Register Now! Scholarships are available on a sliding scale fee.  Call 617-542-7860 x201 for more information

To download and/or print registration, exhibit, sponsor or youth track forms, please visit our website.
If you are a youth, young adult, OR an adult registering a youth or young adult, please click HERE 

Title Sponsor

Keynote Speaker: Victoria Costello

 

Victoria Costello of The Mental Health Mom Blog, comes to mental health advocacy as someone in recovery from depression and addiction, and as the mother of two sons who’ve faced mental disorders. As a science writer and speaker to parent groups and professionals, she often addresses the many and often surprising ways mental disorders travel through families and how parents can be empowered to reverse such legacies, a topic she explores indepth in her memoir, A Lethal Inheritance, A Mother Uncovers the Science Behind Three Generations of Mental Illness  (Prometheus Books/2012). Victoria has written about parenting and mental health for HuffingtonPost, Scientific American Mind, Brain World, Mamapedia and LA Parent. In her day job as Social Media and Community Editor for the Public Library of Science, PLOS, Victoria works to communicate many areas of science and medicine to a broad audience.

Morning Workshops

Workshop 1: Witnesses to the Dark: A Frank Talk on Mental Health
Presenters: Bob Larsted, author of Witness to the Dark: My Daughter's Troubled Times
Patricia Larsted (daughter of Bob), author of Of Meadows and Flowers: and Crying and Hope

Join the conversation with authors Bob and Patricia Larsted about Patricia’s battle with anxiety, depression, bipolar, obsessivecompulsive, and schizoaffective disorders. Share their journey through the minefield of school, family, and today’s healthcare system as they struggled to find a way for her to survive, and, ultimately, thrive.

Workshop 2: My Child Has Been Diagnosed, Now What?
Presenter: Peter Metz, MD

This workshop will provide an overview of ADHD, Depression, Anxiety Disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders regarding treatment and how each one may affect the child, family, and school, with time for questions and discussion.  

Workshop 3: Making Positive Connections with Your School
Presenter: Kathy Hassey

Our children and adolescents with behavioral health issues should have support during the school day by school health professionals.  It can be difficult for families when deciding what to disclose to school personnel.  The School Nurse, a Registered Nurse, holds a higher standard of confidentiality and is there to support students and families.  School Nurses are the link between education and health care.

Workshop 4: Trauma and Addiction – Understanding Co-occurring disorders
Presenters: Miriam Ervin, LMHC, North Suffolk Mental Health Association
Michael Leach, Institute for Health and Recovery

The comorbidity of trauma and mental health issues along with substance use disorders presents individuals and families with significant challenges when seeking treatment and support. Adolescents and young adults with cooccurring disorders struggle with a complex set of symptoms, higher levels of functional impairment and higher levels of multisystem involvement.   To meet these challenges, behavioral health professionals need to be “crosstrained” in order to provide a holistic and effective approach. This presentation will provide education on the specifics of cooccurring disorder, and how the system of care for youth and young adults uses integrated approaches to provide traumainformed care.

Workshop 5: The Parent as Special Education Advocate: Practical Tips
Presenter: Meira Russ, Health Law Advocates    

When advocating for a child with mental health needs, even the special education eligibility process can be a challenge. With a focus on delivering practical advice, together we will discuss eligibility, services, IEPs, team meetings, and whatever else may come up in your questions.  

Workshop 6: Hearing Voices 
Presenters: Caroline White and Lisa Forestell, Western Mass Recovery Learning Community

The Hearing Voices approach offers a nonpathologizing, open way of understanding and supporting people through the experience of hearing voices. It assumes that hearing voices (as well as seeing visions and other sensory experiences) can be a normal part of human experience with a variety of meanings for people. Hearing Voices groups are widely available throughout the United Kingdom and many other countries and are just taking hold in the United States.

Afternoon Workshops

Workshop 7: Trans Youth and Their Families: Stories of Support and Resiliency
Presenter: Missy Sturtevant

More and more youth are coming out as transgender at a variety of ages. Parents and service providers are each looking for ways to support these youth and their families. This workshop will feature a panel of trans youth and their parents to share stories of coming out, finding support from services, and lessons learned. The workshop will briefly cover an introduction to transgender identities.  

Workshop 8: Restorative Practices in a Variety of Settings
Presenter: Christy Barbee, Communities for Restorative Justice

Restorative justice draws on the principle that crime and wrongdoing are not just violations of laws and rules, but of people and relationships. It provides for flexible responses in instances of harm, measures that can be used to address the needs of all stakeholders. Simultaneously, the principles are also finding traction in schools, work settings, and family and therapy settings.

Workshop 9: The Parent as Special Education Advocate: Practical Tips
Presenter: Meira Russ, Health Law Advocates    

When advocating for a child with mental health needs, even the special education eligibility process can be a challenge. With a focus on delivering practical advice, together we will discuss eligibility, services, IEPs, team meetings, and whatever else may come up in your questions.

Workshop 10: Understanding How Trauma Impacts Children: Risk Factors, Consequences, and How You Can Help
Presenter: Genevieve KaneHowse, LMHC

Audience members will learn about common causes of trauma in young children; understand how trauma can manifest itself in youth; learn how to identify trauma responses; and gain insight into how to use trauma informed care.

Workshop 11: The Effects of Bullying
Presenter: Dr. Douglas Katz, Arlington Youth Counseling Center

In this interactive presentation, Dr. Katz will explain the psychological and social causes of bullying, placing the issue within the contexts of child and adolescent development, evolutionary psychology, and recent findings in neuroscience.  He will also provide participants with strategies to help their children and students reduce the frequency with which they are targeted.  Various types of bullying behavior, including social exclusion, teasing, rumor spreading, and the use of social media will be discussed.  In addition, the importance of social skills training in the prevention of bullying will be discussed, and a practical approach to teaching these skills will be outlined.

Register Now! To download and/or print registration, exhibit, sponsor or youth track forms, please visit our website.
If you are a youth, young adult, OR an adult registering a youth or young adult, please click HERE 

Sponsorship Opportunities

Click here for information about sponsorship, exhibit tables and program book greetings!