Conference Details

Recovery may begin, but ongoing commitment is difficult without a sense of belonging, love and connection. Unfortunately, for   people who identify as LGBTQ, structural and societal barriers often prevent developing meaningful connections to one’s self, let alone others. Research has found that these barriers are linked to the  disproportionate numbers of LGBTQ youth who are either homeless or part of the juvenile justice and foster care systems. The discrimination and lack of acceptance that LGBTQ youth experience carries into adulthood, where research sees an ongoing struggle for incarcerated people who are categorized as gender and sexual minorities.

Matters of the Heart walks through the complexities and also simplicities of human sexuality through the intersections of human growth and development, research findings, and health models. The presenter will then cover current national climate survey findings, recommendations and best practice guidelines when working with LGBTQ individuals, including those who are part of the national prison  system. The presentation will close with a modern-day recovery story, shifting how we view being LGBTQ from the head to the heart.

Objectives:

1. Recall the differences between sex assigned at birth, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.
2. Understand terminology and language applicable to LGBTQ identities.
3. Identify influencing factors that contribute to addiction among gender and sexual minorities.
4. Recall the impact and outcomes family acceptance or rejection have on LGBTQ individuals.
5. Provide education and increase competency surrounding factors that influence LGBT youth, including those involved in the juvenile justice system.
6. Identify current barriers to accessing rehabilitative services for LGBTQ inmates.
7. Employ strategies that improve programming and outcomes for LGBTQ individuals.

Ryan Sallans, MA, is an inspirational transgender speaker and author who specializes in inclusion, diversity, and healthcare. Over the past 20 years, Ryan has worked in the fields of eating disorder recovery, sexual orientation, and gender identity development. His work focuses on building inclusive   environments and providing trauma-informed care for students, patients, employees and clients. His growing body of texts and teachings assist   corporations, healthcare institutions, federal agencies, universities, and communities.

His teachings are based on personal narrative storytelling, interwoven with his academic training, research and science.

Ryan Sallans graduated Sigma Tau Delta from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. From 2008 to 2020, Ryan served as the Lead Author and Subject Matter Expert for an extensive range of e-learning courses used around the nation to train healthcare professionals and staff seeking continuing education around serving the LGBTQ community. His academic publications include   several personal narratives for peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Ethics (2020), Journal of Ethics (2016), Journal of Ethics in Mental Health (2015), and Contemporary  Sexuality (2012).

Research in neuroscience provides an evidence-based and comprehensive understanding of addiction that fits well with the experiences of people needing, seeking, and in recovery. There are several insightful and well-articulated arguments challenging the disease conceptualization of addiction, but two important areas of research – epigenetics and psychoneuroimmunology – greatly advance awareness of how environmental stress creates vulnerability to addiction. This lecture reviews the most up-to-date science of addiction, the current arguments for and against addiction’s conceptualization as a disease, and how the principles of recovery management counter the pathophysiology of addiction and improve a recovering person’s chances of achieving long-term recovery.

 Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the latest neuroscientific explanations of substance use disorder pathophysiology and interpret Substance Use Disorder symptomology in light of this research.
2. Describe and analyze the arguments for and against the conceptualization of addiction as a brain disease.
3. Define psychoneuroimmunology and explain its connection to substance use disorder.
4. Define social determinants of health and explain the role they play in vulnerability to substance use disorder.

Dr. Kevin McCauley is a non-practicing physician who has worked in the field of addiction treatment for nearly two decades. Kevin first became interested in the treatment of substance use disorders while serving as a Naval Flight Surgeon for Marine Corps heavy-lift helicopter and fighter/attack squadrons. Kevin has over ten years of continuous sobriety and has worked in a non-clinical capacity at several treatment centers giving lectures on the neuroscience of addiction and recovery management concepts. His career path has taken him from Orange County, California to Salt Lake City, Utah where he currently serves as Director of Program Services at New Roads Behavioral Health in Sandy and Provo. He has given over two thousand lectures on addiction and recovery throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and Australia. Kevin also continues to assist pilots with substance use disorders through his collaboration with the Air Line Pilots Association’s HIMS Program. Dr. McCauley is a Senior Fellow at The Meadows. He wrote and directed two films: Memo to Self, exploring the concepts of recovery management, and Pleasure Unwoven, on neuroscience of addiction. He won the 2010 Michael Q. Ford Award for Journalism from the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers.

A code of ethics is what unifies a profession and provides guiding principles for competent behaviors that adhere to legal responsibilities. This virtual presentation will address some of the nine principles of a national code of ethics and key ethical issues of behavioral health providers in 2021.  Areas of concern are telehealth, boundaries, dual relationships, confidentiality, clinical vs administrative supervision, risk management, and professional practice. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will recognize a national code of ethics.
2. Participants will relate the ethical/legal dilemmas with telehealth.
3. Participants will analyze the ethical dilemmas in the counselor/client relationship.
4. Participants will interpret client/counselor boundary issues.
5. Participants will distinguish clinical versus administrative supervision.

Diane Sevening, EdD, LAC, MAC, is the immediate past President of NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals, a national organization that represents the professional interests of more than 100,000 addiction counselors, educators and other addiction-focused health care professionals in the United States, Canada, and abroad.

Sevening has over 35 years of teaching experience and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota (USD) School of Health Sciences Addiction Counseling and Prevention Department (ACP) and a faculty advisor to the USD chapter of the Coalition of  Addiction Students and Professionals Pursuing Advocacy (CASPPA).

Sevening’s clinical experience includes seven years as the Prevention and Treatment Coordinator Student Health Services at USD, one year as a Family Therapist at St. Luke’s Addiction Center in Sioux City, IA, and two years as clinical supervisor for the USD Counseling Center. She holds a Doctor of Education degree, is a Licensed Addiction Counselor, and holds a Master Addiction Counselor credential.