Program

You are invited to attend the 2nd Annual Best Practices Conference - Tools of Empowerment! Illness Management and Self-Directed Recovery. The conference will be held at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii from March 29 -31, 2005. Attendees will include nurses, providers of mental health services, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers as well as consumers of mental health services and their family members. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Adult Mental Health Division (AMHD) of the State of Hawaii Department of Health and the Hawaii Consortium for Continuing Medical Education. The conference is presented in partnership with the Hawaii Center for Evidence Based Practices and affiliated University of Hawaii (UH) programs in Nursing, Psychiatry, Psychology, and Social Work. Other partners in the conference include the American Psychiatric Nurses Association - Hawaii Chapter, the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association, the Hawaii Psychological Association, the Hawaii Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Hawaii Chapter of the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services, and United Self-Help.

Evidence-based practices (EBPs) are interventions supported by consistent scientific evidence showing that they improve the out-comes in the lives of adults with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Research on the implementation of EBPs shows the importance of pro-grams adhering to the key elements of EBPs (i.e., maintaining fidelity to EBP models) in order to assure the outcomes demonstrated by scientific evidence.

The 1999 Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health highlighted six EBPs that have proven to produce significant results for persons with SPMI, but have not been consistently implemented by public mental health systems. Annually, the AMHD's Best Practices Conference focuses on one EBP in order to promote consistent fidelity to the practice in ways which support individual recovery while being culturally informed, sensitive and responsive.

This year's conference will focus on the evidence-based practice of Illness Management and Self-Directed Recovery. Illness management strategies are designed to assist adults with severe mental illness to improve skills needed to effectively manage illness, cope with troubling symptoms, and reduce episodes of relapse. Consumers learn to develop skills such as symptom recognition, relapse prevention planning, coping with stress, and using medication effectively. The role of the mental health professional in this practice is to use educational, motivational, and cognitive-behavioral strategies to help consumers develop skills toward managing their own illnesses in the context of recovery. Herein lies the significance of the term self-determination eventual self-sufficiency, the restoration of self-esteem and dignity, the illness, and the finding of personal meaning in life. The model empowers consumers to have ultimate control over the goals and direction of treatment through fostering respectful relationships and using a strengths-based approach. In short, the goal of a recovery treatment program is to instill hope for a better tomorrow, and in doing so, enable consumers to live a more productive, enjoyable today.



	Overview You are invited to attend the 2nd Annual Best Practices Conference - Tools of Empowerment! Illness Management and Self-Directed Recovery. The conference will be held at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii from March 29 -31, 2005. Attendees will include nurses, providers of mental health services, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers as well as consumers of mental health services and their family members. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Adult Mental Health Division (AMHD) of the State of Hawaii Department of Health and the Hawaii Consortium for Continuing Medical Education. The conference is presented in partnership with the Hawaii Center for Evidence Based Practices and affiliated University of Hawaii (UH) programs in Nursing, Psychiatry, Psychology, and Social Work. Other partners in the conference include the American Psychiatric Nurses Association - Hawaii Chapter, the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association, the Hawaii Psychological Association, the Hawaii Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Hawaii Chapter of the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services, and United Self-Help. Evidence-based practices (EBPs) are interventions supported by consistent scientific evidence showing that they improve the out-comes in the lives of adults with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Research on the implementation of EBPs shows the importance of pro-grams adhering to the key elements of EBPs (i.e., maintaining fidelity to EBP models) in order to assure the outcomes demonstrated by scientific evidence. The 1999 Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health highlighted six EBPs that have proven to produce significant results for persons with SPMI, but have not been consistently implemented by public mental health systems. Annually, the AMHD's Best Practices Conference focuses on one EBP in order to promote consistent fidelity to the practice in ways which support individual recovery while being culturally informed, sensitive and responsive. This year's conference will focus on the evidence-based practice of Illness Management and Self-Directed Recovery. Illness management strategies are designed to assist adults with severe mental illness to improve skills needed to effectively manage illness, cope with troubling symptoms, and reduce episodes of relapse. Consumers learn to develop skills such as symptom recognition, relapse prevention planning, coping with stress, and using medication effectively. The role of the mental health professional in this practice is to use educational, motivational, and cognitive-behavioral strategies to help consumers develop skills toward managing their own illnesses in the context of recovery. Herein lies the significance of the term self-determination eventual self-sufficiency, the restoration of self-esteem and dignity, the illness, and the finding of personal meaning in life. The model empowers consumers to have ultimate control over the goals and direction of treatment through fostering respectful relationships and using a strengths-based approach. In short, the goal of a recovery treatment program is to instill hope for a better tomorrow, and in doing so, enable consumers to live a more productive, enjoyable today.