You will enjoy two and a half full days of keynote presentations as well as workshop and poster presentations.
Welcome Reception / Registration
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Hard Rock Club - Sheraton on the Falls
6 - 10 p.m.
October 24 - 26, 2018
Sheraton on the Falls
5875 Falls Ave., Niagara Falls, ON
He graduated in Budapest, Hungary where he had been working as the Director of Soteria Foundation for 12 years. Soteria is one of the first organizations that established community based mental health services in Hungary.
Between 2001 and 2013 he also worked as lecturer at ELTE University Faculty of Social Sciences. As a consultant expert of Mental Health Initiative, Mr. Bugarszki has been working in different Eastern-European and Post-Soviet countries to promote community based mental health services. He works as expert in the planning and implementation of mental health reforms in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzistan.
In 2013, Mr. Bugarszki relocated to Estonia and his interest turned toward ICT supported innovative solutions in the welfare system. Working at Tallinn University he started to co-operate with Finnish and Swedish Universities in different development projects and he became the co-founder of Estonian start-up Helpific.
Mr. Bugarszki's research interest is in community development, recovery oriented mental health services, participation and citizenship of vulnerable groups. He has conducted several researches on the process of deinstitutionalization and community based services in different countries.
Presentation: Assistive Technology and ICT Based Solutions in Mental Health Care
Assistive technology includes assistive, adaptive and rehabilitative devices for vulnerable people and also includes the process used in selecting, locating and using them.
Information and communication technology (ICT) is a term that stresses the role of the integration of telecommunications, computers, enterprise software, databases and audio-visual systems which enable users to access, store, transmit and generate information. There is an increasing interest to connect assistive technology and ICT based solutions with the welfare system.
First instances arrived in medical administration and management, assistive technology became relevant in elderly care and disability care but nowadays we see a growing presence of technology in mental health care, too. Popular applications to promote mindfulness, robot pets to maintain social bond, virtual reality based technology to treat fear and phobia, shared welfare initiatives to increase peer-to-peer support are just a few examples of this emerging field.
In my workshop, I want to demonstrate the potential of assistive technology in mental health care arguing for a conscious development strategy to embrace innovation.
Learning objectives:
Mr. Lopez has been involved in the implementation and application of evidence based practices since 2003. He has expertise in the areas of Ethics, Trauma Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing, Integrated Treatment, Family Psycho-Education, Cultural Competency, Stages of Change, Harm Reduction, WRAP, CBT, and Wellness Self-Management.
He has facilitated workshops in over 80 conferences nationally and in Canada. He has conducted consultations in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. He is also member of the New Jersey Counseling Association.
Presentation: Are We Trauma Informed Care Practitioners?
Historically, the behavioural health system has not addressed issues related to trauma effectively and efficiently. The field has concentrated in pathologizing and labelling behaviours, developing treatment on the basis of "What is wrong with you?" and not, "What happened to you?"
This workshop will briefly review the principles and practices of the Trauma Informed Care approach. It will review how it impacts the work we do at the ACT Institute. It will additionally answer the question, "Are we practicing Trauma Informed Care?"
Learning objectives:
In 2011, he was recruited by the National Centre of Excellence in Mental Health (NCEMH) due to his experience in ACT program, Intensive Case Management team and Early Psychosis Intervention team. The NCEMH is responsible for supporting best practices in the mental health care system, training new team members, and fidelity reviews for each ACT team in the province of Quebec.
Recently, Mr. Jackson has trained "Housing First" teams in France and has presented the evolution of the ACT model in Hamburg in 2017.
