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  • Mental Health Awareness Month Support from the Oregon Office on Disability and Health

Mental Health Awareness Month Support from the Oregon Office on Disability and Health

Question and Answer with the Oregon Office on Disability and Health Program

Poster titled "Disability Etiquette: Treat Everyone with Respect" by the New Department of Health. The poster features images of diverse groups of people engaging in various social interactions. The main image at the top shows five individuals smiling and seated together, representing a range of ethnicities and including a person in a wheelchair. Smaller images on the bottom portion depict different scenarios: one shows a person in eyeglasses smiling, another captures a group of three young girls in a discussion, and the last shows two women in hijabs having a conversation. The design and messaging aim to promote inclusivity and respect for individuals with disabilities.

What mental health initiatives has your state developed that you’re most proud of?

The Oregon Office on Disability and Health (OODH) is proud of our current mental health care provider training. In this training, self-advocates with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) share their experiences with mental health care access and barriers they have faced, and the majority of trainees indicate that they are more likely to provide services to people with IDD after receiving the training. The mental health care provider training that we offer focuses on increasing the accessibility of care for individuals with IDD.

What resources or programs does your state offer to support mental health to individuals with disabilities? 

OODH connects individuals with IDD to mental health care as one of the areas of our CDC-funded Linkage Project. Support is provided to help people with IDD navigate system barriers to connect them to desired care.  

OODH has partnered with the Oregon Self-Advocacy Coalition and the Oregon Health & Science University UCEDD to create the Taking Charge of My Health Care Toolkit. The Toolkit is designed to provide self-advocates with the knowledge, skills and tools to learn about how to best advocate for their health and health care. One of the modules in the Toolkit covers the topic of mental health. OODH shares the Toolkit with self-advocates with IDD and uses it to help members of the Linkage Project self-advocate in the mental health care setting.

How does your state train its mental health service providers to address the needs of individuals with disabilities? 

OODH has developed a mental health care provider training program on offering accessible health care to individuals with IDD. Co-trainers who experience disabilities offer this training via live webinar once each quarter. This training is supported by the Office of Developmental Disabilities Services within Oregon Department of Human Services.

How does your Center ensure that mental health information and communication are accessible to all?

We work to make information that our office produces accessible to populations with disabilities across our scope of work. We also encourage that mental health providers and all health providers complete the Responsive Practice: Accessible and Adaptive Communication training module.

More Information

For more information on Mental Health Awareness Month or to send any questions, comments, related resources, stories, please get in touch with Tida Sonetirot

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