In May 2015, the Montana Department of Revenue hosted an alcohol summit in Bozeman for county DUI task forces, law enforcement agencies, and alcohol abuse prevention personnel from across the state. Locally, members of District II Alcohol & Drug and the Richland County DUI task force attended the summit. They received an immense amount of useful information, and decided to bring something similar to eastern Montana, in hopes of bringing more training to agencies in the eastern part of the state.
Throughout the past 6 months, a dedicated group of individuals has helped create the Alcohol & Mental Health Conference: continuing the road to change in eastern Montana. Hosted in Sidney, the event will start with a kick off dinner Tuesday, April 5th at the Richland County Fair Event Center. Dinner will be free of charge, and attendees will have a chance to hear from Kacey Collins from the Department of Revenue’s liquor control division, as well as Jake Rodenbiker, McKenzie County Attorney for North Dakota.
The rest of the conference will take place on Wednesday, April 6th, and Thursday, April 7th. Due to the large amount of tracks offered, each training is located at a different site. All addresses and conference information will be available at the kickoff dinner, and available beforehand by request. The topics chosen will provide different agencies in eastern Montana with the tools to prepare, prevent, acknowledge, respond and help those involved with alcohol use and impaired driving, as well as prepare them to deal with mental health emergencies.
The training seminars throughout the 6th and 7th will include:
Critical incident stress management overview (cism) (directed towards first responders, clergy, disaster volunteers, search & rescue, community members), mental health first aid training (directed towards first responders, healthcare providers, all community members)
Responsible alcohol sales and service (rass) (directed towards alcohol establishment owners, managers, staff and anyone who plans on serving or selling alcohol to the public), alcohol policy development workshop (directed towards business owners, liquor license holders, alcohol retail business owners, bar managers, grocery store managers, convenience store managers, and liquor store managers), screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (esbirt) (directed towards healthcare practitioners, health clinics, hospitals, trauma centers, dental clinics, tribal and military healthcare personnel), advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement (aride) (directed towards law enforcement only; must be pre-registered), 911 dispatch training: non-emergency call handling (directed towards dispatchers, jailers, other support staff in law enforcement that field calls: costs $229/ person to take this course; must be pre-registered), and domestic violence/drug endangered children (directed towards law enforcement, domestic violence volunteers, healthcare workers, and social service workers)
With the exception of the 911-dispatch training, all of the courses offered are free of charge. This conference will be a great networking opportunity for those with different concerns throughout the communities of eastern Montana, as well as provide more learning tools to address alcohol and mental health issues. For more detailed information, times, and to sign-up for specific courses, please log on to http://www.richland.org, and click on the link following the Alcohol & Mental Health Conference-April 5th-7th-: continuing on the road to change in eastern MT. For questions or other needed information, please contact Don Smies, DUI task force/injury prevention coordinator, at (406) 433-2207, or Nicole Hackley at District II Alcohol & Drug program, (406) 433-4097.
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