BCOW Adult Mental Health Fall Conference

Welcome to the BCOW Adult Mental Health Fall Conference! Join us for a free conference and vendor booth fair to learn more about adult mental health in your community.

8:30am-9am: Registration

9am-10:30am: Finding Your Beat, the Rhythm of Life

10:45am-11:45am: Roots to Resilience

11:45am-1:00pm: Lunch - see details below

1:00pm-2:30pm: Talk Save’s Lives & I CARE

2:45pm-4:00pm: Hostage Crisis Within a Psychosis Episode *

Certificate of Attendance provided. Free light breakfast. Lunch will be on your own for professionals and provided for consumers/family. Please bring your own refillable water bottle.

*Trigger Warning: Presentation featuring mental health crisis and suicide. Take care of yourself and feel free to leave early if needed. We can't wait to see you there!

Info: Tim knows the importance of paying attention to the rhythm of life. Having worked in the Criminal Justice field for 28 years, he is an expert at Working the Beat and has learned through experience the value of discovering the harmony in it all. We all face challenges that create our own beat in life when balancing family and careers and struggling to find time for ourselves and our physical, mental, and spiritual health. Prepare to be energized, inspired, and entertained as “The Off-Duty Chief” shares strategies and tactics for finding YOUR RHYTHM!

Info: This session explores intergenerational trauma and resilience through a Native American lens, highlighting how traditional healing practices—such as ceremony, storytelling, and connection to land—are being integrated into mental health and wellness.

Info: Talk Saves Lives: An Introduction to Suicide Prevention is AFSP’s flagship suicide prevention education program that covers the scope of this leading cause of death, what the research has found to be the warning signs and risk factors of suicide, and the strategies that prevent it.
I CARE; U Matter Movement was started by Dukart in 2015 and is the simple act of making/sending a card to someone to let them know they matter.

Info: Drawing on my experience as the wife and caregiver of a man with Bipolar 1 with psychosis, I describe his most severe episodes as hostage crises – periods when psychosis temporarily replaced the person I loved and confronted us with a distinct and shifting set of demands. This session invites participants to consider when and how psychosis functions like a hostage-taker, how we might better address these episodes, and ways to support recovery and accountability in its aftermath.

Host or Publisher BCOW (Becker, Clay, OtterTail and Wilkin) Mental Health Education Committee