The 8th Annual CICAMH conference will focus on engaging families and caregivers of youth who struggle with mental health concerns in order to foster youth resilience and nurture mental well-being. We will also address how to sustain clinician resilience to continue to support the specific needs of these youth and their families. 

In particular, we will address building and maintaining systems to support family and clinician resilience in the context of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We will also address how to actively engage families while treating youth using specific modalities of treatment, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), substance use treatment including Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), exposure therapy for anxiety, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), as well as engagement of families of LGBTQIA+ youth dealing with co-occurring mental health disorders. 

The purpose of the CICAMH conference is to increase awareness and in depth understanding of these critical issues and offer attendees guidance and resources to be able to assist youth, their family systems, as well as their communities in supporting each other to promote healing, recovery and ongoing resilience.

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 

  1. Understand the effect of a multidisciplinary, collaborative system-based approach in the engagement of families of children and adolescents with mental health issues.
  2. Explore how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can be utilized effectively with adolescents and how to engage families in understanding and reinforcing ACT modalities in teenagers. 
  3. Recognize specific ways to foster clinician/provider resilience and learn how clinician resilience can impact teaching and engaging families to cultivate their own resilience building skills. 
  4. Discuss how to engage and connect with families of LGBTQIA+ youth who also struggle with symptoms of co-occurring mental health disorders. 
  5. Learn skills of family behavior therapy for substance use disorder treatment in youth. 
  6. Describe options available for Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) in youth with substance use disorders. 
  7. Explore how to engage families when using exposure therapy to treat anxiety in youth. 
  8. Understand the principles of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for adolescents and how to engage families in this modality. 
  9. Delineate strategies on how to improve the emotional, academic and social skills of the developing mind and learn how to educate and engage families in this integrated “whole-brain” approach for clinicians.  

*Information on Continuing Education Credits to follow. 

Special Thanks to our Collaborators

Behavioral Health Services County of San Diego Health and Human
Services Agency 
University of San Diego & Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science
 Healthy Within
Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego Department of
Psychiatry
San Diego Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

2023 Course Directors and Chairs

Will Connor, MD, Assistant professor, UCSD Department of Psychiatry
Paven Lidstone, MD, PhD, Assistant Clinical Professor UCSD Department of Psychiatry
Charmi Patel Rao, MD, DFAACAP, Director of Psychiatric Services, Positive Development; President, San Diego Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

2023 Conference Coordination

Cathy de Leon, CICAMH Conference Coordinator 
Vanessa Pulido, LMFT, Executive Director, San Diego Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Featured Speakers

Anya Kamenetz Award-Winning Journalist

ACCLAIMED
AUTHOR; FUTURE
OF WORK, EDUCATION
AND TECHNOLOGY
EXPERT

Dr. Tina Bryson Ph.D.

BEST-SELLING
AUTHOR

Sponsors

Gold

Rady Children's Hospital Outpatient Psychiatry Department provides ambulatory behavioral health services for children and young adults up to 21 years of age. Services are provided to children and their families with social, emotional, and behavioral problems in a variety of care settings including multidisciplinary clinics, urgent care clinic and in collaboration with participating pediatrics clinics.

The mission of the San Diego Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is to promote the healthy development of children, adolescents, and families through advocacy and education, and to meet the professional needs of child and adolescent psychiatrists in our community.

The University of San Diego's Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science (HSON) is a community of progressive scholars and practitioners in an intellectually rigorous, research-intensive environment. Driven by compassion with action, the HSON will actively support your personal and professional growth. Whether you are interested in beginning your career in healthcare or elevating your nursing career to the next level, the HSON will ensure you graduate ready to provide optimal care in service to the community. We prepare the next generation of nurse scientists, leaders, advanced clinicians, and informaticists to meet humanity's most urgent needs — with compassion and with intellectual rigor.

Healthy Within is a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art Neurofeedback center run by a seasoned Psychologist and Neuroscientist. We are an Integrative brain health center. With Dr. Kakaiya's background as a expert in brain health and integrative Psychologist, we incorporate multiple ways of balancing brain health conditions. Dr. Kakaiya is trained to be able to suggest recommendations based on genetics testing and micronutrient supplementation. We conduct a thorough brain analysis using QEEG and individually tailor treatments based on the unique needs of each brain that comes our way.