Presentation: You Either Evolve or Disappear; Evolution of the ACT Model in the Province of Quebec
Learning objectives:
Time | Presenter |
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7:15 - 8:30 a.m. |
Breakfast |
8:30 - 8:45 a.m. |
Welcome |
8:45 - 10: 30 a.m. | Ontario Act Assocation Presentation |
10:30 - 11 a.m. | Break |
11 a.m. - noon | Keynote: Zsolt Bugarski, PhD |
Noon - 1 p.m. | Lunch |
1 to 9 p.m. | Conference Sessions |
Title | Presenter |
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There is no 'I' in groups, either In 2016, the ACT Institute developed a one-year curriculum to address the NYC Mayor's office SAFE ACT. This was a program that provided support to New Yorkers experiencing emotional and psychological challenges in the mental health system or in the streets. As part of the NYC SAFE ACT, the NYS ACT Institute developed a one-year curriculum for substance use specialists (SUS) and team leaders, which includes a number of blended training approaches (training in vivo, online, and with modules). After completing this project with NYC, the ACT Institute redesigned the curriculum and started working with 'SUS' and team leaders from across the state of NY. This workshop will review both initiatives from design to implementation. Learning objectives:
Target audience: All clinicians, managers, supervisors and / or staff |
Luis Lopez |
With the culture of constant change, and the rapid move toward a Values-Based Reimbursement environment, who can keep up? This session will assist supervisors and staff with tools to manage this continually evolving world of behavioral healthcare provision. As we assist those we serve with life changes, practitioners also need support to manage change within our agencies and among our staff. We hope you get the outcomes you want from the change, but also the support you need for the transition! Learning objectives:
Target audience: Lead clinicians, managers, supervisors and / or staff |
Nyshaunte B. Randall |
Improving Our ACTT Addressing Primary Care Needs in ACT Teams People with serious mental illness have at least a 15 year shorter life span than the general population. A portion of this mortality is attributable to poor access to good quality preventive medical care. This workshop discusses the role the ACT Team play in improving primary care to their population generally and describes a quality improvement project within our team to reduce cardiovascular risk and promote early detection of breast and colon cancer in our population. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Clinicians, administrators, community partners, emergency service providers, individuals with lived experience, primary care providers and researchers | Nancy Williams |
CMHA Kenora Branch and EQIPs ACTT Fluidity Project CMHA Kenora Branch embarked on a Quality Initiative two years ago with the intention of transitioning clients who were deemed appropriate out of the ACTT service to more appropriate care. The program's focus was to ensure that the fidelity of the ACT Team Model was adhered to as per the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care ACTT Standards (2005). They recruited the Excellence through Quality Improvement Project (EQIP) to assist with QI coaching expertise to navigate them through the Model for Improvement, with the intention of making evidence based program changes and not reactionary ones. On project inception, the perceived outcome was to transition clients appropriately to a lower level of care as distinguished by the ACTT Transitional Readiness (ATR) tool. As the project progressed, it became evident from the data that stepdown services were not the critical area that required focus. While these transitions were streamlined and improved, the critical need was the delivery of service to higher acuity clients. Approximately a third (27%) of ACTT clients serviced exceeded the level of care mandated by the ACTT Standards. The data revealed that CMHA Kenora Branch had been consistently providing a higher level of care to clients above and beyond the mandate. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Managers, clinicians, administrators, clients, and families | Cheryl Green |
Title | Presenter |
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Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome: an overview Compared with the general population, schizophrenia patients have a shorter life expectancy by 25 to 28 years, and the mortality gap is still growing. Variety of factors, genetic and environmental such as smoking, diet rich in lipids and simple carbohydrates and sedentary lifestyle contribute to the increased risk for metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. In recent years, the primary focus shifted from direct illness management to physical and psychological well-being of schizophrenia patients. Our patients have a high rate of suicide as well as a very high incidence of co-medical illnesses as well such as Diabetes Mellitus, Dyslipidemia, Essential Hypertension, Obesity, Osteoarthritis, etc., such that they require significant medical attention as well. This requires the skills of clinicians who are highly trained with combined expertise of both classic physical medicine and mental health in order to keep these individuals healthy and improve their well-being. New 2016 quality standards published by Health Quality Ontario on schizophrenia care for adults in hospitals stressed the importance of promoting smoking cessation, promoting physical activity and healthy eating, and screening for substance use. Such guidelines have a wider application scope than hospitals and should be employed in the outpatient settings as well to maximize benefits. Learning objectives:
Target audience: All ACTT clinicians |
