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May Prevention Pathways Community of Practice: Elevating Community Voices: Centering Primary Prevention with Service Members, Veterans, and their Families
May 29 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Enhancing the Behavioral Health Workforce: Prevention Pathways Community of Practice
Overview:
ABHPC hosts monthly online Prevention Pathways Community of Practice. These interactive sessions will provide participants with an opportunity to learn, build skills for successful prevention efforts, and network with other prevention professionals. Discussions will be centered around best practices in prevention, emerging and empirical research, and evidence-based programs. Each session will be led by an experienced consultant with expert knowledge on the topic and will include ample time for participant engagement and interaction.
May Topic
Elevating Community Voices: Centering Primary Prevention with Service Members, Veterans, and their Families
Learning to center the voices of the populations and communities we support is crucial to effective prevention. You may have heard the phrase “nothing about us without us” – but how do we ensure that our priority populations are leaders and stay at the front and center of our efforts, and their needs are embedded in each step of our prevention work? The Community of Practice: Elevating Community Voices series aims to address these questions with a variety of populations.
California has the highest population of military personnel in the United States and is home to about 1.8 million veterans. Experiences of military-related stress and trauma are risk factors for substance use and misuse – which makes Service Members, Veterans, and their Families (SMVF) a priority population for prevention. This interactive session will teach participants about military culture and methods of engaging SMVF in prevention including how to develop SMVF-specific prevention programs. Participants will have the opportunity to share their own professional and personal experiences and learn from the expertise of our subject matter expert and one another.
About the Presenter
Peter G. Schmidt (he/him), is the former Director of the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs Counseling and Wellness Program where he oversaw the development and expansion of seven successful programs and had the honor to work with a dedicated and talented staff. Previously, Peter provided war-trauma counseling with veterans and family members and assessed, diagnosed and counseled incarcerated veterans during a psychology residency at McNeil Island Corrections Center. Peter dedicated the majority of his career in higher education as a twice, tenured counselor and psychology faculty, director of counseling, and dean. As cofounder of the Veterans Training Support Center, Peter provided numerous trainings on veteran-related topics to include Military Culture, Post-Traumatic Stress, Combat-related Brain Injury and Recovery, Dependable Strengths, and Promising Best Practices in Education and Employment for a variety of organizations. As a veteran of the USAF and Washington National Guard Peter is proud to have served those who served and their family members.
Outlook Live 
