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Law & Mental Health Conference

The 2022 Law & Mental Health Conference will be November 7 & 8 – on Civil Commitment

The Law & Mental Health Conference brings together expert speakers with legal, clinical, and lived experience to discuss the conflict between law and mental illness.

Click here to watch keynotes and sessions of the 2021 conference – on the Impact of Alcohol on States and Local Governments

Click here to watch keynotes and sessions of the Spring 2022 conference – on Alternatives to Police

Up to ten hours of continuing education credits will be available nationally through the National Association of Social Workers, for attorneys through the Oregon Bar Association, and for members of law enforcement through the Oregon Department of Public Safety and Standards Training.

The Law & Mental Health Conference is designed for attorneys and law enforcement, public and private clinicians; public healthcare and hospital administrators, social workers, policy designers and legislators, and organizations and individuals involved with the care and welfare of people with mental illness, addiction, and alcoholism.


Public Housing Conference

The Public Housing Conference was virtual and online during the month of December 2020, tightly focused on Homelessness and COVID with five municipal case studies – Phoenix, Las Vegas, Portland, Los Angeles.

WATCH – Day One of the Public Housing Conference
WATCH – Day Two of the Public Housing Conference

The Public Housing Conference is an interdisciplinary and intersectional gathering of property owners and housing developers, lawmakers and public administrators, public health clinicians, law enforcement and community leaders, tenants and neighbors to discuss the ongoing housing crisis. The goal of the conference is to educate the community and increase opportunities for public housing, with a special interest in housing for people in recovery from mental illness and addiction.


Mental Health Alliance

Organizations and individuals who represent the interests of people with mental illness and have long participated in efforts to reduce police use of force used against people with mental illness joined together as a friend of the court in US DOJ v. City of Portland.

Organizational members of the Mental Health Alliance include Portland Interfaith Clergy Resistance, Disability Rights Oregon, the Mental Health Association of Portland, and the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

Supporters of the Mental Health Alliance meet regularly to hear from invited guests, discuss the organization’s advocacy and legal agenda, and prepare testimony for city, county, state, and Federal venues.


Alternative Mobile Services Association

AMSA is an emerging group of professionals and peers with the purpose of researching, assessing, and identifying best practice models of mobile response services that support or are alternatives to traditional 911 emergency response, police services, and unnecessary hospitalization. Additionally, the association seeks to promote networking and cooperation among providers, jurisdictions and allied stakeholders interested in alternatives to conventional policing.

The Alternative Mobile Services Association supports street-level alternatives to police.