Salem, OR (Feb. 13, 2019) - Salem City Club, a biweekly gathering of more than 100 members, will meet Feb. 22 at the Willamette Heritage Center to discuss youth mental health.
The annual youth suicide rate in Oregon has increased sharply over the last 10 years and remains well above the average in the United States. The Oregon Healthy Teens Survey shows that nearly half of the state’s lesbian, gay or bisexual eighth-graders have contemplated suicide and a quarter of those students have attempted suicide. At Sprague High School alone, over the last eight months, three teenagers have committed suicide.
The event will feature Liberty House CEO Alison Kelley, Liberty House’s Hope and Wellness Services program manager Neda Grant, and South Salem High School counselor Ryan Marshall. As experts in crisis response and grief and loss counseling, they will discuss how they assess the behavior of children and teens and how their programs help those populations and their families.
The meeting will take place Friday, Feb. 22, at 12 p.m. at the Willamette Heritage Center at 1313 Mill Street St. SE. Members are free. Non-members pay $10. All have the option to purchase lunch for $20. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. Register online at SalemCityClub.com.
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Alison Kelley, JD became the current CEO of Liberty House in 2013 after serving five years as the director of the Marion County Children and Families Commission. From 1999-2008, Kelley was an attorney and mediator in private practice and provided mediation, facilitation, team building and strategic planning for public and private agencies.
Neda Grant, LPC, is the program manager of Liberty House’s Hope and Wellness Services. She believes children benefit most when their caregivers actively participate, when possible, in the counseling process. She holds a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Lewis and Clark College and became a Licensed Professional Counselor in 2001.
Ryan Marshall, a counselor at South Salem High School, has a degree in Speech Communications and Leadership studies in addition to a master’s in Education from Whitworth University. He has authored crisis response manuals and served on three different school districts’ Crisis Response Teams.