Dr. Gaurav Mehta |
Contributions of Team Leaders to High Fidelity ACT Teams The important role of the team leader in the dissemination and implementation of high fidelity Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) has gone mostly unexplored. In this presentation, the author will share original qualitative research that addressed three questions: (1) describe the ACT team leaders on high fidelity teams; (2) understand their approach to leadership; and (3) understand what roles they play in promoting high fidelity to ACT as an evidence-based practice (EBP). Results included themes that ACT team leaders had notable attributes and a personal job match with the roles and responsibilities of an ACT team leader. Additionally, the team leaders performed many prominent functions, had a distinct communication style, paid deliberate attention to team members' well-being, and set a very intentional, positive work environment. Team leaders in the study played critical roles in the promotion of high fidelity ACT services and used ACT fidelity as a guide for service delivery to program participants. It is the hope that this information on the specific activities of exceptional ACT team leaders will illuminate processes important to the implementation of the EBP of ACT in effort to close the gap between EBP knowledge and actual service delivery. Further, it can serve as a guide for the training and technical assistance provided to new team leaders. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Team leaders, agency leadership and mental health authorities who create policy and provide technical assistance for ACT. |
Lynette Studer |
Title | Presenter |
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Family Matters in Recovery: Engaging Families and Natural Supports in Care It is well documented that family / natural supports' involvement in care facilitates community integration and recovery for individuals with behavioural challenges yet engaging families/natural supports in care and care planning often presents challenges for providers due to varying expectations for treatment and interpretations of recovery and wellness, challenging family dynamics and limited inter-agency collaboration to manage family related issues. In this workshop, lessons learned from Assertive Community Treatment providers will be presented including strategies for understanding family systems, the family life-cycle, inter-agency collaboration, and how to create opportunity for collaboration among individuals with behavioural health concerns, their family/natural supports and providers will be presented through presentations of vignettes. The workshop will provide ample opportunity for knowledge exchange among workshop participants. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Clinicians and supervisors / team leads |
Helle Thorning |
The HARM is a structured clinical judgment tool that guides the assessor(s) to formulate opinions regarding risk of violence. It combines both historical / static and dynamic factors to assess risk as reflected in the literature. The HARM was created to:
The HARM captures three stages of the assessment: Past, Current, and Future. Each stage flows into the next, so that, in moving through the past and current stages to the future stage, the assessor can arrive at a prediction of a patient's or service user's risk of aggression and formulate risk management strategies. Introducing the Electronic Hamilton Anatomy of Risk Management (eHARM). An Excel-based tool that has revolutionized the way HARM reports are completed. Learning objectives:
Target audience: All clinicians | Dr. Gary Chaimowitz and Mini Mamak |
Attending to the Spiritual Health Needs of ACT clients - A Pilot Project The Community High Intensity Treatment Team (CHITT) provides services for individuals with serious, complex, and persistent mental illnesses living in the Kingston area. Over recent years, team members have become increasingly aware of unattended existential and spiritual dimensions of the client's care. This workshop will present and examine findings from a pilot project in which CHITT recruited a Spiritual Health Practitioner (SHP) to serve as full-time member of the team from September 2016 to March 2017. The intent of this project was to explore the following: how the client's spiritual health needs are addressed through the clinical practice of a SHP; the nature of the SHP's clinical and educative consultations with the team, the type of referrals made, and the impact of an SHP upon team functioning. During the pilot project, information was collected from monthly meetings with the program managers, from the SHP's clinical notes and statistics, and from a qualitative survey. A review of the literature uncovered no articles or resources on the topic of ACTT and the involvement of SHPs Findings of the project and a discussion of the generalist versus specialist role of the SHP will be presented, recommendations made, and possible models of care suggested. Workshop participants will be encouraged to engage in discussion, exploring opportunities for integrating an SHP into their own ACT teams. Learning objectives:
Target audience: All clinicians | Gillian McLean |
