MIRECC / CoE

This month, Maurice Endsley, Ph.D., and Charlotte McCloskey, Ph.D., will provide information to help providers explore the impact of historical trauma on contemporary grief and loss recovery with a focus on BIPOC Veterans.

Following this live, knowledge-based webinar, clinicians and health care teams will be able to:

• Provide overview of suicide risk in the context of bereavement and loss for BIPOC Veterans
• Define historical trauma and describe how it influences contemporary reactions to grief and loss in BIPOC Veterans
• Share resources to further mitigate suicide risk in the context of bereavement and historical trauma

Maurice Endsley, Ph.D.

Dr. Endsley obtained a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri — St. Louis with an emphasis in Behavioral Medicine. He has specialized training in health psychology in primary care settings and psycho-oncology. He is currently serving as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program Manager for VA Northern California. His interests include multicultural psychology with a focus on the impact of coping with race-based stress on mental and physical health. He was co-lead for a VA Innovation and VA Office of Health Equity supported project to spread a race-based stress and trauma group-based intervention to support Veterans of Color. He is also a Subject Matter Expert and Co-Chair for the OMHSP DEI Resource SharePoint site. He has provided numerous trainings and talks on the impact of racism on mental and physical health, including interventions to improve health equity.

Charlotte McCloskey, Ph.D.

Dr. Charlotte McCloskey, Sicangu Lakota, is the Local Recovery Coordinator and a staff psychologist at the KCVA. She is active in American Psychological Association, Division 18: Psychologist in Public Service, VA Section and chair for Psychologists In Indian Country Section, and a former member of Committee for Women in Psychology. She is a co-coordinator for the national call for the Psychologists of Color Special Interest Group for the Association for VA Psychology Leaders, and a member of the Society of Indian Psychologists and the Society of American Indian Government Employees. Most recently, she held a detail that was collaboration of the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Office of Rural Health and the Rocky Mountain MIRECC focused on efforts to better serve Native American Veterans. She is also a Subject Matter Expert and Co-Chair for the OMHSP DE&I Resource SharePoint project. She received her masters and doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia with an emphasis on teaching and multicultural psychology. Her professional/clinical interests are focused on mentorship, consultation, recovery/resiliency, trauma, and grief and loss.

Following this live, knowledge-based webinar, clinicians and health care teams will be able to:

• Identify why talking about a suicide attempt in the family is important for kids in that family
• Describe when and how family members should talk about the attempt
• Discuss ideas on how much information to share by age group that is developmentally appropriate
• Describe ways adults can support a child after a suicide attempt in the family

Christie Machan, LCSW

Christie Machan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with the Rocky Mountain MIRECC for Veteran Suicide Prevention with the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System. She has worked with Veterans and their families across a range of clinics and settings through her 13 year career in the VA Healthcare System. In her current role, Ms. Machan works with the VISN 19 MIRECC Clinical Core Team on projects including; National Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program, Postvention Consultation, and the Risk ID Implementation Team. She is passionate about supporting Veteran's wellbeing by nurturing their parental and partner relationships to build up protective factors and reduce suicide risk.

Aaron Murray-Swank, PhD

Aaron Murray-Swank, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist in the Virtual Behavioral Health Interdisciplinary Program (BHIP) in the VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System. He has worked with Veterans and their families across a range of clinics and settings throughout his 19 year career in the VA Healthcare System. Dr. Murray-Swank is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and an Affiliate Faculty Member at Regis University in the Division of Counseling and Family Therapy. He has authored or co-authored over 20 professional publications, including work on family interventions for serious mental illness and suicide postvention.

Following this live, knowledge-based webinar, clinicians and health care teams will be able to:

• Examine CPG population- and community-based interventions related to gatekeeper training
• Understand a brief overview of existing literature published
• Explore various models of gatekeeper trainings and key components to the models
• Identify and access information on gatekeeper trainings for various settings

Cicely Burrows-McElwain, LCSW-C,

Cicely Burrows-McElwain, LCSW-C, joined the VA Suicide Prevention Office in the Community-Based Interventions for Suicide Prevention Technical Assistance and Resource Center Director in 2021. Prior to her current role Cicely served as the Military & Veteran Affairs Liaison at SAMHSA and has over 2 decades practice experience in community settings.

Kendra "Kenner" Barnes, LCSW

Kendra "Kenner" Barnes, LCSW, joined the VA Suicide Prevention Program Office in December 2021 as part of Community Based Interventions for Suicide Prevention as the Program Manager for VISN 20. She has been with the VA since 2011. Previous experience includes supporting Veterans through SPC, PCMHI, M2VA and PACT/SCI programs.

John McQuaid, PhD

John McQuaid, PhD is Associate Chief of Staff for Health Equity, San Francisco VA Health Care System as well as Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry of the Weill Institute of Neuroscience at University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Eric Elbogen, PhD, ABPP

Dr. Eric Elbogen, PhD, ABPP is a Clinical Psychologist at the VA and Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University. He ran a money management group at the VA for over a decade, and has been Principal Investigator of a randomized controlled trial of a recovery-oriented money management intervention for Veterans and of a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Veterans identifying a link between financial strain and suicidal ideation. Dr. Elbogen and colleagues also demonstrated a link between financial strain and suicide risk in the US general population and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

James Haug, MD

James Haug received his MD from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He completed his residency in psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina, serving as a chief resident in his final year. He returned to Colorado and completed a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at the University of Colorado. He is currently the Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder Clinics for Eastern Colorado Healthcare System. He is involved in medical student education and is the psychiatry liaison for the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships at the Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC.

Erin Higgins, LCSW, LAC

Erin Higgins is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Licensed Addictions Counselor with the Rocky Mountain MIRECC for Suicide Prevention. She serves as Postvention Lead and is a consultant for the Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program. Prior to joining the MIRECC in 2020, she served as Program Manager for the Outpatient Substance Use Disorders Clinic at the Rocky Mountain Regional Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. Her clinical interests include suicide postvention, the intersection of substance use disorders with suicide risk, and using technology to improve suicide risk screening and interventions.

Pamela Steadman-Wood, PhD, ABPP

Dr. Steadman-Wood is a board certified Geropsychologist. She is Chief of General Outpatient Mental Services at the Providence VA Medical Center and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University's Alpert Medical School. Her primary areas of interest are in the development and implementation of integrated geriatric behavioral health programs, geropsychology training and evidence-based psychotherapy competency training.

Kristen Dillon, PsyD, ABPP

Dr. Dillon is a board certified Geropsychologist practicing in Hospice and Palliative Care at VA Bedford. She is the Geriatric Mental Health Champion for VISN 1. She provides care to Veterans and families in hospice, serves as a member of the palliative care consult team, manages the bereavement program and facilitates the hospice and palliative care rotation for psychology trainees.

Ryan Holliday, PhD

Dr. Holliday is a Clinical Research Psychologist at the Rocky Mountain MIRECC Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center for Veteran Suicide Prevention and an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. His clinical and research interests focus upon understanding the intersection of trauma, psychosocial stressors and mental health. He is further interested in translating these findings into evidence-based practice.