Mental Health Conference Program

GENERAL SESSIONS — FRIDAY • 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Understanding Mental Health • Dr. Matt Stanford
What does it mean when someone uses the term mental health? Is it synonymous with mental illness? In this keynote presentation Dr. Stanford will discuss the mental health continuum on which we all fall. He will present a model for the causes of mental illness and show how the Church can be the answer to our present mental health care crisis.

The Art of Healing • Dr. Dan Morehead
As people of faith — friends, family, and coworkers — how do we offer each other support and healing? How do we facilitate recovery and growth for the people around us? And how can we be helpful without enabling or getting overwhelmed ourselves? Dr. Morehead will describe the basic spiritual and psychological principles of healing, principles that allow us to be loving and not wounding, helping and not controlling.

GENERAL SESSION - SATURDAY • 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM

EMPOWER: Enhancing Your Response to Individuals with Mental Health Issues • Dr. Matt Stanford
In this interactive workshop Dr. Stanford will educate participants in the 4 R’s framework (Recognize, Refer, Relate, and Restore), including techniques for identifying mental illness, safe and effective responses in crisis situations, and building a network to quickly connect those in distress with professional care and support.

GENERAL SESSION - SATURDAY • 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Be Not Afraid: The Good News About Mental Health • Dr. Dan Morehead
Dealing with mental illness is a grueling, exhausting process. Sometimes it is hard to see reasons to hope. Dr. Morehead will share the shockingly good news about mental health and faith, news that includes science, culture, faith communities, and most of all your own experience with mental illness. Together we will look at ways that God is at work transforming our lives and our world.

ELECTIVE SEMINARS — SATURDAY • 12:45 PM - 1:45 PM

1. Suicide Awareness & Training • Memrey Casey
   In this workshop, Memrey will cover the criteria for identifying depression, symptoms indicating a person is contemplating suicide, and what we can do when symptoms become more serious. This workshop will help us know what to look for, what do you do, and how to get them help.

2. PTSD is a Family Affair • Dr. Mike Dugal
   Every family, whether intact, distant, or dismantled, is affected by post traumatic stress - whether or not we have loved ones who have served in the military. Causes are rampant and wide ranged. Left undiagnosed it can paralyze a family - and a simplistic approach will compound the pain and confusion in our relationships. In this breakout we will dialogue about the causes and symptoms, and we will take a family approach in journeying with those suffering from post-traumatic stress. As we respond with the “fruit of the Spirit” we may find a grace-filled environment being shaped in our own families. Before we journey towards healing and normalcy, we must realize PTSD is a family affair.

3. Calling Our Community to Action, Care and Compassion • Dr. Anthony Guerrero
   In this seminar Queen’s Medical Center Chief of Psychiatry, Dr. Anthony Guerrero, will make a call for compassion and action in our communities. He will give an overview of the magnitude and impact of Hawai‘i’s mental health and substance abuse problems and propose that we as a community need to creatively work together to leverage limited resources and effectively address these challenges. Not really "owned" or resourced by any one funding source, mental illness today is treated much the way leprosy/Hansen’s Disease was. It is stigmatized, poorly understood and a major cause of isolation and separation. It can lead to homelessness, incarceration, hospitalization, and, sadly, it disproportionately impacts indigenous and other disadvantaged populations. Part of Dr. Guerrero’s presentation will discuss the safety net that Queen Medical Center, in partnership with the University of Hawai‘i offers to our community.

4. Personhood: Mature and Immature Ways of Seeing and Loving Others • Brian Misaka
   We choose how we see and how we love each other. We can invest our time and look at the many facets of people that we encounter. We can simply write them off, put them in a box, see only a single facet of the other and call them names. This is called "Part-Person Relating." Or we can choose to examine their many facets including their history, context, feelings, motivations, and we can empathize with them. This is called "Whole-Person Relating." Join us for a time of unpacking godly ways of viewing and loving each person in your life including God.

5. Ask the Doctor • Dr. Dan Morehead
   Looking for a second opinion, or even a first one? In an open discussion, medical doctor and psychiatrist Dr. Morehead will address a wide variety of your questions on faith and mental health. Topics will include psychiatric medications, treatment resistant problems, issues for family caregivers, alternative treatments, and the role of spirituality in mental health. The discussion will follow the interests and needs of audience members.

6. A Biblical Look at Depression: Examples and Healing • Dr. George Rhoades
   This seminar takes a look at biblical examples of depression and God’s methods for healing depression: the losses of Job, the anger of Jonah, the jealousy of King Ahab, the sin of King David, the exhaustion of Elijah, the spiritual decisions of Jesus — and more. God’s Word is very practical in all areas of life and God’s teaching on depression is very clear, giving solutions for each type of depression.

7. Understanding and Dealing with Addiction • Dr. Matt Stanford
   No one who experiments with drugs or alcohol believes that he or she will experience the destructive effects of addiction. That’s because addiction does not happen overnight, but experimentation and recreational use slowly increase until addiction becomes an all-encompassing way of life. In this seminar Dr. Stanford will discuss the neurobiological and psychological factors that lead someone to become addicted, as well as, successful approaches to treatment and recovery.