Series of Talks Challenging Traditional Paradigms to Debut at Elevate

The second annual Elevate by Psych Congress conference will offer attendees a new platform designed to both inspire and educate them: engaging talks from 5 mental health professionals with various ideas on how to innovate within psychiatry.

On the final day of the meeting, Elevate organizers will present re:Think, a lineup of 20-minute, TED-style talks challenging conventional treatment paradigms and aiming to prompt deep conversation on improving patient care.

Elevate, which is targeted to early career mental health professionals, will take place in Austin, Texas, February 23-25, 2018.

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“We wanted to provide education that was truly game changing, with topics and speakers our attendees may have never heard of before, and in a format that is not only compelling and digestible, but challenges the audience to think differently about the state of healthcare today, and how they, too, can be part of improving it,” said Randy Robbin, CHCP, president of the North American Center for Continuing Medical Education (NACCME), which operates Psych Congress and Elevate, among other medical education meetings.

Robbin said organizers are “hoping the presenters will gain just as much as the attendees from the presentations and the group exchange and interaction.”

“The re:Think forum is very exciting to me. It’s the perfect platform to introduce novel ideas to the next generation of mental health providers,” said psychiatrist Jyoti Sachdeva, MD, who will present “From Symptom Reduction to Wellness—The Need for a Paradigm Shift.”

Dr. Sachdeva, adjunct associate professor at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, will speak about the need for clinicians to do more than just write prescriptions, despite the fast pace of modern life and the challenges of managed care. Providers must consider “lifestyle and psychological factors, treatment goals and expectations, and effects of stress when developing  treatment plans,” she said.

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“We need to connect on a human level and see them as whole human beings rather than just bundles of neurons,” she added. “I hope that attendees become more holistic in their approach to patient care, that they really get to know their patients and focus on overall wellness rather than just symptom reduction.”

Oregon psychiatrist Omar Reda, MD wanted to participate in re:Think to share his experiences implementing a successful model of psychosocial care to empower refugees and survivors of trauma.

“The main message is to treat clients as whole humans, look behind the mask of symptoms, listen with interest to the trauma story, and take care of yourself and your loved ones in the process,” Dr. Reda said of his talk, titled “Untangled: Breaking the Cycle of Dysfunction.”

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He will encourage attendees who see his presentation to “create safe spaces for honest conversations with their clients, to never lose hope or preach despair, also to have sensitivity to their clients' journeys and honor their stories.”

James Dod, PhD, a clinical psychologist in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, hopes to educate the next generation of mental health professionals on how they can change the system which prospective patients use to find a provider. His presentation is titled “Mental Health Referrals in the Age of Consumerism.”

“There are too many obstacles that get in the way of people finding effective mental health care,” Dr. Dod said. “We can greatly improve on the blind, word-of-mouth referrals that have been, for too long, the route prospective patients take to find a professional.”

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He will encourage Elevate attendees to use information technology to market themselves and connect with patients, possibly through a practitioner marketplace like one he has been developing.

The other speakers are Brian Dixon, MD, a psychiatrist and owner of a private practice in Texas, who will discuss “A New Approach to Financing Mental Healthcare in America,” and Lawrence Peacock, MD, a psychiatrist and vice chair of psychiatry at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Connecticut, whose talk is titled “Climbing Out of the Rabbit Hole: The Power of Relationships.”

Conference organizers plan to expand re:Think beyond Elevate, according to Robbin.

“We are working to add a re:Think program to Psych Congress for 2018, and also see opportunities for this program at our other educational offerings, as well as possibly several standalone re:Think programs,” he said.

—Terri Airov