Tuesday, November 23, 12:30 – 3:00 p.m. PT
Overview:
This training covers evidence-based self-help strategies to regulate difficult emotions that are common during the holidays and exacerbated for many during pandemic-related grief and social distancing. Participants will learn about virtual support groups, apps to aid in self-regulation, emotion regulation skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and a variety of local and national crisis and warm lines. The goal of this training is to disseminate self-help skills and resources that Californians can use to minimize the development of mental health crises.
Meet the Presenters
Ragini Lal is a dedicated, compassionate, solution-driven mental health advocate and humanitarian for underserved populations. She is currently the Community Engagement Manager at NAMI California, with experience in qualitative and quantitative research, cultural competency and responsiveness trainings, family and peer support trainings, report writing, and executing mental health equity and advocacy through large events. She received a Bachelor’s in Psychology at California State University, Sacramento, and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Mental Health Clinical Counseling – Marriage, Family, and Children program to obtain a License in Professional Clinical Counseling (LPC- CA). Ragini is certified in Mental Health First Aid for Youth and Adults, Psychological First Aid, Cultural and Linguistic Competence Certification, and Peer & Family Support Specialist. Formerly a Behavior Health Therapist at Genesis Behavior Center and Peer Counselor at California State University, Sacramento, Ragini has direct clinical experience with diverse communities, families, and children with various mental health conditions. Ragini was also a Crisis Peer Counselor at California Coalition for Youth, specifically working with peer youth and family members in need of immediate crisis counseling. Her long-term goal is to earn a PhD in Clinical Psychology, specializing in holistic healing to provide whole health care for diverse populations world-wide. Her work’s devotion is to empower others to believe in their personal strengths in an all-inclusive clinical healing journey—moreover, to increase systemic changes for more sustainable access to care through education and social advocacy.
Heliana Ramirez, PhD, LISW (she/her) is the CARE TA Center Project Director and a licensed social worker with a personal and professional commitment to suicide prevention and intersectional anti-racist behavioral healthcare. Dr. Ramirez has provided clinical suicide prevention and postvention to women who are incarcerated, LGBTQ+ populations, Veterans, college students, people who use injection drugs, people assigned the diagnoses of serious mental illness, people experiencing homelessness, and diverse youth (e.g., Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Samoan youth). This work includes individual, group, and community level interventions such as psychotherapy and case management, leading focus groups and facilitating clinical group-level interventions, teaching a peer support class to college students, organizing a regional Suicide Prevention Conference for interdisciplinary staff, writing suicide prevention and postvention policies and practices, and publishing peer-reviewed journal articles. Her diversity, equity, and inclusion work at Veterans Affairs includes LGBT Veteran patient care and employee relations for the Hispanic Special Emphasis Program and LGBT Staff and Allies Special Emphasis Program, which combined, garnered awards from the VA Secretary in Washington D.C. and the national VA Office of Diversity and Inclusion. This work included co-authoring the Veterans Affairs Transition at Work Policy for transgender and gender diverse employees, developing local and national LGBT Veteran Care Programs, and producing the film The Camouflage Closet about trauma and recovery among LGBT Veterans. Most recently, as Associate Project Director for the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, she designed and led “Discussions that Matter in 2020” a multiethnic, multicultural, and multidisciplinary seminar discussion series where mental health staff discussed 2020’s challenges (e.g., systemic racism, COVID-19 pandemic, radical self-care) on their work and lives. Dr. Ramirez’s work also includes training behavioral health providers in Socially Distanced and Culturally Responsive Suicide Prevention and authoring the resource Clinical Considerations for Telehealth Practice, which includes suicide prevention over telehealth. As a Queer Chicana, Heliana’s suicide prevention work is informed by her academic training, professional career, and lived experience in communities disproportionately impacted by suicide.