The role of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Steering Committee is to provide the network?s primary investigators/administrators with expert guidance on the issues that affect the SAMHSA-funded National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network, its administration, the crisis center community, and its consumers.
Sharon Carpinello, R.N., Ph.D. (
coevsec@omh.state.ny.us)
Chairperson, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Steering Committee
As commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health, Dr. Carpinello is leading a transformation of New York State’s public mental health system, changing the landscape in numerous areas including strategic planning, the science-to-practice agenda, and mental health promotion. She believes that an important step in preventing suicide is to “speak up” and cast it as a public health issue. Insofar as silence and suicide go hand-in-hand, she has publicly shared her own story of having lost a loved one to suicide. With the goal of saving lives, she initiated the development and implementation of SPEAK (Suicide Prevention Education Awareness Kit), a statewide education and awareness campaign that uses a public mental health model to help people become familiar with the risks for and warning signs of suicide. Launched in May 2004, SPEAK has received wide attention in both the public and private sectors and has been featured in regional and national publications, including
Governing Magazine,
Mental Health Weekly, and
Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow.
Dr. Carpinello is committed to a recovery model that emphasizes the uniqueness of each person, a perspective drawn from her nursing career which integrates the concept of holism into practice. In addition, her “science to practice” approach is further informed by her experience conducting mental health services research in the area of self-help and recovery, as well as her years as a policy maker and leader of the largest public mental health system in the country. In 2005, she has been invited to receive the Institute for Community Living’s Public Service Award, the New York Association for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services’ President’s Award, the Samaritans’ Lifekeeper Memory Award, the Federation of Organizations’ Woman of the Year Award, and the Mental Health Association of New York City’s first “Hope Award.”
David Covington, M.S., M.B.A. (
dcovington@ihrcorp.com)
Vice-Chairperson
As Chief Operating Officer of Behavioral Health Link, Mr. Covington manages the Georgia Crisis & Access Line which provides a Single Point of Contact for mental health, addiction and behavioral healthcare crisis services throughout the state. It is estimated that this service will receive 500,000 calls next year. In addition, BHL serves as the Regional Overflow Crisis Center for the Southeastern United States with 1-800-273-TALK. He has been instrumental in the development of the Georgia Crisis Intervention Team model for training law enforcement on de-escalating mental health crises and serves as a member of the Georgia CIT Advisory Board.
Prior to his work at the AAS and URAC-accredited Behavioral Health Link, Mr. Covington was director of Quality Improvement for APS Healthcare, Inc., the external review organization that oversees the delivery of all rehabilitation option mental health services in Georgia. Mr. Covington is a licensed professional counselor, is a national certified counselor and has an M.B.A. from Kennesaw State University and a master of science from the University of Memphis.
Charlotte Anderson (
211director@tuw.org)
Ms. Anderson has worked with Hotline, a 24-hour crisis and information service in Charleston, SC, since 1981 and served as the executive director since 1986. She recently spearheaded her community’s initiative to implement “211” and designed a merge of Hotline with the local United Way. Ms. Anderson served two terms as the crisis center division director on the Board of the American Association of Suicidology. She has led a suicide survivors support group for over 15 years and is part of the local crisis response team. In addition, she has worked as a Teaching Parent with emotionally disturbed youth, provided drug and alcohol education for the Navy, and designed and taught a course at Trident Technical College. Ms. Anderson passionately believes in the power of the “collective brain” and has seen incredible community changes occur when groups work together.
John Bateson (
johnb@crisis-center.org)
Mr. Bateson has been executive director of the Contra Costa Crisis Center, in Contra Costa County, California (San Francisco Bay Area), since 1996. His agency answers 18 hotlines, including separate, toll-free, 24-hour lines for child abuse, elder abuse, grief, homelessness, and youth violence prevention, as well as for crisis and suicide. The crisis center also handles 211 calls, and operates a limited-hours Chinese-language helpline. In addition, the agency has one of the oldest, largest, and most diverse grief counseling programs in California, and answers after-hours and Spanish-language calls to the California SIDS Hotline. John is on the board of directors of CAIRS (California Alliance of Information and Referral Services), represents crisis centers on the California 211 Steering Committee, and is a member of BASCIA (Bay Area Suicide and Crisis Intervention Alliance). Formerly he was associate director for 15 years of a multi-county social service agency. In 1992 he managed a temporary distribution center on the East Coast for victims of Hurricane Andrew. In 1996 he was named a "community hero" by United Way of America and chosen to carry the Olympic torch. His wife is executive director of a metro area food bank. He is especially interested in issues of cultural competency, and is committed to the concept of providing multilingual, multicultural crisis counseling.
