Beckie Child, Ph.D.
Biography
BECKIE CHILD, MSW, Ph.D.c.
Professor of Practice
Beckie has provided individual and family advocacy for more than 25 years. She also has worked to create systemic change in the mental health system at the local, regional, state, and federal levels.
She is the former Executive Director of Mental Health America of Oregon, a peer-run advocacy and technical assistance organization. She has helped start multiple peer-run organizations, including a drop-in center and a statewide advocacy organization. Beckie has also served on a number of non-profit boards of directors for several years.
She served on the governor-appointed Oregon State Hospital Advisory Board for nine years. She also served on SAMHSA's Wellness Steering Committee. Beckie has provided trainings on self-injury, suicidal ideation, trauma-informed care, psychiatric advance directives, and how to talk to your doctor about medication concerns to a wide variety of mental health stakeholders. She also has trained law enforcement officers and judges on legal issues involving people diagnosed with mental illness.
She currently serves as an advisor to the Mental Health Association of Portland (Oregon).
Her research interests include health literacy and people diagnosed with mental illness, lived experience scholarship, interpersonal violence, self-injury, recovery from mental illness, removing systemic barriers to recovery, and many other interests.
Beckie has won numerous advocacy awards, the most recent being Mental Health Advocate of the Year from the Mental Health Association of Portland in 2019. She has lived experience with the mental health systems in two states and has been homeless three times in her life. She uses her lived experience to create systemic change and support other people who have survived or are surviving the mental health system.
Beckie taught for eight years at Portland State University School of Social Work before joining Utica Univer's MSW program. Beckie completed her dissertation on the Health Literacy Needs of People Diagnosed with Mental Illness. She has worked as an adjunct instructor for Portland State University in the BSW and MSW programs. Beckie received her MSW from Portland State University in 2009 and her BA in Elementary Education in 2003.
She loves teaching, playing with her cats, listening to music, and going to bodies of water (e.g., waterfalls, lakes, and oceans).
Education
Honors and Distinctions
Doctor of Social Work, PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY, 2022
Master of Social Work, PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY, 2009
B.A. in Elementary Education, WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY, 2003
Research
Dissertation:
Child, B. (2022). The health literacy needs of people diagnosed with mental illness. [Doctoral Thesis.] Portland State University.
Selected Publications
Marino, C., Child, B., & Krasinski, V. C. (2016). Sharing Experience Learned Firsthand (SELF): Self-disclosure of lived experience in mental health services and supports. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 39(2). https://doi.org/10.1037/prj0000171
Child, B., Mary, O., Mary, A. C., Hughes, R. B., & Powers, L. E. (2011). Understanding the experience of crime victims with disabilities and deaf victims. Journal of Policy Practice, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/15588742.2011.605829
Hughes, R. B., Curry, M. A., Oschwald, M., Child, B., Lund, E. M., Sullivan, M. J., & Powers, L. R. (2011). Responding to crime victims with disabilities: The perspective of law enforcement. Journal of Policy Practice, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/15588742.2011.582812
Courses Taught
SWK 502 Recovery, Theory, Values, and Skills
SWK 503 Evidence for Practice
SWK 504 Power, Privilege, and Oppression
SWK 506 Mental Health Advocacy
SWk 508 Social Welfare, History, and Policy
SWK 616 Trauma and Recovery
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