Innovative Variants on ACTT for Dual Diagnosis at the Royal Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) is a relatively new model of community mental health service in Ontario. The FACT model originated in Holland - FACT teams have higher caseloads than ACTT and varying levels of service intensity (20% high intensity, 80% low intensity). In 2015, The Community Mental Health Program at The Royal implemented a FACT team for persons with a Dual Diagnosis. The development of FACT DD was in response to a 2012 Provincial Review of Dual Diagnosis Services conducted in Ontario, which identified there were no community based treatment options to provide service to this population in the Champlain LHIN. Although all ACT teams carry some Dual Diagnosis clients, we would like to share our experience of implementing and delivering ACT and FACT services to this very specialized population of Dual Diagnosis clients. In particular, we will be looking at differences in staff skill mix, the role of behavioral supports and interventions when working with this population, and how FACT and ACTT fit into the continuum of care for Dual Diagnosis clients. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Clinicians, managers, or physicians with an interest in the FACT team model and services for Dual Diagnosis clients. | Kate Baker, Michelle Bouwhuis and Tracey Kent |
Experiential discovery of FACT model: A person's journey through recovery Learning objectives:
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Lisa Appleby and Stephanie Robinson |
Movie "Fatal fLAWs" an Examination of Physician Assisted Suicide - with a panel discussion to follow A thought-provoking journey through Europe and North America to ask one of the most fundamental philosophical questions of our time: should we be giving doctors the right in law to end the life of others by euthanasia or assisted suicide? Understand the issues related to physician assisted suicide for persons with mental illness as the sole underlying condition. Filmmaker, Kevin Dunn, uses powerful testimonies and expert opinion from both sides of the issue to uncover how these highly disputed laws affect society over time. This film is about the adoption of - and resistance to - a new cultural philosophy that may affect you at the most vulnerable time of your life. Visit FatalFlawsFilm.com for more information. Learning objectives:
| Panel: Kevin Dunn (director) & John Maher MD FRCPC |
Title | Presenter |
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Movie "Fatal fLAWs" an Examination of Physician Assisted Suicide - with a panel discussion to follow A thought-provoking journey through Europe and North America to ask one of the most fundamental philosophical questions of our time: should we be giving doctors the right in law to end the life of others by euthanasia or assisted suicide? Understand the issues related to physician assisted suicide for persons with mental illness as the sole underlying condition. Filmmaker, Kevin Dunn, uses powerful testimonies and expert opinion from both sides of the issue to uncover how these highly disputed laws affect society over time. This film is about the adoption of - and resistance to - a new cultural philosophy that may affect you at the most vulnerable time of your life. Visit FatalFlawsFilm.com for more information. Learning objectives:
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Panel: Kevin Dunn (director) & John Maher MD FRCPC |
Time | Presenter |
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8:45 - 10: 30 a.m. | Keynote: Luis Lopez |
10:30 - 11 a.m. | Break |
11 a.m. - noon | Conference Sessions |
Noon - 1 p.m. | Lunch |
1 - 4:30 p.m. | Conference Sessions |
7 p.m. - midnight | Wellness and the Beats |
Title | Presenter |
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Creating Community and Hospital Partnerships ACT: The Cota / St. Joseph's This workshop will enhance leadership competencies regarding the best practice guideline to ensure that clients are receiving "the right care, at the right time, in the right place" (The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, 2015). It will also examine the current system issue of long wait times for ACT services in the Greater Toronto Area. The Cota / St. Joseph's Health Centre Stepped - Care Model of Service is an innovative solution to this growing issue in the ACT sector. The dream of this initiative was to create an option for clients that would allow them to flow between the teams based on the level of care they need while using existing health care dollars. We will explore the creation of this model from both the service provider and client perspective. Learning objectives:
Target audience: This workshop will be of particular interest to clinicians and managers working on mature ACT Teams - teams with long-term clients who are stable and could do well at a lower level of care. |
Cheryl Proc, Gwen Yorston and Kate Moore |
Community Treatment Orders - Why the Controversy? Community treatment orders (CTOs) are initiated primarily for patients with chronic psychotic illness who lack insight into their illness and the need for an adequate medication regimen. The vast majority of these patients have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. For more than a decade, numerous articles have described efforts to assess the effectiveness of CTOs. The results have been conflicting, the implication being that the effectiveness of CTOs is unclear and that the issue is complex and controversial. However, as demonstrated in the data and commentary that follow, a valid analysis of the subject demonstrates that the issue is in fact not at all unclear and need not be controversial. A chart review was performed of 50 patients of three assertive community treatment teams, these patients all subject to a CTO. Thirty-four of the patients demonstrated a marked decrease in time in hospital since initiation of a CTO. Of the remaining 16 patients, the lack of improvement in hospitalization time was demonstrated to have no correlation with their CTOs. CTOs can be of great clinical benefit but only if properly employed and followed by effective treatment. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Managers / team leads, clinicians, psychiatrists |
Dr. David Kantor |
