Fairfax County Public Schools Mental Health & Wellness Conference (8:00 am - 12:30 pm) | Inova Act on Addiction Summit: Bridging the Gap for Young Adults (12:45 pm - 4:00 pm)

Emotions matter. They inform our thinking and decisions, the quality of our relationships, our physical and mental health, and our creativity and everyday performance. What we do with our emotions is especially important. The goal of my presentation is to (1) inspire a new mindset around the power of emotions to transform our lives, (2) teach participants five key emotion skills, known as the “ RULER” skills, and (3) provide innovative strategies for developing emotion skills so that emotions help, rather than hinder, our well-being and success at home, school, and work.

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In this session, participants will discuss anxiety and anxiousness, to include warning signs, symptoms, typical co-morbid behaviors/disorder, and recommendations for home and school.

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Learn about the neurobiology of stress and anxiety and how they impact a student's ability to tolerate, comply and participate in the classroom. Come away with practical strategies to support behavioral and emotional regulation in and out of the classroom.

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In this session participants will learn about the Fairfax County Youth Survey and how having just three assets is associated with students being able to successfully manage stress, make better choices, and develop healthy habits. Assets, also known as protective factors, come from a variety of sources including home, school, and the community. Learn how we all can play a role in fostering resilience in our youth.

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In this session, we'll explore the intersection between executive functions, social-emotional learning, and technology use. We'll discuss the various ways technology use can impact health and well-being. Participants will learn strategies for selecting high-quality media (apps, games, websites, movies), and leave with research-based strategies and resources to support healthy and balanced technology use.

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Research links imbalances in the digestive system with mood, anxiety, and concentration issues. Learn about the connection between food, your stomach, brain and emotions, and the types of foods that trigger uncomfortable emotions and those that are helpful in calming your nervous system. Leave with practical strategies for small, manageable changes in your family's nutrition to have a positive impact on mental health.

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These days, children are expected to be good at so many different things at once. Often that type of pressure makes kids feel "not good enough," especially when they look around and compare themselves to others. In this workshop, you'll learn exactly what to DO and SAY so that children believe in themselves -- and thrive -- even in a culture where high-pressure standards seem unattainable.

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Healthy communication is the cornerstone of healthy relationships. This is especially true of relationships between parents and children. Children and adolescents are often reluctant to open up about their lives, and especially as they get older, it may seem challenging to have real conversations with them. This presentation will offer parents key strategies to communicate more openly and effectively with your children, which will better equip you to guide them through the increasingly difficult process of growing up.

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This session highlights the impact of childhood adversity and the building blocks of resiliency. Scientific breakthroughs reveal that what is predictable is preventable. Participants will encounter the transformative power of communities to improve health and well-being across the life span.

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It is not easy to find a counselor who can meet your child's needs and fits your budget. This session explores how you can use insurance, Medicaid, the Community Services Board and other resources to obtain counseling and other mental health services for your child and family.

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Prescription opioids are commonly found in U.S. households, either from current users or left-over from a previous prescription. This creates a reservoir of drugs that, according to national data, is the most common source of misused opioids.  We will share national and Fairfax County data on the source of misused opioids and discuss what healthcare providers, pharmacists, and families can do to increase safe storage and disposal, reducing the risk for misuse.

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Attendance in school has been linked to positive outcomes, such as reading on grade level, strong peer and adult relationships, and finishing high school on time. This session will address common barriers to regular school attendance, and ways that parents and other significant adults can help students develop skills to increase their school engagement and academic success.

Add to Calendar

This presentation will explore the development of executive functioning skills and how it is implicated in technology use. Through this developmental framework, we investigate and discuss the real challenges that students (and their parents) face in regulating use and behaviors associated with electronic devices.

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"This session will focus on how to identify/respond when anxiety begins to significantly impact a child's everyday functioning and when it leads to chronic absenteeism/ school refusal. Caregivers will be provided with practical tips to address related concerns."

