2025 Fall Registration Brochure

12 NJAMHAA's Fall Conference 2025 Anne Smullen Thieling, MS, MA, LPC, LCADC, ACS, NCC, CPRP Chief Operating Officer Collaborative Support Programs of NJ Heather Simms Deputy Director of Advocacy and Peer Services Collaborative Support Programs of NJ Pamela Baker Chief Impact Officer Collaborative Support Programs of NJ Number and Type of Credits: General Care, Not Confinement: Peer-led Strategies to End the Criminalization of Mental Illness and Homelessness, Course #6432 is approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB). Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program to be offered by the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies (NJAMHAA) as an individual course. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE course approval period: 8/14/2025 - 8/14/2027. Social workers completing this course will receive 1 general continuing education credit. This course is approved by the NJ Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies (NJAMHAA), as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #87719, NJAMHAA is responsible for all aspects of the programming. Care, Not Confinement: Peer-led Strategies to End the Criminalization of Mental Illness and Homelessness SESSION 2.3 . ................................................................... 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Afternoon Session COURSE DESCRIPTION: This session explores peer-led strategies to resist the criminalization of people experiencing mental illness and homelessness. Presenters will share how peer providers are leading innovative outreach efforts that connect individuals to housing, recovery, and community—not handcuffs or hospitalization. The workshop will also examine peer roles in discharge planning within psychiatric hospitals and advocacy efforts opposing expanded involuntary treatment laws. Through tools, models, and lived experience perspectives, attendees will leave equipped to promote voluntary, rights-based alternatives rooted in dignity and recovery. Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, attendees will be able to: 1. Identify the systemic connections between mental health challenges, housing instability, and involvement in the criminal justice system. 2. Describe peer-led models of support that offer voluntary recovery pathways through outreach and hospital discharge planning. 3. List the advocacy strategies to support legislation that defends individual rights and reduces coercive crisis interventions. Target Audience: Behavioral Health Professionals, Social Workers Audience Target Levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced