MassPRA
The Massachusetts Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association 

Ninth Annual Conference 2009
PUTTING OUR COLLECTIVE VISION INTO ACTION

Thursday, December 3rd: Institutes
Friday, December 4th: Workshops & Keynote
8:00 AM to 4:00 PM (lunch included)

Hogan Conference Center
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, Massachusetts 

Keynote Speaker: Janis Tondora Psy. D.

Janis Tondora, Psy.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health

Education:
1993 B.A. Yale University
2002 Psy.D. University of Hartford

Area of Expertise:
Recovery-oriented behavioral health care
Person-Centered treatment planning
Community inclusion
Best-practice rehabilitation supports

Achievements and Honors:
1996 American Association on Mental Retardation - Northeast Region Outstanding Service Award
2000Outstanding Graduate Student of Psychology, The Connecticut Psychological Association
2003- Recipient, National Institute of Health Loan Repayment Award

CONFERENCE & INSTITUTES INFORMATION

Scholarships
A limited number of scholarships will be provided for people in recovery for December 4th (keynote and workshop day). For application and more information click on the Scholarship link on the navigation bar. NOTE: There are no scholarships available for the Institutes.

Registration
There is no late registration or onsite registration for the Institutes. Early registration is highly recommended.
To register click on the Registration link on the navigation bar.

Certificates
Certificates of attendance will be provided on both days.

CEU's for CPRP's only, all other CEU's pending

Worcester Hotels
MassPRA has booked a block of rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Worcester. The price is $95 per night.
This includes valet parking and shuttle service to and from the College of the Holy Cross.
To make reservations call 508-753-1550

Hilton Garden Inn Worcester

Special Accommodations
If you need accommodations including communication access, requests must be made Sharon MacLean (smaclea@advocatesinc.org) by Nov. 13

Institutes

Institute # 1: Getting up to Speed with Supported Employment Services

Institute Description
This full-day institute will introduce participants to the key components and competencies for effective supported employment services. Work readiness issues will be addressed through discussion and instruction in assessing motivation to work and developing the skills needed to get a job. Presenters will provide participants with tools and resources to help job seekers identify their skills, strengths, interests, likes and dislikes for looking for employment. In addition, presenters will provide instruction on developing a marketing pitch for approaching employers, facilitating decisions about disclosure, negotiating accommodations, and the rights of employees under the ADA. Handouts will include lists of both national and Massachusetts-specific resources, such as information on the one-stop career centers and MRC. Throughout the institute, discussion and instruction will emphasize methods for integrating supported employment services with the full array and continuum of clinical and rehabilitation services, including the new Massachusetts CBFS service models.

Learning Objectives
Participants will:
1. List the key components of effective supported employment services
2. Describe factors contributing to motivation to seek, get, and keep a job
3. Identify a variety of strategies for job development
4. Assess their own service agency or program to determine how to maximize the integration of employment services within local service networks

Presenters:
Amy Gelb, MS,CRC,CAGS, CPRP

Amy Gelb, MS,CRC,CAGS, CPRP, has extensive experience in the disability and employment arena as a job coach, job developer, program manager for a large DMH funded employment program and as a trainer for ICI. She was the host of a weekly cable TV show on employment and a weekly employment radio show. In a nationwide study of employment programs, the services that Amy managed were found to be the most cost-effective and successful. At ICI, she has been involved in numerous projects including the New England Job Development Training Program, a project with One-stop Career Centers called the Workforce Action Grant, and a Peer Employment Benefits Network project through the Work Without Limits from the Massachusetts Medicaid Infrastructure Comprehensive Employment Opportunities Grant. She provides training on employment for people with disabilities, both locally and nationally. Amy has a master's degree in human resource counseling and completed her CAGS degree in Psychiatric Rehabilitation from Boston University in May 2008. Amy has taught a job search strategies class and provided individual employment counseling and job development at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. She also owned and operated her own business for many years.

Patricia B. Nemec, Psy.D., CRC, CPRP

Pat Nemec is an independent trainer and consultant in psychiatric rehabilitation, and holds Adjunct Associate Professor appointments at both Boston University and the University of Maryland (College Park). From 1984-2008, she was on the faculty of the Rehabilitation Counseling program at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University, where she was responsible for the psychiatric rehabilitation specialization. While at Boston University, Nemec worked on the team developing the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Training Technology at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. From 1972 to 1984, Nemec worked in various capacities providing direct services for people with psychiatric disabilities in both inpatient and community programs, coordinating volunteer training programs, and assisting in the design and implementation of research and evaluation projects. She is currently active in the US Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, and serves as the Vice President of the Commission for Certification of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioners. She has written a number of articles, book chapters, and training materials on psychiatric rehabilitation. Nemec received her BA from Syracuse University, and her Psy.D. from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2007 John Beard Award from the US Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

Institute # 2: Integrating Peer Providers in the Mental Health Workforce

Institute Description
Research, experience, and both federal and state policy recognize the valuable contributions that persons with lived experience offers in terms of fostering recovery outcomes for persons receiving mental health services. New Massachusetts’ initiatives have resulted in many changes in service design and provider roles, including the addition of many peer-provider roles. This Institute will examine core competencies, roles, barriers and challenges to effectively integrating peers into the mental health workforce. Institute participants will have the opportunity to examine core skills and knowledge related to peer-workers in order to craft meaningful job descriptions, and to address the barriers that thwart efforts to integrate peer workers as an effective method of fostering recovery outcomes.

Learning Objectives
Participants will:
1. Construct effective and meaningful job descriptions based on critical competencies for Certified Peer Specialist and other peer positions;
2. Effectively address cultural and systems challenges to integrating peers in the workforce;
3. Implement a plan for addressing cultural and system challenges within their own setting; and
4. Anticipate supervision and support needs of peer workers to be able to maximize effectiveness of peer roles in the workforce.

Presenters:
Lori Ashcraft, Ph.D.


During her 35 year behavioral health career, Lori has had a strong interest in the therapeutic effects of self-determination, choice, and personal freedom. After a full career in California that included the Deputy Director for Community Programs of state Department of Mental Health, she re-located to Arizona where she accepted the position as Director for Adult Services for the Regional Behavioral Health Authority and served as a professor for the University of Arizona teaching psycho-social rehabilitation and managing one of eight SAMHSA funded employment demonstration programs. It was during this time that Lori became involved in the recovery movement. Through training with Mary Ellen Copeland and help from colleagues at Boston University, her commitment to recovery principles became a passion. When META Services (now Recovery Innovations) opened the Recovery Education Center in the fall of 2000, Lori accepted the position as Executive Director of the Center.

Lori recently developed curriculum to help consumers move beyond recovery by finding their purpose, making their own unique contribution, and using their experiences to help others grow and recover. Her own passion for recovery stems from personal experience having struggled with severe depression most of her life.

Lyn Legere, M.S., CRC, CPRP, CPS

A person-in-recovery, Lyn Legere, M.S., CRC, CPRP, CPS is dedicated to using her own experiences to help inspire hope in the lives of people using psychiatric services and improve the services that they use. Lyn is a Massachusetts Certified Peer Specialist, a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP), and the president of MassPRA. She is the Director of Education and Peer Support at the Transformation Center, overseeing the Massachusetts Certified Peer Specialist Training program. She also co-teaches the Certificate Program in Psychiatric Vocational Rehabilitation at Boston University. Lyn has been involved in peer services since joining a 12-Step program in 1983 where she learned the value of shared journeys and the power of story-as-teacher. Since that time, Lyn has integrated her story-as-teacher mission as part of her work in a variety of arenas, including Social Security benefits and work training, providing Supported Education services to undergrads at Boston University, teaching Psychiatric Vocational Rehabilitation, representing individuals in Social Security advocacy, training at the Boston University Recovery Center, directing the Peer and Recovery services at BayCove, and in her current work. Lyn received her Masters’ of Science in Psychiatric Rehabilitation from Boston University and has trained nationally and internationally on peer and recovery-oriented training and mental health services.

Institute # 3: Is Person-Centered Planning Soft?: Creating a Plan that Honors the Person AND Satisfies the Chart

Institute Description
This full-day institute will cover the core principles and practices of comprehensive person-centered recovery planning (PCP), and how this differs from traditional models of care. The focus of the presentation will be on the “nuts-and-bolts” of quality implementation and will include a review of key indicators of PCP from both a process and a documentation perspective. Presenters will include a mix of didactic and practice-based strategies to support participants in writing goals, objectives, and interventions that respect strengths-based, person-centered principles while also satisfying expectations associated with clinical, accreditation, and fiscal regulations. Finally, participants will have an opportunity to work in small groups and write a sample Individualized Action Plan (IAP) based on a variety of case materials which will be shared with the audience.

Learning Objectives
Participants will:
1. Gain an understanding of “person-centered care” and how this differs from traditional models in behavioral health service delivery
2. Recognize the role of strengths-based inquiry and language as a component of creating a person-centered plan
3. identify concrete, practical strategies that exemplify the implementation of PCP
4. Gain understanding of importance of a comprehensive formulation (e.g. Interpretive Summary) from assessment data as the precursor to the PCP
5. Understand the technical documentation elements in a person-centered plan (i.e. goals, objectives, and interventions)
6. Learn strategies to maintain the rigor of documentation in order to meet fiscal and accreditation standards

Presenter:
Janis Tondora, Psy.D.

Dr. Janis Tondora is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. Based at the Program for Recovery and Community Health, her professional interests focus on the design, implementation, and evaluation of services that promote self-determination, recovery, and community inclusion among individuals diagnosed with serious behavioral health disorders. She works closely with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), and has coordinated a number of statewide training and consultation initiatives designed to promote the transfer of academic research into the public-sector behavioral health system. In recognition of her work, she has been invited to provide training and consultation to numerous states seeking to develop person-centered planning models and has been active as a steering committee member of the SAMHSA National Consensus-Building Initiative on Person-Centered Care. Dr. Tondora has shared her work with the field in numerous publications including a recent book co-authored with several colleagues entitled A Practical Guide to Recovery-Oriented Practice: Tools for Transforming Mental Health Care.

Institute # 4: Enhancing your profession: “Nuts-and-Bolts” of becoming a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP).

Institute Description
If you have dedicated your career to providing exceptional psychiatric rehabilitation, now is the time to enhance your professional status with the CPRP certification. Join a distinguished group of more than 2600 individuals who demonstrate how psychiatric rehabilitation positively changes the lives of individuals with serious mental illness to one of hope, self-determination, empowerment and recovery. This interactive full day institute will help participants understand the seven domains cover on the CPRP exam and develop an individualize plan to study for the CPRP exam.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will:
1. Become familiar with the 7 domains that are included on exam blue print.
2. Identify and obtain the study materials.
3. Develop your Study Plan Timeline.
4. Get support from current professionals who have the CPRP designation.

Presenters:
Maria E. Restrepo-Toro, MS, CPRP.

Ms. Restrepo-Toro is a Senior Trainer at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. She is the founder of the Latino Initiatives at the Center, and has worked on several multicultural projects and divisions since 1990. Maria is committed to helping people with psychiatric disabilities gain equal access to recovery and rehabilitation services. She has been the principal investigator for various research and training projects (Recuperando La Esperanza, 1999; Modelo de Rehabilitación Vocacional para personas Latinas con Condiciones Psiquiátricas, 2002; Abriendo Caminos en tu vida: Guía de preparación para la rehabilitación Psiquiátrica, 2006). She has been responsible for adapting rehabilitation interventions so that they are culturally competent and will meet the needs of the Latino communities around the country. In addition, she trains practitioners, administrators, and consumers in both multicultural competence and in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation both nationally and internationally. Maria strongly believes that culture and/or ethnicity play an important role in recovery. She has been involved with USPRA’s multicultural activities both at a national and state level.

