Join OCEBHA and leading professionals in the fields of geriatric care, mental health, substance use, and social services for skills-based sessions related to supporting the behavioral health needs of older adults across care settings.
OCEBHA's 2nd Annual Behavioral Health & Aging Conference: Bridging Gaps, Building Resilience: New Frontiers in Geriatric Behavioral Health
Join OCEBHA and leading professionals in the fields of geriatric care, mental health, substance use, and social services for skills-based sessions related to supporting the behavioral health needs of older adults across care settings.
CEUs will be available.
The conference is free to attend, and students are welcome.
When
Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 1pm-5pm
Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 8am-5pm
Refreshments
Optional no-host happy hour on Tuesday, 5pm-6pm
Light snacks and refreshments will be provided both days, as well as a lunch on Wednesday.
Where
Boulder Falls Inn Event Center
505 Mullins Dr
Lebanon, OR 97355
Getting There
On-site parking is available at the event center. Or Start a group carpool.
Program Information
All sessions center older adults and aging, while also addressing intersecting topics such as workforce policy, emergency department boarding, age-informed care, social isolation, suicide risk, screening and prevention, behavioral health, brain health, the latest research into antipsychotic medication, the complexities of self-neglect, and more.
There will be opportunities for networking, providing feedback on OCEBHA's future initiatives, a resource marketplace, and skill-building that can apply to your work right away.
Those who might benefit from our conference the most include care partners working in community mental health, long-term care, home and community based services, substance use treatment, primary care, hospital systems, and crisis response. Clinical providers, administrative staff, advocates, and researchers are all welcomed and encouraged to attend.
Speakers
Yeates Conwell, MD
Yeates Conwell, MD received his medical training at the University of Cincinnati and completed his Residency and a Fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry at Yale. As Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester (UR) School of Medicine in Rochester, New York, he has served as Chief of the Geriatric Psychiatric Division, Vice Chair for Academic Affairs, Director of the UR Office for Aging Research and Health Services, and Co-Director of the UR Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide. He has served as President of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Chair of its Scientific Council. Alongside teaching, clinical care, and service system development, Dr. Conwell directs an inter-disciplinary program of research in aging, mental health services, and suicide prevention that has been continuously funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health for the past 35 years. He has authored over 400 publications on suicide and related topics in older adult mental health and served as consultant to suicide prevention agencies and centers worldwide.
Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber, PhD
Kelly Posner Gerstenhaber is a Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Dr. Posner’s work has been noted in a keynote speech at the White House and in Congressional hearings, and she gave the lead presentation in a U.S. Senate forum on school safety in her partnership with the Parkland community. Through her advocacy she has helped change local, national, and international policy, which in turn has contributed to reductions in suicide across all sectors of society. The Columbia Protocol is now policy across all 50 states, national agencies, and most countries. The FDA has characterized her work as “setting a standard in the field” and a lead article in The New York Times called it “one of the most profound changes of the past sixteen years to regulations governing drug development.” Her scholarly work has been included in the compendium of the most important research in the history of the study of suicide, and was recognized as one of top 20 most cited papers from Columbia faculty over the past 10 years.
Kim Van Orden, PhD
Dr. Kim Van Orden is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She co-directs the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide (CSPS) at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and the T32 postdoctoral fellowship in suicide prevention fellowship at URMC. She is the Principal Investigator of the HOPE Lab (Helping Older People Engage); her lab conducts clinical trials of suicide prevention interventions to promote social engagement and healthy aging. She is CoDirector of the Rochester Roybal Center for Social Ties and Aging, which studies behavioral interventions to promote social wellbeing in dementia family caregivers. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kim mentors students and fellows, provides training and consultation in suicide risk assessment and intervention, and maintains an active clinical practice providing evidence-based psychotherapy to older adults.
Andrea Avila, JD, PhD
Andrea Avila, JD, PhD is a licensed attorney, licensed psychologist, and certified forensic evaluator. She works full-time at Oregon State Hospital as an assessment psychologist, and in private practice providing individual therapy, forensic evaluations, and consulting services. She is the founder of MyMHAD, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of mental health advance directive (MHAD) use in Oregon. Although her work primarily involves serving people with serious mental illness, she is passionate about promoting the use of MHADs for anyone who would like to access them.
Jonathan Betlinski, MD
Jonathan Betlinski, MD (he/him) is the George Saslow Professor and Division Head for Public Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at OHSU, where he also gets to be Medical Director for the Oregon Psychiatric Access Line about Adults, Clinical Advisor to the Oregon ECHO Network, and Principle Investigator for the HEAL-OR program. Dr. Betlinski serves on the boards of CareOregon, Columbia Pacific CCO, and Big Lake Youth Camp, and volunteers as Program Committee Chair for the Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association.
