Consumers and practitioners will share viewpoints

A convention dialogue aims to spur partnership between psychologists and consumers.

An APA miniconvention, "Consumers and psychologists in dialogue," will explore the potential for increased collaboration between mental health-care providers and consumers, rather than a strictly treatment-based approach to mental health care.

Held at APA's Annual Convention in Boston, Aug. 20­24, the miniconvention will bring together psychologists and representatives of such groups as consumers of psychiatric treatment, who accept their diagnosis, survivors of treatment, who identify themselves as having weathered abuses in their treatment, and ex-mental patients, who reject the label of psychiatric patient.

Dialogue between psychologists and these groups is a step toward better and more effective models of care for illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, says Ronald Levant, EdD, of Nova Southeastern University.

Levant will co-chair the miniconvention along with Robert Coursey, PhD, of the University of Maryland, Ron Bassman, PhD, of the New York State Office of Mental Health, and Catherine Acuff, PhD, senior policy analyst at the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) in Washington, D.C.

They and other miniconvention speakers will offer methods of forging stronger ties between consumers and providers.

For example, psychologists could integrate their services with drop-in centers, at which consumers offer one another peer support and provide links with employment and education.

Other speakers, among them consumers, will also explore ways that providers can surmount the stigmatization of mental illness and believe more strongly in consumers' ability to recover from severe and long-term mental illnesses.

"This dialogue is critical to the profession," says psychologist Catherine Acuff, PhD, who was instrumental in organizing a similar dialogue--the precursor to this one--last year at the CMHS. "The consumer movement has grown and it's a voice that's increasingly heard, as it should be.

Out of the dialogue, we hope people recognize that both sides have something to offer, which may not historically have been the case."

Sessions at the miniconvention include:

* Opening presentation: "Towards a better working alliance: consumers, psychologists and survivors."

* Conversation hour: "Psychologists diagnosed with major mental illness discuss problems and insights."

* "Recovery: evidence from research and personal reports."

* "Competencies for staff working with adults with severe mental illness."

* "Women consumers/survivors and psychologists' dialogue: a new look at trauma."

* "College students with psychiatric impairments."

* "Innovative services: consumer and psychologist run/co-run."

* "Serious mental illness: family issues and interventions."

* "Dialogues in the states: connecting state associations with consumers."

* "When psychologists and consumers talk: outcomes for psychologists."



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