World-renowned humanitarian Patch Adams, MD, will keynote the Kristin Brooks Hope Center’s third annual training conference in Austin, Texas, which runs from Friday, April 26 to Sunday, April 28. This conference marks the 15^th anniversary of the Kristin Brooks Hope Center and its mission to end suicide in our society. The meeting will address many of the issues that led up to the recent series of mass shooting by individuals presumably suffering from mental illness and suicidal ideation.

Dr. Adams will provide two workshops in addition to providing the keynote address at the Saturday, April 27^th annual awards banquet from 6 pm to 9 pm. The banquet is open to the public with a limited number of tickets going on sale Monday, March 4 for those not wishing to register for the entire conference.

For the second consecutive year, the KBHC conference, sponsored by the founders of 1-800-SUICIDE and IMALIVE.org, is being held in conjunction with the 46^th annual American Association of Suicidology (AAS) Annual Conference, being held across the street from the IMALIVE Network Training Conference at the Hilton Hotel.

This year’s conference, themed “Crisis Intervention Without Limits,” features world-class experts in suicide prevention and mental health care, including Dennis D. Embry, Ph.D.,  founder and President of the Paxis Institute, who will speak on “From Columbine to Newtown: How Suicide, Violence and Other Tragedies Can Be Prevented.” COL-Ret George Patrin, MD, Healthcare Advocate and advisor to the Children’s Mental Health Network, will discuss both the flaws and progress characterizing suicide prevention within our communities, especially for Veterans and their families.

The conference marks the second anniversary of the world’s first virtual crisis center, bringing together crisis center staff and volunteers from across the country to learn how to effectively provide crisis intervention using the IMALIVE/Hopeline licensed text platform, how to leverage the Affordable Care Act to more effectively serve individuals in crisis, how to raise the visibility of virtual crisis centers and other issues central to suicide prevention efforts.

In addition, Dr. Adams, famed physician, social activist, citizen diplomat, clown and author, will speak on the “Use of Humor in Crisis Intervention” and “The Joy of Caring.” Other conference speakers include Charles Ray, M. Ed., past CEO of the National Council for Community Behavioral Health; Phil Evans, MBA, President/CEO of ProtoCall Services, who will discuss managing people, processes, and quality in a virtual, decentralized call center environment; and John Plonski, national director of the IMALIVE Network and author of the H.E.A.R.T program (Hearing Empathically As Responders Training).