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West Coast Psychosis Care and Connection: A Retreat on Humanistic Approaches

Threading the Needle: From Clinical High Risk for Psychosis to Chronic and Idiopathic Psychosis; Assessment, Re-Assessment and Treatment

Benjamin Biller, MA QMHP, Therapist, Screener with Benton County EASA
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Description

Assertive Community Treatment, first developed in 1980 as an answer to chronic ineffective hospitalization for people experiencing psychosis, has been revised nationally and internationally, prominently reborn in Australia with early intervention for psychosis, returned to the United States in the early 2000s. There is clear and convincing evidence of the efficacy and life changing outcomes for these programs, however little examination of case study of when and how specialty integrated cross disciplinary teams reach limitations and poor outcomes in treating psychosis. This presentation will focus on the nature of psychosis, contrasting a clinical lens with lived experience affirming individual and family experience. Attending to effective early assessment and re-assessment for people experiencing chronic and idiopathic psychosis, as well as novel treatment from emerging understanding of what our brains and minds are doing when we are sleeping, this presentation will examine the gap between the medical model of psychosis and demolition psychiatry. The pitfalls and benefits of differential diagnosis as well as the need for understanding the relationship between physiology and mind will be central.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Identify and explain the seven most common pre-cursors psychosis frequently misunderstood and overlooked when "schizophrenia" is diagnoses.

  • Summarize sleep stages and the ways in which brain processes during sleep are related to psychosis and other symptoms.

  • Identify how to access specialty assessment and treatment of sleep within systems.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this session is to enhance clinicians’ understanding of psychosis by examining the strengths and limitations of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and other interdisciplinary care models. Participants will explore how clinical frameworks can be integrated with lived experience perspectives to improve assessment, re-assessment, and long-term care for individuals with chronic and idiopathic psychosis. The session will also introduce emerging concepts related to brain and mind processes (e.g., sleep and consciousness) and support clinicians in applying more nuanced, integrative, and individualized approaches to diagnosis and treatment.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Nurse
  • Physician
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Benjamin Biller, MA QMHP, Therapist, Screener with Benton County EASA
Benjamin (he/him/él) is originally from Rhode Island and completed his undergraduate degree in Massachusetts at Wheaton College. He earned his master’s degree in Illinois at the University of Chicago. Ben worked at Butler Hospital in Rhode Island on the adolescent unit as an Activities Therapist after graduate school and later worked with The Providence Center providing counseling in an intensive home-based program for youth. After moving to Oregon, Ben joined the Benton County Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team for four years as a therapist/case manager and in 2022 joined the Benton County Early Assessment Support Alliance (EASA) team as a screener/therapist. Ben’s passion for working in the field comes from his academic and clinical work as well as his personal journey which includes first experiencing psychosis at age 20 (prior to early intervention program in Rhode Island/Massachusetts!). Ben's focus derives from both direct lived and clinical experience with the difference skilled specialty care achieves.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Ellenhorn