Data Driven Decision Making in ACT: How to Achieve System-wide Success This one-hour workshop will encourage ACT team members, managers, administrators, and monitors (without a research / statistics background) to utilize quantitative data to improve outcomes. Participants will gain an understanding of how to identify data trends related to the successes of ACT programs in regard to housing stability, community tenure, hospitalization and recidivism, employment, etc. This approach can be applied to individual teams as well as to multiple teams across a region. Presenters from Georgia's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) will share the challenges and successes experienced in building a state-wide data collection system and the ways in which that data has influenced policy and driven service delivery. Through interactive and experiential methods, with a dose of humor, participants will:
Sample data collection tools will be shared with participants. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Administrators, managers / team leaders | Sarepta Archila, Al Fisher and Kelley Brown |
With a clear focus on being more trauma informed, the need to formalize a response regarding care and support for our clinicians during a traumatic event is clear. This is especially relevant to those on ACT Teams, providing community based services to populations who are often subject to experiences that increase their risk of exposure to adversity. Has your team experienced multiple client deaths within a short period of time? A team member affected by seeing a perpetrated violent crime? A client that participated in a completed suicide? A team member who was a victim of violence in the context of work? This presentation will review the process that our programs implemented as a clinical response to assist clinicians with managing their own feelings about events of this nature and attending to their own wellness. We will answer the question: Whos’s watching the watchers? Learning objectives:
Target audience: Lead clinicians, managers, and / or supervisors | Nyshaunte B. Randall |
Using Innovative Peer Practices to Engage ACTT Clients in Self-Empowerment This interactive and experiential presentation will explore and provide information on the challenges and unmet needs peer workers on ACT Teams presently face. To meet these needs, innovative adaptations to evidence-based peer support programs and ideas for integrating these solutions into regular practice, will be discussed. This presentation will explore how "Pathways to Recovery", "Wellness Action Recovery Plan", mindfulness, visualization meditation, yoga, stretching and recreational activities can be incorporated into sessions to meet client needs. The hope of this work is to provide inclusive and accessible services to a diverse group of ACT participants. Learning objectives:
Target audience: This presentation is for front-line ACT Team workers and managers and anyone else interested in learning more about peer support on ACT Teams. | Melissa Corcoran | Managing Risk and Team Dynamics Learning objectives:
| Anita Bloemen and Annik Crete |
Title | Presenter |
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Opportunities for Peer Work in Clinical Settings Treatment to Recovery When we talk about peer support, we often talk about the many amazing consumer / survivor initiatives or the peer support organizations across the county. Peer support is not a treatment, it is a relationship that focuses on the individual and shared mutuality rather than diagnostic criteria. It provides the opportunity to feel safe, respected, valued, understood, and comfortable while receiving support. So what about the peer support being done in a clinical setting? If there is a space for peer support in this setting what does this peer support look like, how do we maintain a recovery-focus and avoid peer drift? How do we work collaboratively within a clinical team to bring our invaluable peer lens to our role, while keeping the spirit of peer support, to shift the focus from treatment planning to recovery planning? Learning objectives:
Target audience: Peer support workers |
Laura Standford |
Transition to Tele-psychiatry: Steps to Implementation and Lessons Learned With the ever-growing challenge of securing affordable, face-to-face, and community-based psychiatric services, Resources for Human Development-Louisiana (RHD-LA)'s ACT teams decided to integrate tele-psychiatry to supplement face-to-face psychiatric services. With tele-psychiatry being new to this team, leadership faced unique challenges, such as:
To address these challenges, RHD-LA launched a decentralized approach to decision-making and strategic planning that included close partnership with ACT psychiatrists, nurses, staff and clients. This presentation will describe this process and lessons learned in order to provide the audience with tools and practical examples that can be applied locally. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Clinical leaders, managers / supervisors, administrators |
Adrienne Warren and Ngawang Legshe, LCWS, Clinical Manager, ACT 1, RHD-Louisiana ACT |
One state's Accidental Intentional Implementation of Motivational Interviewing in ACT Services North Carolina (NC), USA has been under a US Department of Justice Settlement around housing and employment issues with the SPMI population. As a result, ACT has undergone the most transformation NC has seen with this service in decades. This presentation will focus on the efforts of the state, in partnership with the University of NC Institute for Best Practice to provide Motivation Interviewing (MI) training to ACT staff to improve MI proficiency throughout the state. From introducing MI to participants, to training specialists, we will discuss the various ways to “slice the pie†in terms of disseminations and sustainable efforts to incorporate MI within all facets of ACT from peer specialists work to clinical supervision. Learning objectives:
Target audience: ACT clinicians may appreciate the MI training content and resources. ACT team leaders may want to adopt some of the supervision and cross-training ideas. Clinical managers and agency leadership may like the timeline and structure in bringing MI to their agency. All participants can walk away with some MI expansion planning ideas. | Stacy L. Smith |
Entrepreneurship in vocational rehabilitation Traditionally, we prefer full or part time employment as an outcome of vocational rehabilitation in mental health care. Employment provides clients with a stable job position, preferably connected with health insurance or pension related benefits, access to the social security system, paid holidays and well-regulated working conditions. On the other hand, entrepreneurship and any kind of business activities are considered as unstable, stressful adventures with no fixed income and benefits that don't fit vulnerable people. In a rapidly changing economic landscape, we need to take into consideration that the preferred stable employment opportunities are vanishing. Digitalization, automatization, robotics, and the advancement of artificial intelligence are challenging not only traditional blue-collar jobs but also white-collar ones. Entrepreneurial skills, creativity, and enormous flexibility are needed on the future labour market, and we need to embrace these new requirements in vocational rehabilitation, too. I would like to argue that technology and new economic models can also be very enabling, opening a new horizon for vulnerable people in a transforming labour market, bringing examples from successful initiatives. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Mental health professionals, vocational rehabilitation experts, peer support workers, managers, civil servants, researchers | Zsolt Bugarszki |
Striving to Be the Best: What is Effective ACT Leadership? Achieving effective leadership of an ACT Team is a multidimensional process, which requires continuous development of self-awareness, mastery of managerial skills, and deliberate development of clinical expertise. This workshop will examine specific elements of key areas within the leadership role and provide strategies for leadership development. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Mental health professionals, vocational rehabilitation experts, peer support workers, managers, civil servants, researchers | Tracy Hinz, Dr. Lynette Studer |
Title | Presenter |
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Compassion Focused Therapy for Psychosis is an intervention that aims to help individuals who hear voices decrease their distress and balance their emotions by developing compassion for themselves and for their voices. Since 2017, Niagara Region Mental Health ACT Teams 1 and 2 have offered a group for clients called Coping with Compassion that is based on the principles of Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). In the group, clients learn about the CFT model of emotions, practice strategies to increase soothing and connection to others, and develop their compassionate self. In this workshop, we will introduce the principles of CFT for psychosis using some experiential activities and videos and describe our experiences delivering this therapy in a group-based format to ACTT clients. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about CFT for psychosis and discuss how this model may be used on an ACT team. Learning objectives:
Target audience: ACT team members and learners from various disciplines, psychiatrists, managers |
Dr. Rachel Erstling, Claire Bryan and Suzanne Matheson |
Measurable standards are critical in assessment of evidenced based practices to prevent drift from model delivery as it is intended. Historically, evaluation of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) has relied on costly, cumbersome, and time-consuming fidelity visits. Beyond the several days of observation, interviews, and chart review, quality measures are infrequently considered in teams' day-to-day practice. This workshop introduces a novel method of assessing fidelity of ACT teams by moving the assessment from an outside entity to a process of self-assessment conducted by teams themselves using Qualtrics survey software, an online, user-friendly self-assessment of 49 items was created for ACT teams to measure fidelity. Alignment of all items with New York State ACT Standards of Care was reviewed, and a three-item subscale assessing Clinical Transition Activities was added in consideration of the emerging focus on transition from ACT. Upon completion of the ACT fidelity assessment submitted online, an automated response is made available immediately to the team. The feedback provides the ACT team with an overall score and individual item scores. In addition, the feedback is accompanied with suggestions for improvements including training and suggested quality improvement projects. To assist the team leaders in completing the self-assessment, an online Learning Community was provided to train team leaders and designated ACT providers in the fidelity process This workshop will include lessons learned about the self-assessment process to provide a knowledge exchange among team leaders, and the surprising ways in which team leaders have implemented the use of the fidelity assessment in day-to-day practices. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Team leader, program manager and policy makers |
Helle Thorning |