Lisa Chodos, MS, LRC, CPRP

Lisa has worked in the field of Psychiatric Rehabilitation for the past 10 years. In 2004, Lisa received her M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from Boston University, with a specialization in Psychiatric Rehabilitation. She is proud to have earned the Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP) credential in 2008, and is excited to help other professionals earn their CPRP.

Veronica Ebuen, MS, CRC, CPRP

Veronica is a Rehabilitation Coordinator with Vinfen Corporation, where she has worked for 3 years. Her present role includes providing outreach services to clients as well as training and consultation on Psychiatric Rehabilitation to Vinfen staff and clients in the Cambridge/Somerville area. In 2006, Veronica received her M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from Boston University, with a specialization in psychiatric rehabilitation. She is proud to have earned the Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner (CPRP) credential in 2007, and is excited to help other professionals earn their CPRP.

Workshops

• Hope for Recovery through Alternatives to Hospitalization: Peer Run Respites: Daniel Fisher & Cathy A. Levin - Peer Run Respite services serve as an alternative to the traumatization and disruption of emergency rooms and inpatient admissions.
• Supervision: The Vital Link for Success in Psychiatric Rehabilitation: David R. Selden & Marcia Webster - Relevant issues regarding supervision in psychiatric rehabilitation.
• An Agency’s Process of Integrating Peer Specialists to Support Mental Health Recovery: Keith Scott, Heidi Trainor & Michelle Love - This workshop will address the successes, challenges and barriers to an organization’s process of hiring and effectively supporting people in recovery in the role of peer specialist.
• Laughter’s Role in Promoting Recovery in Psychiatric Rehabilitation: Marie Mesidor & Marjorie Jacobs - This workshop presents an innovative intervention which combines laughter exercises with yoga breathing.
• Ethics in Practice: The Principles of Fairness: Patricia Nemec & Steve LeMaster - After presenting briefly on ethical principles and the CPRP Code of Ethics, presenters will describe research on perceptions of fairness and practical applications within psychiatric rehabilitation.
• Learning to Listen: You can meditate mindfully: Rev. James Shepard - Staff, peer group facilitators and anyone can learn to listen better through practice and attention.
• Hope, Healing, Health: Talking openly about abuse and neglect: Michael Skinner - Learn to gain hope, recovery from trauma of abuse or neglect using peer support and hearing stories of courage and motivation.
• Putting your Vision into Action: Half of the fun is getting there: LaVerne Saunders - Provides a specific strategy and direction for engaging in a change and growth process beginning with a vision of the future.
• The excitement of learning: Writing your own recovery myth: David Webster & Marcia Webster - Peer Support and Adult learning are cutting edge components of recovery; focus on self efficacy, collective efficacy, social learning.
• Time +Tragedy=Comedy [Storytelling]: Norah Dooley- Participants will learn to tell their stories so others can and will listen to stories of trauma, illness, recovery and humor.
• Transforming Direct Care Staff into Wellness Specialists: Mark Keller, Britt Ruhe, Peer Wellness Specialists -A data collection process which led to the designation of a group of direct care staff as Wellness Specialists.
• Intentional Care: Factors for Establishing Professional Boundaries: Amy C. Morgan & Heidi Trainor - Intentional Care Performance Standards provide a decision making model that demonstrates both flexible and consistent factors that help direct staff establish respectful and recovery oriented boundaries
• What makes a CPS a CPS?: Core competencies of a Certified Peer Specialist: Lyn Legere & Patricia Nemec - Presenters will describe an evaluation process of critical competencies that articulates the role of the CPS and how these translate into training, the CPS exam and job descriptions.
• From Individual Experiences to Common Goals: Training Transition Aged Youth in Participatory Research and Evaluation: Mary Sharon Kaminski - This workshop will discuss collaborations between Consumer Quality Initiatives, a consumer led mental health evaluation organization, and transition aged youth.