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Mental health issues and substance use challenges often present during adolescence and young adulthood affecting middle and high school students, as well as those transitioning to or attending college. Youth Mental Health First Aid, Teen MHFA and MHFA for Higher Education are curriculums that provide parents and adults working with youth the training and education needed to identify potential mental health and substance issues. Both school and college settings have unique cultures and parents can learn how to work within each framework to best support their student by understanding the signs and symptoms, the importance of early intervention and practical skills for accessing and providing appropriate resources.

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“Failure to launch” has become a common colloquialism to describe the inability of young adults to develop adequate coping methods for more complicated, emerging stressors in their environment. In the United States, approximately 40% of 18-34-year-olds are living with a parent(s) and approximately 40% of them experience anxiety and depression. This workshop will review factors to identify those at risk for “failure to launch,” and discuss the benefits of using a cognitive-behavioral treatment modality.

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This presentation will provide parents and guardians with an overview of the nature of acting out behavior in children and adolescents. We will review the phases of the conflict cycle, the role of the adult in the cycle of behavioral escalation, and offer strategies to address challenging behaviors.

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The session will provide community members with vital information related to the vaping crisis. Presenters will cover topics such as but not limited to what vaping is, the materials used by youth to vape, associated myths, and health impacts.

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This session will explore research regarding how chemicals change the adolescent brain, dispell myths and identify proven methods for recovery.

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"This session will expand upon the keynote address and go deeper into the skills of emotional intelligence. Specifically, participants will explore how to apply the “RULER” skills to manage uncomfortable, difficult emotions and conflict. Participants will learn (and will practice!) a four-step process to help adults skillfully manage their own emotions and simultaneously regulate others’ emotions, including those of children and other adults."

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There are many psychological tools that aid performance, whether in the classroom, boardroom, or on the athletic field. This session will introduce you to a few performance enhancing practices that you can take away and begin utilizing today. Topics covered may include goal setting, mindfulness, battling perfectionism, and managing emotions like anxiety and anger.

Add to Calendar

In this session, participants will discuss anxiety and anxiousness, to include warning signs, symptoms, typical co-morbid behaviors/disorder, and recommendations for home and school.

Add to Calendar

Learn about the neurobiology of stress and anxiety and how they impact a student's ability to tolerate, comply and participate in the classroom. Come away with practical strategies to support behavioral and emotional regulation in and out of the classroom.

Add to Calendar

In this session participants will learn about the Fairfax County Youth Survey and how having just three assets is associated with students being able to successfully manage stress, make better choices, and develop healthy habits. Assets, also known as protective factors, come from a variety of sources including home, school, and the community. Learn how we all can play a role in fostering resilience in our youth.

Add to Calendar

In this session, we'll explore the intersection between executive functions, social-emotional learning, and technology use. We'll discuss the various ways technology use can impact health and well-being. Participants will learn strategies for selecting high-quality media (apps, games, websites, movies), and leave with research-based strategies and resources to support healthy and balanced technology use.

Add to Calendar

Research links imbalances in the digestive system with mood, anxiety, and concentration issues. Learn about the connection between food, your stomach, brain and emotions, and the types of foods that trigger uncomfortable emotions and those that are helpful in calming your nervous system. Leave with practical strategies for small, manageable changes in your family's nutrition to have a positive impact on mental health.

Add to Calendar

These days, children are expected to be good at so many different things at once. Often that type of pressure makes kids feel "not good enough," especially when they look around and compare themselves to others. In this workshop, you'll learn exactly what to DO and SAY so that children believe in themselves -- and thrive -- even in a culture where high-pressure standards seem unattainable.

Add to Calendar

Healthy communication is the cornerstone of healthy relationships. This is especially true of relationships between parents and children. Children and adolescents are often reluctant to open up about their lives, and especially as they get older, it may seem challenging to have real conversations with them. This presentation will offer parents key strategies to communicate more openly and effectively with your children, which will better equip you to guide them through the increasingly difficult process of growing up.

