Navigating the Storm: Response & Intervention, Implementing Behavioral Health in the Backcountry - Online Classroom

Centers on context and the ROOT Framework (Recognize, Observe, Orient, Take Action), a field-adapted, context-driven model informed by a survey of current behavioral health protocols for responding to mental and behavioral health needs in wilderness settings.

This day provides participants with the tools, structure, and mindset to navigate behavioral health crises from a trauma-informed, neuroscience-based perspective. The training emphasizes that context always matters in how a person’s environment, history, identity, and group system shape both the behavioral presentation and the appropriate response.

Participants practice assessment, stabilization, communication, and decision-making. The day includes specific tools for “rooting,” grounding practices that help leaders and participants regulate their nervous systems, restore calm, and re-establish safety during acute stress or crisis. Participants also develop or refine crisis protocols and response plans tailored to their field environment and organizational structure.

A full behavioral health continuum is addressed:

• Prevention: Building emotionally safe and resilient expedition cultures that reduce risk.
  
• Preparation: Creating readiness plans, communication systems, and staff awareness before field incidents occur.
  
• Intervention: Applying the ROOT model to stabilize, assess, and respond effectively to behavioral health crises in context.
  
• Postvention: Supporting recovery, debriefing, and leadership aftercare to prevent burnout, moral injury, or secondary trauma.

Emphasis is placed on context awareness, grounding and co-regulation, psychological first response, and trauma-informed leadership that fosters safety, trust, and resilience for both leaders and participants in the backcountry.

Presenter 

Kallie Kurtz is a Behavioral Health Clinician specializing in trauma, ADHD, and crisis response in emergency departments, individual therapy, and public health policy. An avid whitewater kayaker and mountain enthusiast, she has been exploring the outdoors for over 30 years. Bringing together her passions for the outdoors, wilderness medicine, and behavioral health, she has been working to ensure Backcountry Behavioral Health is fully incorporated into wilderness medicine and outdoor adventure fields. A Wilderness First Responder since 2009, she spent nearly a decade instructing and guiding outdoor expeditions, where she witnessed firsthand the profound connection between mental health, risk, and resilience in remote environments. With expertise in trauma, PTSD recovery, and resilience building, Kallie equips outdoor enthusiasts to understand behavioral health, navigate high-stress incidents and foster post-traumatic growth in wilderness settings.

7:00-8:30pm PST via Zoom Meeting
Meeting link will be sent to registered attendees the day of the session.