• Recovery and Growth Processes of Peer Providers: Galia Moran & Cheryl Gagne - This workshop presents initial findings from a study about recovery processes of peer providers based on interviews with 30 peer providers in MA.
• Advocacy in Action: Building Community and Power through the Young Adult Policy Team: Scott Francis & Stephanie Morrill - Young adult peers doing systems advocacy engage in relationships, finding courage to speak from experience.
• Real Jobs, Real Roles: The Challenges of Working Inside and Outside the Mental Health System for People in Recovery. Lisa Halpern et al - This presentation will showcase a panel of people with lived experience who work in a variety of employment settings to discuss disclosure, accommodations, professional role and systems competencies.
• Take Your Place in the Workforce: An Introduction to Using Work Incentives: Rick Kugler - This workshop will introduce the basic principles of the relationships between earnings and benefits; will discuss how SSI/SSDI beneficiaries can ease their way to employment via work incentive use.
• The Power of Outreach and Partnership in the Recovery Process: Donna Macomber-Cassidy; Lisa Bouthiller; Kim Britt & Barbara Moulton - This workshop outlines the importance of effective outreach, engagement and partnership during one’s journey through recovery.
• A Time for Change: Future with focus: Briana Wales- The W. Mass. Youth Council will use an interactive workshop to make suggestions for improving professional practices (from focus group data collected from their peers).
• Metro Boston Recovery Learning Community: Teams R-US or creating an initiative with six very different partnerships: Sarah Berger; Chuck Weinstein; Howard Trachtman - Six different partnerships brought Peers together to identify with a shared vision of the Metro Boston Recovery Learning Community and how they worked together to make it a reality.
• A Collective Vision for Engaging Underserved Communities in PSR programs: Marie Mesidor: Kimberly Bisset; Laura Diaz; Janel Kristi Tan - The interactive workshop illustrates how to implement Principles of Multicultural Psychiatric Rehabilitation to promote cross-cultural understanding and enhance PSR programs.
• Recovery through Employment: Getting Beyond the CORI: Victoria Buckley & Michael Cipoletti - The work barrier presented by CORI issues is examined with survey results, firsthand knowledge from a person in recovery and practical suggestions.
• Engaging Employers and Community Employment Resources to Achieve Successful Employment: Kimberly Bisset, Joan Rapp & Tanya Kelly - This workshop will teach strategies for job development, job creation, collaboration with community resources and post employment supports.
• Improving Your Health Odds: Information is Power: Madeline Becker, Lisa Halpern & Mary McGinnis - Describes a project at Vinfen in which those who were high risk for cardiovascular disease were identified in order to provide supports to reduce those risks.
• Thinking about becoming a CPRP practitioner? Start the Process Now: Maria Restrepo-Toro & Mary Gregorio - This workshop helps interested persons to understand the value and the process of becoming a Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner.
• Recovery and Parenting: The Experience of Parents in Recovery and How the Family Options Program Helps: Hector Lara; Jennifer Kirkpatrick, Emma Rodgers & Jacquelyn Martinez - Learn to support adults with mental illness in achieving a meaningful role with their children.

Posters

• Supporting Parents with Mental Illness and their Children: Peer and Team Innovations / Chip Wilder
• Recognizing and Understanding the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Needs of Latino Men and Women in a Culturally-focused Addiction Treatment Setting /. Emily Steward, Wilfred Labiosa and Laura Diaz
• Working with Nature / Jocelyn Hand, Jennifer Angell, Jeff Munsell, Donna Bourne, Chris Pina, John Sperandio, Gabrielle Evangelista and Leeann Pierce
• Advance Care Planning and Advance Directives / M McCormack, S Bourget, G Schwartz

Roundtables

• Person Centered Planning / Janice Tondora
• Human Rights Are So Dear / J. Dosick, K. Scott, N. Pinson D