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*Space is not guaranteed for registrations at the door on the day of the event. Last year's conference was at capacity. 

The Mental and Behavioral Health Conference is an annual training and professional development opportunity for students, practitioners, and community members. Our second annual conference seeks to provide attendees with critical understandings and practical knowledge that can be used to enrich their scholarship, service provision, and relationships while also inspiring thoughtful and intentional community action.

In this contemporary moment, we are forced to consider the impact that our scholarship has on the most vulnerable and marginalized populations in society. Changes in policy and politics are causing significant and swift consequences while pedagogy and praxis have been highlighted as locations of resistance and activism. Our theme this year centers around topics that those in education and the helping professions have long been committed to, but have only recently become part of the common cultural lexicon: diversity, equity, and advocacy.

Conference Strands:

Classroom Strategies * Advocacy & Social Justice * Wellness * Media

Distinguished Speaker: 

Dr. Debbie Covino, the First Lady of Cal State LA, will be making the opening remarks at the 2018 Mental and Behavioral Health Conference. Dr. Covino is a Master Clinical Hypnotherapist, Integrative Life Coach, Speaker, and Blogger/Author. She has spoken to diverse groups throughout Southern California about the importance of self-care and inner well being, including staff, faculty, and students at Cal State LA. Dr. Covino has also taught courses in self-hypnosis for personal and professional success through the College of Professional and Global Education at Cal State LA. She is the co-founder of the Cal State LA Mind Matters program, which focuses on the inner well-being of the campus community.

Keynote Speaker:

Kaveri Subrahmanyam, Ph.D., is the Keynote Speaker of the 2018 Mental and Behavioral Health Conference. She is a Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Child & Family Studies at California State University, Los Angeles; she is also the Associate Director of the Children's Digital Media Center @ Los Angeles  (UCLA/Cal State LA). She has been studying the role of interactive media in the lives of children and families for more than 25 years. Currently she is examining the relation between face-to-face and digital interactions on well-being, sleep, and academic performance among adolescents and collge students. Another strand of research uses expiremental designs to examine the implications of digital media use and multitasking on learning and risky behaviors.

Keynote Presentation:

Growing up digital - Is Living, Learning, and Commnication with Technology Transforming Youth Development?

Young people are growing up immersed in digital worlds. Often called digital natives, their technology use has been the source of much optimism but also concern. Drawing on research conducted at the CDMC@LA (Cal State LA), I will examine how living, learning, and communicating with technology is transforming youth development. I begin with a retrospective look at youth's technology use before examining current trends. Then I present the findings of recent work on the implications of learning and communicating with technology. The results indicate that digital contexts present both risks and opportunities, and help some youth more than others.

Featured Film Screening:

Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, "The Work" follows three men from the outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. "The Work" offers a powerful and rare look past the cinder block walls, steel doors and the dehumanizing tropes in our culture to reveal a movement of change and redemption that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation. 

*Limited seating available (192 participants), first come, first serve. 

https://theworkmovie.com/watch-the-trailer

Conference Session Schedule: