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Third Annual Juvenile & Child Welfare Conference focuses on mental health

Thursday, May 30, 2019
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Top: The Third Annual Juvenile & Child Welfare Conference was held at UTEC Center in Lowell.

Bottom: Hon. Jay Blitzman accepts the 2019 Massachusetts Bar Association Juvenile & Child Welfare Award, which was presented to him for his exemplary dedication and excellence in the field of juvenile law.

The Massachusetts Bar Association's Juvenile & Child Welfare Section hosted its Third Annual Juvenile & Child Welfare Conference on May 23, at UTEC Center in Lowell. The conference focused on the intersection of mental health and the Juvenile Court.

An ever-increasing number of Juvenile Court cases have a mental health component. Conference attendees participated in plenary and breakout sessions that explored how trauma impacts mental health, burdens children and parents in the child welfare system, and fuels the school-to-prison pipeline. Panelists provided a solid foundation of mental health knowledge, information on issues in accessing mental health services for clients, and strategies for working with traumatized clients and for self-care.

Conference keynote speaker Robert Kinscherff spoke about the burden of mental illness in the court-involved population, including the over-criminalization of mental illness, over-diagnosis of people of color and indigent populations, and the stigmatization of mental illness in the court system. 

The conference also included the presentation of the 2019 MBA Juvenile & Child Welfare Award to Hon. Jay Blitzman, in recognition of his exemplary dedication and excellence in the field of juvenile law.

Thank you to the program chairs for their efforts presenting this successful conference: Hon. Jay Blitzman, Middlesex County Juvenile Court; Cristina F. Freitas, Esq., Freitas & Freitas LLP; Debbie F. Freitas, Esq., Freitas & Freitas LLP; Karen Hennessy, Esq., Law Office of Karen Hennessy; Valerie Torpey Irving, Esq., Law Office of Valerie Torpey Irving; Audrey Murillo, Esq., Dhar Law LLP; Alexandra Roark, Esq., CPCS-Boston; and Erin O'Sullivan, Esq., The EdLaw Project.