Event Information
From “Community-Based” mental health care to “Community-Informed” mental health care:
A unique approach to serving young people and families living with psychosis
When: Thursday, September 28th 8:00a – 10:30a with an opportunity for Q & A following the presentation.
Where: Porter County Community Foundation, 1401 Calumet Ave, Valparaiso, IN 46383
About the Speaker:
Rachel Waford is a licensed clinical psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA and trained at the Prevention and Recovery for Early Psychosis Program (PREP) affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Mental Health Center. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Emory University’s School of Medicine and Grady Hospital in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Waford has a clinical practice primarily serving individuals and families living with psychosis, with an emphasis on the earliest experiences of illness and distress. Dr. Waford is also a jointly appointed Assistant Professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. In this role she focuses on supervising psychotherapy for psychology and psychiatry trainees, and teaching and mentoring in a variety of areas of community and global mental health. Dr. Waford also values community advocacy and engagement and works with organizations and families to better understand how to serve our broader mental community. She co-authored a text, The Psychosis Response Guide: How to help young people in psychiatric crises, and has a TEDx talk entitled, Early Intervention for Psychosis: Building a Broader Mental Health Community.
About the Content:
This presentation will discuss the importance of building a mental health community outside of the community mental health center. People need support and empathy from their community as much as they need support and empathy from their family, friends and/or support people in their lives. Many individuals with psychosis will continue to have residual symptoms over the course of their lifetimes, early intervention decreases the likelihood of a life with a chronic and debilitating illness. It is important for a community to know this and understand that early intervention is best, but it does not guarantee a symptom free life. In this session we will explore psychosis, identify the gaps and discuss what we can do together to support people who have been diagnosed with psychosis.
Learning Objectives:
- Review psychosis, schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and first episode psychosis.
- Identify problems and gaps in serving the FEP population.
- Define and discuss community-informed approaches.
- Explore innovative models of this approach in different settings.
- Develop and identify how to implement these models in our/your current systems.
If you're interested in attending, please fill out the registration form below:
