STMSS04 - Cicely Burrows-McElwain - VA/DoD Liaison, SAMHSA

Seeking the Military Suicide Solution

About Today’s Guest:

Cicely Burrows-McElwain is the Senior Public Health Advisor, Military and Veteran Affairs Liaison, National Policy Liaison Branch, Division of Regional and National Policy/ Office of Policy, Planning, and Innovation (OPPI), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Cicely currently works to advance veteran outcomes through government department collaboration to address the mental health and substance use needs of military members and veterans and their families.

She has over 18 years of experience working in rural behavioral health systems in local, state and federal programs. Now prior to joining the team at SAMHSA, she served as a clinical social worker for the VA in veterans integrated service network five in the VA Maryland healthcare system. Cecily is an adjunct lecture for Salisbury university social work department where she teaches courses on rural social work and disaster mental health.

Links Mentioned in this Episode:

List of Mayor's and Governor's Challenge Partners

Suicide Prevention Resource Center

CDC Resource: Preventing Suicide: A Technical Package of Policy, Programs, and Practices

Service Members, Veterans, and their Families Technical Assistance (SMVF TA) Center

Real Warriors Campaign

VA's S.A.V.E. Training (introduction to suicide prevention)

Episode Sponsor:

milMedia Group

Shauna's latest book: Beyond the Military: A Leader's Handbook for Warrior Reintegration

Duane's latest book: Military in the Rear View Mirror: Mental Health and Wellness in Post-Military Life

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Episode Transcript:

Duane France: (00:00) Welcome to episode four of the Seeking The Military Suicide Solution Podcast brought to you by the Military Times. I'm Duane France.

Shauna Springer: (00:07) And I'm doc Shauna Springer.

Duane France: (00:09) And we'd like to thank you for taking the time to learn more about suicide in the military affiliated population. I'd like to thank our sponsors, milMedia Group. milMedia Group is a proven web design and digital media agency specializing in supporting organizations focusing on the military population. Find more about them at www.milmediagroup.com

Duane France: (00:35) Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. Once again and as always, really appreciate you joining us to listen to an honest conversation about service member veteran and military family suicide. Our guest today is Cicely Burrows-McElwain. Shauna?

Shauna Springer: (00:49) So Cecily Burrows-McElwain serves as a military and veterans affairs liaison for SAMHSA where she focuses efforts on strengthening cross agency collaboration between organizations like the VA, the department of health and human services, and the department of defense in meeting the behavioral health needs of service members, veterans, and their families. She has over 18 years of experience working in rural behavioral health systems in local, state and federal programs. Now prior to joining the team at SAMHSA, she served as a clinical social worker for the VA in veterans integrated service network five in the VA Maryland healthcare system. Cecily is an adjunct lecture for Salisbury university social work department where she teaches courses on rural social work and disaster mental health.

Shauna Springer: (01:39) In speaking with Cecily, it's quickly evident that her work is not just a job. One sign of her dedication is that she engages in volunteer efforts that serve our nation's defenders, Cecily volunteers, for example, as a First Lieutenant in the Maryland military department's defense force as a clinical social worker with the 10th Medical Regiment. As we'll see in her interview, she's passionate about advancing collaborations that results in positive community level outcomes. It's a pleasure to have her join us as we kick off the initial episodes of seeking the military suicide solution.

Duane France: (02:15) It absolutely is. A Cicely as a friend, is a colleague, and I'm really excited to be able to bring this interview to the listeners. We'll get into the conversation and then we'll come back afterwards to pull out a few key points.

Duane France: (02:38) You're the VA/DOD liaison for SAMHSA. So you have a very sort of high level strategic view of suicide prevention. It's not the only part of your job, but, but that's a big part of it.

Cicely McElwain: (02:51) Yeah, you're absolutely right. What I get to do is really play a coordination role between the work that we do here at SAMHSA, the work that, kind of the larger partnership within all of the department of health and human services does around suicide prevention and bringing those resources, subject matter experts, et cetera to our partners at DOD and VA. And it's really a great kind of macro level viewpoint as you mentioned, but it allows for a perspective that really, for me, being a public servant, really reinforces my meaning as being in this kind of a role because we're able to kind of identify how these federal departments, these large organizations can really make a difference for communities. And so it's been a real honor to do this job.

Duane France: (03:40) I mean it's hard to balance sometimes because it is such a very personal and even local issue. The things that are gonna work in Colorado Springs aren't going to work in San Antonio and they're not going to work...Heck, even the things that work in Baltimore not going to work in DC. And so a, , talking about what works, what is working from your point of view, how do you balance that sort of macro level with the need for community involvement?

Cicely McElwain: (04:07) That's a great question Duane. And I think it's one thing that actually my agency at SAMHSA has done very well on a number of issues related to behavioral health. But in particular when it comes to suicides, there was this understanding that, because this is such a personal issue that touches so many lives, because we have a recognition that there's no community that's not impacted by this. The recognition has been the best way to go about getting action on this huge issue is to get communities involved at the grassroots level up....