Alan Berman, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. (
berman@suicidology.org)
Dr. Berman is currently the executive director of the American Association of Suicidology and former director of the National Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the Washington School of Psychiatry. He taught for 22 years at American University in Washington, DC, attaining the rank of tenured full professor. At American, he initiated development of the second University-based, student-operated crisis service in 1970. Thirty-one years later, he served as principal investigator of SAMHSA’s predecessor 3-year grant (2001-2004) to network and certify crisis centers. Dr. Berman is author/editor of 7 books in suicidology and more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. In 2005, he completes his sixth year on the board of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (until September, he is treasurer). He is a fellow of the international Academy of Suicide Research and is on the editorial boards of three journals in suicidology.
Shannon Breitzman, M.A. (
shannon.breitzman@state.co.us)
Ms. Breitzman is the director of injury and suicide prevention programs at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, including prevention programs for sexual assault, violence, suicide, childhood injury, and unintentional injuries. She serves as the principal investigator for three Federal grants, including youth violence and sexual assault prevention. She is the director for the Colorado Child Fatality Review Committee and facilitates a number of multidisciplinary coalitions and advisory boards, including the Colorado Injury Prevention Advisory Committee and the Colorado Sexual Assault Prevention Advisory Counsel. Ms. Breitzman was the first director of the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention and was a leader in implementing Colorado’s suicide prevention plan. She has studied the impact of public service announcements on crisis line use. She has also worked with crisis line directors on funding, technology, and service delivery issues. Ms. Breitzman has worked in the fields of mental health and human services for 12 years. Her professional experience has included working with children, adolescents, and their families, including assessment and treatment planning for adolescents at risk for suicide. She is a certified trainer in applied suicide intervention skills training and is a public speaker on suicide and violence. Ms. Breitzman has a master’s degree in marriage, family, and child therapy and a master’s degree in art therapy.
Esther A. Castillo, L.C.S.W. (
comadre@pacbell.net
)
Ms. Castillo has worked in the Mental Health field for 30 years, with an emphasis in substance abuse and crisis stabilization.
She has been a program administrator for the past 24 years in both the public and private sector. She has worked with;Behavior health programs and administered Crisis Response Teams for Catholic Health Care West and for Merit Behavior Care (a program developed by Merck Corporation and currently with Magellan Behavioral Health.)
Esther was Director of Yolo County Department of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health for seven years. During her tenure as a Behavioral Health Director Ms. Castillo oversaw programs offered by Suicide Prevention of Yolo County.
Although she took an early retirement to care for her husband who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Esther continued to chair several Committees for the California Mental Health Directors Association (CMHDA). These committees include Adults System of Care and Women's Mental Health Policy Counsel. She also represents the CMHDA on the Cultural Competency Advisory Committee of California State Department of Mental Health.
Ms. Castillo has maintained a private practice in Sacramento for nine years.
John Draper, Ph.D. (
JohnD@mhaofnyc.org
)
Dr. Draper is director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at the Mental Health Association of New York City. He has extensive experience in suicide prevention, crisis center management, and systems coordination. As a counseling psychologist, he worked with hundreds of persons at risk for suicide in their homes as a Brooklyn mobile crisis professional for 7 years. He eventually served as clinical director and consultant to the city’s department of mental health. Dr. Draper continues to work as a consultant to the city, training mobile crisis professionals in risk assessment. As the founding director of the Mental Health Association of New York City’s 24-7 LifeNet Multicultural Hotline Network and Public Education Division in 1996, Dr. Draper was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the hotline network’s development, including staff hiring and training, customized software program design and implementation, data management and reporting, and all network-related multicultural outreach and education activities. Under his stewardship, the Mental Health Association of New York City’s public education and hotline capacity grew exponentially, expanding its funding more than fourfold to a $2 million operation, from initially serving 10,000 persons in its first year to serving more than 120,000 persons through its hotline, depression screening, and other outreach initiatives in its seventh year. Dr. Draper’s training as a family systems therapist has also aided him in his work to facilitate collaborations among major human service, law enforcement, and emergency systems in the area. He has engineered major behavioral health, public education, and outreach initiatives through the city’s police, fire, education, aging, health, and mental health departments, and he has chaired three city behavioral health committees to ensure ongoing systems collaborations.
Beginning September 11, 2001, Dr. Draper’s 1-800-LIFENET crisis call center became the primary vehicle for mobilizing the largest disaster mental health response ever undertaken in the United States. Following the attacks on 9/11, LifeNet became the central network entry point for federally funded crisis counseling services and hotlines throughout New York and to some parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. Currently, LifeNet continues to function as the American Red Cross’s main entry point for persons seeking 9/11-related behavioral health assistance throughout the Nation. Dr. Draper has authored chapters on the role of hotlines in disaster mental health in two books that will be published later this year.
