Innovations in Research & Treatment
Prescribed Psychedelics: Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em?
Speaker: Dr. Victoria Harris
This session offers a summary of cutting-edge research regarding the use of prescribed psychedelics in a variety of mental illness settings.
Competency Restoration: Identifying Barriers and Creating Change
Speakers: Sue Abderholden, MPH
The number of people deemed incompetent to stand trial due to their mental illnesses has increased greatly across the country. This has resulted in many of the state run hospitals only able to take people from jails, people languishing in jails, and a revolving door into the jails. Learn about the four-year process used in Minnesota to bring together stakeholders to create a comprehensive overhaul of the competency restoration system, which passed in 2022.
Nevada Success on the Frontline: How to Create Meaningful Teen Peer Support
Speakers: Laura Yanez and Cherylyn Rahr-Wood, MSW
Learn about suicide prevention, the Nevada Caring Contacts program design, and the steps of implementation. The program was selected as a winner of SAMSHA’s Recovery Innovation Challenge in 2022.
Help for Families: Improving Care Coordination during Early Psychosis Treatment
Speakers: Melissa Dalhoe, MSW, LICSW, Anne Williams-Wengerd, Michelle Wagner, MS (she/her/hers) and Theo Baars
Past treatment interventions for early psychosis have largely been focused on individuals to the exclusion of family members. Innovative treatments such as NAVIGATE (coordinated specialty care) include family education and support in treatment.
Why We Didn’t Tell You: Learning from lived experience of those with suicidal thoughts
Speakers: Torry Bernard, Grace Grinnell, Steve MacHattie and Valerie Lepoutre, RSS
This session aims to reduce the stigma of suicide by encouraging frank, open dialogue about reasons people might have for not disclosing suicidal intent.
Table Top! Using Games to Develop Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills
Speaker: Matthew Zakreski
This presentation will explore the neuropsychological underpinnings of the social and emotional difficulties in children and how those challenges might manifest. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are designed to quantify and teach the skills for interpersonal interactions, self-regulation, emotional awareness, and prosocial communication. This presentation will model games that are effective in teaching these skills and empower teachers, parents, and students to implement them.
Clozapine: Together Increasing Access for the Most Effective Antipsychotic
Speaker: Robert O. Cotes, MD
Clozapine is an antipsychotic medication with the potential to dramatically improve the functioning, symptoms, and relationships of people living with schizophrenia. The American PsychiatricAssociation guidelines recommend a trial of clozapine if a person still has symptoms despite two prior trials of other antipsychotic medications.Clozapine is also the only medication approved to reduce the risk of recurrent suicidal behavior for people living with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.Although 20-30% of people living with schizophrenia may benefit from a trial, clozapine is highly underutilized in the US(around 4% currently).Clozapine should not be considered a treatment of “last resort.” This presentation will review the current research on clozapine’s utilization and effectiveness, and will additionally explore the individual, prescriber, and system/administrative barriers to more widespread utilization. Individuals and families can play a key role in advocating for a trial of clozapine if other medications have not been successful.
Promoting brain recovery in early psychosis
Speaker: Dr. Sophia Vinogradov
At the conclusion of this continuing medical education activity, the participant should be able to: 1.Describe the typical profile of cognitive deficits in early phases of psychotic illness. 2.Discuss the principles of neuroscience-informed cognitive training. 3.Identify the effects of targeted cognitive training in early phases of psychotic illness.
Using peer support, technology, and data to improve treatment adherence for those with obsessive compulsive disorder
Speaker: Jamie Feusner, M.D.
In this talk, Dr. Feusner will describe recent advances in improving outcomes for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).Exposure and Response Prevention therapy, a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, is a first-line, evidence-based treatment for OCD for adults and children. It is effective for the majority of those who engage in it, but treatment adherence can be challenging for some due to the nature of the treatment as well as different life circumstances that arise.To help with this issue, NOCD, a provider of video teletherapy ERP, utilizes machine learning to identify those at risk of non-adherence in conjunction with peer support from “Member Advocates” who have successfully completed treatment. Member Advocates engage at-risk patients through digital messaging to help them through challenges in the early stages of treatment.This intervention has resulted in an average of30% more therapy sessions completed. These results will be discussed in the context of how peer support programs and data science can enhance the effectiveness of treatment