Add to Calendar

This session highlights the impact of childhood adversity and the building blocks of resiliency. Scientific breakthroughs reveal that what is predictable is preventable. Participants will encounter the transformative power of communities to improve health and well-being across the life span.

Add to Calendar

It is not easy to find a counselor who can meet your child's needs and fits your budget. This session explores how you can use insurance, Medicaid, the Community Services Board and other resources to obtain counseling and other mental health services for your child and family.

Add to Calendar

Prescription opioids are commonly found in U.S. households, either from current users or left-over from a previous prescription. This creates a reservoir of drugs that, according to national data, is the most common source of misused opioids.  We will share national and Fairfax County data on the source of misused opioids and discuss what healthcare providers, pharmacists, and families can do to increase safe storage and disposal, reducing the risk for misuse.

Add to Calendar

Attendance in school has been linked to positive outcomes, such as reading on grade level, strong peer and adult relationships, and finishing high school on time. This session will address common barriers to regular school attendance, and ways that parents and other significant adults can help students develop skills to increase their school engagement and academic success.

Add to Calendar

This presentation will explore the development of executive functioning skills and how it is implicated in technology use. Through this developmental framework, we investigate and discuss the real challenges that students (and their parents) face in regulating use and behaviors associated with electronic devices.

Add to Calendar

"This session will focus on how to identify/respond when anxiety begins to significantly impact a child's everyday functioning and when it leads to chronic absenteeism/ school refusal. Caregivers will be provided with practical tips to address related concerns."

Add to Calendar

Mental health issues and substance use challenges often present during adolescence and young adulthood affecting middle and high school students, as well as those transitioning to or attending college. Youth Mental Health First Aid, Teen MHFA and MHFA for Higher Education are curriculums that provide parents and adults working with youth the training and education needed to identify potential mental health and substance issues. Both school and college settings have unique cultures and parents can learn how to work within each framework to best support their student by understanding the signs and symptoms, the importance of early intervention and practical skills for accessing and providing appropriate resources.

Add to Calendar

“Failure to launch” has become a common colloquialism to describe the inability of young adults to develop adequate coping methods for more complicated, emerging stressors in their environment. In the United States, approximately 40% of 18-34-year-olds are living with a parent(s) and approximately 40% of them experience anxiety and depression. This workshop will review factors to identify those at risk for “failure to launch,” and discuss the benefits of using a cognitive-behavioral treatment modality.

Add to Calendar

This presentation will provide parents and guardians with an overview of the nature of acting out behavior in children and adolescents. We will review the phases of the conflict cycle, the role of the adult in the cycle of behavioral escalation, and offer strategies to address challenging behaviors.

Add to Calendar

The session will provide community members with vital information related to the vaping crisis. Presenters will cover topics such as but not limited to what vaping is, the materials used by youth to vape, associated myths, and health impacts.

Add to Calendar

This session will explore research regarding how chemicals change the adolescent brain, dispell myths and identify proven methods for recovery.

Add to Calendar

There are many psychological tools that aid performance, whether in the classroom, boardroom, or on the athletic field. This session will introduce you to a few performance enhancing practices that you can take away and begin utilizing today. Topics covered may include goal setting, mindfulness, battling perfectionism, and managing emotions like anxiety and anger.

Add to Calendar

Admiral Winnefeld will share the story of his youngest son Jonathan, and how Jonathan's life-long battle with anxiety and depression put him on the path to addiction. Tragically, Jonathan died of an accidental overdose at the age of 19. Determined to turn their grief into action, Admiral Winnefeld and his wife Mary formed SAFE Project to address the addiction epidemic on a national level. Admiral Winnefeld will also discuss what he's learned about the science of addiction and what everyone needs to know about the effects of misusing substances.

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Use of some substances can lead to the presentation of psychotic-like symptoms. It is difficult to know what to do when this happens, and how you can help. This program will provide education on psychosis, what substances may result in psychotic symptoms, and resources available to help you and your loved one.