Robert W. Glover, Ph.D. (
bob.glover@nasmhpd.org)
Dr. Glover has been the executive director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) since September of 1993. Due to NASMHPD’s partnership with the Mental Health Association of New York City in the federally funded National Suicide Prevention Lifeline project, Dr. Glover is a key member of the Lifeline’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT). Founded in 1959, NASMHPD was organized to reflect and advocate for the collective interests of State Mental Health Agency directors and staff at the national level, playing a vital role in the delivery, financing, and evaluation of public mental health services within a rapidly evolving health care environment. Prior to this position, Dr. Glover served as commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation in Maine for 3 years. He has worked in several states’ mental health departments, including Colorado (director), Idaho (administrator), Pennsylvania (deputy health commissioner), and Ohio (assistant commissioner). Dr. Glover was president of the NASMHPD Board of Directors from 1985-86 and president of the NASMHPD Research Institute, Inc., Board of Directors from 1987-88, and he is currently a faculty member for Harvard University. He served as a member of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Advisory Panel on Seclusion and Restraint, and he served on the experts’ panel for the U.S. Surgeon General’s National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Glover continues to highlight suicide prevention as a NASMHPD priority, including partnering with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) to coordinate regional Youth Suicide Prevention Roundtable meetings. He is a licensed psychologist in Ohio and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Ohio State University in 1974.
Richard McKeon, Ph.D., M.P.H. (
Richard.McKeon@samhsa.hhs.gov)
Dr. McKeon received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona and a master’s of public health in health administration from Columbia University. He has spent most of his career working in community mental health, including 11 years as director of a psychiatric emergency service and 4 years as associate administrator/clinical director of a hospital-based community mental health center in Newton, NJ. He established the first evidenced-based treatment program for chronically suicidal borderline patients in New Jersey, using Marsha Linehan’s dialectical behavior therapy. In 2001, he was awarded an American Psychological Association Congressional Fellowship and worked for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, covering health and mental health policy issues. He spent 5 years on the board of the American Association of Suicidology as clinical division director, and he also has served on the board of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He is currently a special advisor on suicide prevention for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Scott Ridgway, M.A. (
sridgway@tspn.org)
Mr. Ridgway is executive director of the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network (TSPN), an independent, voluntary group of individuals, organizations, and agencies (public and private) that promote community awareness of the warning signs of suicide and strategies for suicide prevention. TSPN is a member of the Association of Tennessee CONTACT/Crisis Centers and works closely with all 11 centers in the State to ensure their participation in the mission of suicide prevention. TSPN itself is housed in Nashville’s Crisis Intervention Center, an AAS-certified agency that has operated a suicide hotline for more than 37 years and takes more than 30,000 calls a year. In the past 15 years, Mr. Ridgway has served CIC in many diverse and important capacities, including that of telephone counselor, crisis specialist, postvention coordinator, board member, and past president of the board of directors.
Working closely with the TSPN Advisory Council and the Governor?s Office, Mr. Ridgway coordinates the implementation of the Tennessee Strategy for Suicide Prevention activities on all local and statewide levels.
The Tennessean has included him in the “Top 40 under 40,” an annual listing of young leaders in middle Tennessee, and recently he received the I.C. Hope Award from the Mental Health Association of Tennessee, in recognition of his outstanding work to provide hope for the mentally ill.
Stephanie Weber, M.S., L.C.P.C. (
stephanie@spsfv.org)
Ms. Weber is executive director of Suicide Prevention Services, Inc., Batavia, IL. Her Survivors of Suicide of Fox Valley program, founded in 1982, has served over 1,000 families who have lost a family member to suicide, providing support groups (which she still facilitates), a monthly newsletter, and survivor outreach. In 1984, she created the Crisis Line of Fox Valley in Aurora, IL, a 24/7 hotline staffed by volunteers with 88 hours of training. In 1998, Ms. Weber became the founding director of Suicide Prevention Services, Inc., an agency that provides prevention in the form of education and outreach, intervention in the form of 24/7 hotlines, and postvention that includes survivor groups for adults as well as for children and teens. Suicide Prevention Services, Inc. also does crisis intervention, counseling, and depression screenings.
Ms. Weber has traveled extensively to conduct suicide prevention training and to help agencies set up hotlines. She is a member of the American Association of Suicidology, having been their survivor division director as well as their Survivor of the Year for 2000. She has received numerous local, State, and national awards since 1987. Ms. Weber is also a member of the American Counseling Association.