Building a 21st Century Crisis System
Monday, August 26th, 8:00 A.M
Dr. Margie Balfour is a psychiatrist and national leader in crisis care, quality improvement, and law enforcement responses to behavioral health emergencies. She is Chief of Quality & Clinical Innovation at Connections Health Solutions and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona. Dr. Balfour was named Doctor of the Year by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing for her leadership at the Crisis Response Center in Tucson, Arizona, and CIT International Practitioner of the Year for her work to help law enforcement better serve people with mental health and substance use needs. She co-authored Roadmap to the Ideal Crisis System: Essential Elements, Measurable Standards, and Best Practices, and her pioneering work on crisis outcome measurement has been identified as a national best practice. Dr. Balfour is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and serves on the APA Council on Quality of Care. She has also served on the boards of the American Association for Community Psychiatry, American Association for Emergency Psychiatry, and numerous expert panels for SAMHSA, the DOJ, and others. A native of Monroe, Louisiana, Dr. Balfour received a BA in Biology at Johns Hopkins University and then her MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati. She completed residency and fellowship in Community Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Implementing SAMHSA’s Best Practice Crisis Care Model and Alignment with CIT Efforts
Tuesday, August 27th, 8:00 A.M
Implementing SAMHSA’s Best Practice Crisis Care Model and Alignment with CIT Efforts
Paul Galdys has been a CIT instructor for the past 19 years; regularly facilitating sessions for three different programs in Maricopa County Arizona while also supporting sessions in rural Arizona and Ohio when called on. Prior to joining Recovery Innovations (RI International) in 2017, he served as an Assistant Director in Arizona Medicaid in support of $12 billion in health care service delivery annually. Paul was the lead writer of the National Guidelines for Behavioral Health Crisis Care published by SAMHSA in February 2020 and led the development of the Crisis Resource Need Calculator being used throughout the nation to support the design of crisis systems. His commitment to partner with law enforcement to advance true CIT systems of care can be seen in RI operations in nine states last year as well as his crisis system design efforts that consistently include an expectation of partnering with law enforcement to offer no-wrong-door access to care for all brought in through dedicated first responder entrances.
Pillars of Hope: Building Compassionate Care from the Lived Experience
Wednesday, August 28th, 8:00 A.M
People USA’s Chief Executive Officer is a pioneer, visionary, and expert in the field of mental health, substance use, criminal justice, and crisis response. Inspired and driven by his personal lived experience, Steve has spent over two decades creating, providing, and advocating for innovative behavioral health services that transform systems of care across the United States and internationally. He is proud to promote services that are trauma-informed and person-centered with positive expectations for recovery and wellness outcomes. Steve shares his expertise through delivering keynotes, participating on panels, and publishing articles. Steve’s unique models and approaches significantly reduce hospital utilization, incarceration rates, and overall healthcare spending. Because of this success, People USA’s program models have been studied and replicated across the United States and Europe. Steve earned his BA in psychology from SUNY Plattsburgh.
Some of Steve’s innovative programs include:
Steve is active with the following groups:
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