Add to Calendar

This presentation is designed to provide an overview of substance use, misuse and abuse. Addiction is a biopsychosocial disease that is deeply wired into our brain circuitry and reward system. The progress of substance use disorder is predictable, and the awareness of it can help arrest and possibly reverse its progression. Early detection relies on recognizing signs and symptoms of alcohol and other drug use especially in adolescents and young adults. Participants will understand the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM) 5 criteria of substance use disorders. Through this understanding, participants will gain an understanding of various community resources to access and address the emerging problem. Participants will learn when enough is enough and how to offer help to family members or friends the help they need.

Add to Calendar

Medication assisted treatment (MAT) of substance use disorders, including opioid, alcohol, and benzodiazepine use disorders, have been maligned as “replacing one drug for another” and “not a true form of recovery”. However, patient outcomes suggest otherwise and MAT is widely recognized as the most effective treatment for substance use disorders.

Add to Calendar

People with addictions often hold false beliefs of themselves due to stereotypes that vilify addictive behaviors. Such misconceptions include the idea that people with severe addictions are lazy, untrustworthy, liars, uncaring, and unemployable. The Inside-Out Activity is an expressive therapeutic intervention that helps those in recovery share their perceptions of themselves with others to foster a richer sense of compassion and empathy, as well as to serve as a foundation to rebuild trust.

Add to Calendar

Emerging adults present difficult challenges in treatment due to specific demands, risk-taking, and developmental status. This training focuses on assessing readiness to change among young adults and the family. Further, focus is on describing interventions at this stage of treatment, utilizing the 6-stage model of change and motivational interviewing elements.

Add to Calendar

This interactive presentation will focus on how parents, educators, and students can cultivate an atmosphere for honesty.  A systems approach will be utilized to explain the origin of lying and how all human beings are natural liars based upon the stages of child development. Some of us move through these stages to the next ones, while others appear to be stuck.  The three C’s Calm , Consistent, and Caring  is a comprehensive tool  anyone can use when there is a suspicion, discovery, or admission of substance use at home, at school or in the community. The conclusion of the presentation will focus on practical skills to encourage honesty at home, at school, and in the community that attendees will be able to put into place right away.

Add to Calendar

Be a catalyst for change! This is a workshop to visualize and discuss the changes in the family system, the roles of the family members, and the goals of the individuals as each goes through recovery. This is an experiential and interactive presentation to help create a common goal of recovery for the family system.

Add to Calendar

When treating someone with a substance use disorder, a phrase often heard by treating clinicians is, “relapse is a part of recovery.” Addiction is a disease of the brain, a chronic illness, and needs to be treated as such. Because addiction is a multi-faceted disease, there is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach that can be implemented when treating it. What my presentation aims to uncover is how to identify potential relapse warning signs, how to best support someone who has relapsed, and how to put in place interventions to mitigate the chances that relapse will occur.

Add to Calendar

Setting healthy boundaries is a common struggle for families who are trying to balance caring and involvement with limit-setting. Boundaries are a developmental process that allow for an individual to gain greater and greater responsibility for self, while accessing others as needed. Boundary-setting skills set good fence lines between what is appropriate for an individual to own and take on and that which is best owned by another person. Emotional, physical, and cognitive boundaries all allow a family member to preserve his/her energy and allow the other person the independence, freedom, and distance to function as a healthy adult. Boundaries that are too rigid place a relationship at risk for so much distance that closeness is compromised and take away the door-knockers that relationships need to enter, share, and rely on one another. This presentation will explore tactics to balance boundaries and closeness needed for healthy family relationships.

Add to Calendar

Following Admiral Winnefeld’s keynote, please join Dr. Michael Clark, Chair, Psychiatry, Inova Health System, David Trott, Director of Economics and Special Programs and SAFE Project (staff member) and John Fritsche, recent University of Arizona graduate and SAFE Project (staff member) who will share their personal recovery stories and encourage questions.

Add to Calendar

Use of some substances can lead to the presentation of psychotic-like symptoms. It is difficult to know what to do when this happens, and how you can help. This program will provide education on psychosis, what substances may result in psychotic symptoms, and resources available to help you and your loved one.