Outreach, Engagement and Recovery: A Harm Reduction Approach This two-part workshop will review challenges and strategies for implementing a harm reduction culture in clinical work. Presenter will share their expertise in areas of outreach and engagement. Presenter will also review with participants a number of barriers and limitations in implementing this model, particularly in ACT teams. Finally, participants will brainstorm specific, practical strategies to start implementing ideas immediately. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Clinicians, managers / team leaders | Luis Lopez |
Manufacturing Recovery - Utilizing Six Sigma Methodology in Community Mental Health "Manufacturing Recovery" introduces the concept of Six Sigma quality improvement to recovery-based practice. Although originally created to eliminate errors in manufacturing in the 1980s, it can have powerful results in the mental health sector for individuals, organizations, and communities. The presentation is divided into three parts. The first is an informative overview of Six Sigma methodology and how it can go hand in hand with the recovery model by recognizing the role of the client as both a customer and stakeholder. The second portion goes through a case study of a Six Sigma project conducted with an Assertive Community Treatment team to address documentation challenges, which demonstrates the radical and measurable improvements this process can yield. The final portion of the workshop is a brief discussion of other Six Sigma Projects completed in community mental health as well as discussing potential projects suggested by the audience. Learning objectives:
Target audience: The Target audience would be anyone interested in initiating, leading, or participating in quality improvement initiatives at any level. This includes team leaders, managers, coordinators, directors as well as front line staff and people with lived experience who participate in the services being offered. No previous knowledge of Six Sigma is required, and those with previous knowledge will develop new insights into its functionality. | Adam Wiseman |
NADA Protocol - a Brief Introduction to Acupuncture The cost of substance abuse is significant and goes beyond the individual. Those affected, their immediate family, their community and professionals with a wide range of backgrounds, in an ideal scenario, partner up to find the best approaches within the confines of the current scientific advances as well as financial resources. Among the many avenues explored in this arena, from an alternative, modern yet ancient tradition, acupuncture lends us a quick and effective tool in the form of a simple five points protocol called NADA. Easy to learn and use, it can bring an individual from the brinks of despair to a state of relative balance within minutes. Whether in the throes of the addictive substance, in withdrawal, or unrelated emotional turmoil, skillfully placed needles can put one in a better position to stop, think, regroup, and rebalance in order to take the best next steps in a more desirable direction. A short history of the protocol, research data as well as its possible applicability for an ACT environment will be discussed. Case studies (and demonstrations if applicable) will illustrate the presenter's experience with the intervention. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Clinicians of all backgrounds interested in expanding their interventions repertoire | Adriana Farcas and Dr. Felicia Iftene |
Use of self is very important in the work of leadership. Understanding your positionality helps you to understand the power dynamic of providing supervision to someone that may not have the same positionality as yourself. You will leave this workshop with a better understanding of your positionality and encouraged to help your staff recognize their own stance as it relates to connecting with the clients they serve. Your team will in turn become comfortable enough to help clients identify their own personality and how it impacts their relationship with systems and providers. Learning objectives:
Target audience: Administrators, manager's / team leaders, psychiatrists | Pascale Jean-Noel |
ACT and Intensive Case Management: A new hope Since 2005, the province of Québec developed a lot of ACT and ICM teams to provide services for people with severe mental health illness. These teams faced many challenges and one of them is to learn to work well together. At that time, most of the teams work alone without using the others to create a good continuum of care for people in services. The ACT and ICM National Center for Excellence in Mental Health (NCEMH) advisors worked together to provide activities and tools helping ACT and ICM teams to work well together. This session will present what was more helpful. Learning objectives:
| Olivier Jackson and Francois Neveu |
Time | Presenter |
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8:45 - 10:30 a.m. | Keynote: Olivier Jackson You Either Evolve or Disappear: Evolution of the ACT Model in the Province of Quebec |
10:30 - 11 a.m. | Break |
11 a.m. - noon | Breakout Sessions |
Noon - 12:30 p.m. | Closing Remarks and Awards |
Breakout Sessions |
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"A Meaningful Day" - OT / Rec / Voc / Mental Health Case Workers - 11 a.m. - noon Learning objectives:
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Expectations are growing on health organizations to involve clients and family in treatment planning and program development (Accreditation Canada) Social workers play a key role supporting family members and involving them in the care of their loved one when possible. This workshop will provide an opportunity to identify strategies and initiatives used by social workers and ACT teams to:
The group will share ideas and challenges as well as areas for further development to bring back to their teams. |
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