Laura K. Byerly, MD
Laura K. Byerly, MD (she/her) is a clinician educator and geriatrician at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in the Division of General Internal Medicine & Geriatrics. Dr. Byerly received her medical degree from OHSU, completed internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed geriatric medicine and health professions education fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco and San Francisco VA Medical Center. She cares for older adults in OHSU’s Internal Medicine Clinic and affiliated post-acute and long-term care facilities. Dr. Byerly focuses on age-friendly education for health professions trainees and primary care teams, particularly in rural and underserved settings. As the program director for the HRSA-supported Oregon Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP), she drives initiatives to train and improve Oregon’s workforce for holistic, interprofessional care in tribal, underserved, and rural communities.
Walter Dawson, DPhil
Dr. Walter Dawson studies the policy implications of Alzheimer’s disease and brain health including the financial impact on families and the public programs that finance care. In addition to an appointment at the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, Dr. Dawson is a Senior Atlantic Fellow with the Global Brain Health Institute and faculty at Portland State University’s Institute on Aging. He also is the co-founder and CoDirector of the Oregon Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health and Aging. Dr. Dawson has extensive experience in national and state-level public policy. As staff at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, he worked on provisions of the Affordable Care Act to increase access to long-term services and supports. Dawson holds a masters from the London School of Economics and a doctorate in social policy from the University of Oxford.
Nirmala Dhar, MSW, LCSW
Nirmala Dhar is a licensed clinical social worker with a Master’s in Social Work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri and Bombay University, India. Nirmala has worked for 35 years in all aspects and programs of behavioral health in the public sector in Missouri, New Jersey and Oregon. She is a senior policy analyst and the Older Adult BH Lead Strategist for the Oregon Health Authority‘s Health Systems Division. In this position she is the Older Adult Behavioral Health Initiative Project Director, the PASRR Level II Coordinator and subject matter expert for her Division. Prior to this position she worked for Clackamas County Behavioral Health for 18 years. This included 10 years as the geriatric mental health specialist for the County.
TK Keen, JD
TK Keen is the acting insurance commissioner and administrator of the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. A lawyer by training, TK has been with the division in a number of high profile legal, policy, and compliance roles since 2012. He has played a lead role in the state's policy response to illegal payday lending issues, crypto-related fraud, and elder abuse. TK is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School and enjoys spending his free time hiking with his son and daughter on the trails of Oregon.
Allyson Stodola, MSW
Allyson Stodola is Associate Director for the Oregon Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health & Aging at Portland State University. Ms. Stodola has primarily worked on research and evaluation projects related to older adult behavioral health, including the evaluation of Oregon's Older Adult Behavioral Health Initiative (OABHI), the development of behavioral health and aging training modules for professionals, and Oregon's Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health & Aging. Ms. Stodola has several years of experience in translating data findings into actionable recommendations, identifying policy options to address needs of older adults living with behavioral health care needs, and disseminating these recommendations widely to policymakers and other local decision-makers.
Robyn Stone, DrPH
Robyn I. Stone is senior vice president for research at LeadingAge and co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, with offices in Washington, DC, and Boston, MA. An internationally recognized authority on aging services, she has more than 40 years of experience in policy development, program evaluation, large-scale demonstration projects, and applied research. A former political appointee in the Clinton Administration, Robyn served as deputy assistant secretary for disability, aging, and long-term care policy, and as assistant secretary for aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her widely published work addresses long-term care policy and quality, chronic care for people with disabilities, the aging services workforce, affordable senior housing, and family caregiving. A fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the National Academy of Social Insurance, Robyn was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2014. She holds a master’s in public policy from the University of Pittsburgh and a Doctor of Public Health from UC Berkeley.
Craig Vattiat
Craig Vattiat is a consumer education and engagement coordinator with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (DFR), the state regulator for the insurance and financial services industries. He works to promote the division’s consumer protection and financial education resources so that Oregon consumers can access the division’s consumer advocacy services and make more informed financial decisions. Before joining DFR, Craig taught personal finance classes at his alma mater, Oregon City High School. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family, birding, backpacking, and gardening.
Tyler Whitely
Tyler is the ODHS/APD Self-Neglect Specialist and Guardian/Conservator Contract Administrator with the Central Office APS Unit. Tyler is a Subject Matter Expert in complex self-neglect investigations and OAR requirements for guardianship and conservatorship in Oregon. Prior to joining Central APS, Tyler worked in law enforcement and his expertise comes from years serving on a co-response mental health team and as a senior crisis negotiator. Tyler is a certified Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator and has served as a Subject Matter Expert in civil litigation.