications. He is currently the Ninth Grade Dean at The Athenian School, where he also teaches history. He lives with his wife, Giulia, and their son in the San Francisco Bay area.

Mark first wrote about his family’s story in a New York Times “Modern Love” column and again in a piece for Pacific Standard Magazine, which was the magazine’s most-read article in 2015. He has also shared their story at The Moth Main Stage, and at a TEDx conference.

At this Sensing Session, we asked mental health clinics and treatment centers to present for 12 minutes on the status of their operations, how they are getting through COVID-19, concerns/desires for the coming year. It was similar to the Sensing Session NAMI Montana conducted during the budget crisis a few years ago.

Miriam Feldman is an artist, writer, and mental health activist who splits her time between her Los Angeles workshop and her farm in rural Washington state. She has been married to her husband Craig O’Rourke, also a successful artist, for 34 years and they have four adult children. Their 33-year-old son, Nick, has schizophrenia. Miriam’s novel He Came In With It is the legacy of, and for, her son Nick.

Jordan utilizes his combined experiences as a caregiver, social worker, and someone who has personally faced mental health challenges to create authentic mental health content that has been read by people around the world. Jordan writes The Mental Health Update newsletter. Over 30,000 people receive his mental health insights on Twitter and he has recently released the book, In Search of Happiness: Healing Through Mental Health Poetry.

Mike Vosters is a nomadic entrepreneur, developer, and mental health advocate. He writes in Medium about those parts of his life and living with ADHD and Bipolar Type II.

Mike brings his experience and strength living with a Bipolar condition, to develop the Mental Health League  app, an innovative tool, to empower anyone along their mental health fitness journey.

The MHL application provides DAILY education, motivation, and live coaching with lots of fun sports references. It’s modeled after a sports league with three main features to Track your progress, Train new skills, and Assist your fellow teammates.

​​Throughout his work, Dr. Sise emphasizes meeting patients where they are at in their willingness to change. He co-founded Frontier Psychiatry to ensure all Montanans have access to quality addiction treatment services and crisis care. Dr. Sise started providing care to Montanans when he joined Billings Clinic and founded the organization’s first addiction treatment clinic. Before leaving Billings Clinic in 2021, he served as Medical Director of Montana’s first EmPATH Unit, led the consult-liaison psychiatry service and created a virtual urgent care service. He has lectured on substance use disorder screening, diagnosis and treatment at both state and regional conferences. Dr. Sise is board certified in general and addiction psychiatry.

Holly C. Wilcox, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with joint appointments in the Department of Health Policy and Management as well as the Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine and Education. Much of her work involves population-based research on suicidal behaviors, the evaluation of impact of community-based universal prevention programs targeting suicidal behaviors, and data linkage strategies to inform suicide prevention.

Erin Amato, MD is an interventional psychiatrist, educator, award-winning speaker, and mother of 6. She is passionate about utilizing cutting-edge treatments for depression, anxiety, and other mood and cognitive disorders that have not responded to traditional interventions. She was the first physician to bring Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and ketamine treatment for depression to Montana and Wyoming and has focused her practice on innovative and integrative treatments to help patients find hope and healing.

Dr. Mike Potoczniak is a licensed psychologist and is the Chief of Mental Health at the Loma Linda VA. He was previously the mental health director for the Santa Rosa community-based outpatient clinic in San Francisco VA.

Deepika Bodapati is the co-founder of Athelas, a company working with patients living with Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia (TRS) to overcome the challenges of constant lab work when prescribed clozapine.

Judge Leifman shares his experience and successes with the Miami-Dade County Mental Health Project ending “THE CRIMINALIZATION OF MENTAL ILLNESS”.

Dr. Jennifer Preble, DSW, LCSW – On her PhD research about Montana Mental Health System

Mary Windecker, the executive director of Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana and Levi Anderson, the CEO at Western Montana Mental Health Center talk about the lessons learned and successes with Certified Behavioral Health Centers.

Mylene Widner and Winnie Lohof on the success and lessons implementing the Montana Path Program

Dr. Ken Duckworth MD, NAMI’s Chief Medical Officer talks about the making of and success of NAMI’s New Book, “You Are Not Alone.”

Dr. Ken Duckworth MD, NAMI’s Chief Medical Officer talks about the making of and success of NAMI’s New Book, “You Are Not Alone.”

Retired teacher and guidance counselor from Browning, Montana who has become one of the nation’s leaders in the Youth Aware of Mental Health program and a pioneer at bringing this research-proven program to Native American Communities.