Add to Calendar

This presentation is designed to provide an overview of substance use, misuse and abuse. Addiction is a biopsychosocial disease that is deeply wired into our brain circuitry and reward system. The progress of substance use disorder is predictable, and the awareness of it can help arrest and possibly reverse its progression. Early detection relies on recognizing signs and symptoms of alcohol and other drug use especially in adolescents and young adults. Participants will understand the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM) 5 criteria of substance use disorders. Through this understanding, participants will gain an understanding of various community resources to access and address the emerging problem. Participants will learn when enough is enough and how to offer help to family members or friends the help they need.

Add to Calendar

Medication assisted treatment (MAT) of substance use disorders, including opioid, alcohol, and benzodiazepine use disorders, have been maligned as “replacing one drug for another” and “not a true form of recovery”. However, patient outcomes suggest otherwise and MAT is widely recognized as the most effective treatment for substance use disorders.

Add to Calendar

People with addictions often hold false beliefs of themselves due to stereotypes that vilify addictive behaviors. Such misconceptions include the idea that people with severe addictions are lazy, untrustworthy, liars, uncaring, and unemployable. The Inside-Out Activity is an expressive therapeutic intervention that helps those in recovery share their perceptions of themselves with others to foster a richer sense of compassion and empathy, as well as to serve as a foundation to rebuild trust.

Add to Calendar

Emerging adults present difficult challenges in treatment due to specific demands, risk-taking, and developmental status. This training focuses on assessing readiness to change among young adults and the family. Further, focus is on describing interventions at this stage of treatment, utilizing the 6-stage model of change and motivational interviewing elements.

Add to Calendar

This interactive presentation will focus on how parents, educators, and students can cultivate an atmosphere for honesty.  A systems approach will be utilized to explain the origin of lying and how all human beings are natural liars based upon the stages of child development. Some of us move through these stages to the next ones, while others appear to be stuck.  The three C’s Calm , Consistent, and Caring  is a comprehensive tool  anyone can use when there is a suspicion, discovery, or admission of substance use at home, at school or in the community. The conclusion of the presentation will focus on practical skills to encourage honesty at home, at school, and in the community that attendees will be able to put into place right away.

Add to Calendar

Be a catalyst for change! This is a workshop to visualize and discuss the changes in the family system, the roles of the family members, and the goals of the individuals as each goes through recovery. This is an experiential and interactive presentation to help create a common goal of recovery for the family system.

Add to Calendar

When treating someone with a substance use disorder, a phrase often heard by treating clinicians is, “relapse is a part of recovery.” Addiction is a disease of the brain, a chronic illness, and needs to be treated as such. Because addiction is a multi-faceted disease, there is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach that can be implemented when treating it. What my presentation aims to uncover is how to identify potential relapse warning signs, how to best support someone who has relapsed, and how to put in place interventions to mitigate the chances that relapse will occur.

Add to Calendar

Setting healthy boundaries is a common struggle for families who are trying to balance caring and involvement with limit-setting. Boundaries are a developmental process that allow for an individual to gain greater and greater responsibility for self, while accessing others as needed. Boundary-setting skills set good fence lines between what is appropriate for an individual to own and take on and that which is best owned by another person. Emotional, physical, and cognitive boundaries all allow a family member to preserve his/her energy and allow the other person the independence, freedom, and distance to function as a healthy adult. Boundaries that are too rigid place a relationship at risk for so much distance that closeness is compromised and take away the door-knockers that relationships need to enter, share, and rely on one another. This presentation will explore tactics to balance boundaries and closeness needed for healthy family relationships.

Add to Calendar

Following Admiral Winnefeld’s keynote, please join Dr. Michael Clark, Chair, Psychiatry, Inova Health System, David Trott, Director of Economics and Special Programs and SAFE Project (staff member) and John Fritsche, recent University of Arizona graduate and SAFE Project (staff member) who will share their personal recovery stories and encourage questions.

Add to Calendar