^{Jeanann Verlee / Photo by Alana Melanson}

The 2024 Washington Behavioral Healthcare Conference is coming back to Kennewick for the second year in a row, June 13–14, 2024. The theme is “Supporting Recovery in a Changing World”. Behavioral Health includes Mental Health and Addiction Services.

As our state and nation face new uncertainties in an election year, the need for behavioral health supports and resiliency is higher than ever. At the same time, there is unprecedented recognition of the vital importance of expanding access to behavioral health care, including community-based treatment and peer support services. The momentum to address structural racism throughout our communities and institutions continues to grow, and new and diverse voices are helping to shape our path forward.

There will be 39 sessions — 34 workshops and, new this year, four TED-style talks. Some of the main topics will be recovery and resiliency, race and equity in behavioral health, innovative care practices, services across the lifespan, and corrections and mental health. Community providers, regional and national experts, and people with lived experience will present.

The keynote speakers are:

• Daniel E. Dawes, JD: a widely respected healthcare and public health leader, health equity and policy expert, educator, and researcher
• Jeanann Verlee: a poet and author with lived experience who uses her work to bring awareness to issues surrounding mental health
• Ricky Kidd: a master of resilience who was wrongfully convicted, spent 23 years in prison, and after his exoneration works to help others become resilient in the face of their challenges

For more information see: https://www.thewashingtoncouncil.org

Psychologist Charles Eaton worked directly with heroin addicts, ran programs for the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of Substance Use Disorders, and led Public Health programs for the prevention of HIV in drug injectors for more than forty years in NYC.