With the rise in malpractice suits, it's more important than ever for mental health professionals to find out how to reduce their risk.

By participating this activity, attendees will be able to:

1. Analyze basic concepts in the law of negligence;
2. Discover common causes of action against mental health professionals; and
3. Prepare to reduce these risks in their practices.

Primary care providers have less time to deal with an increasing number of health issues. When a patient presents with multiple complaints and persistent pain, primary care will attribute all the symptoms to the underlying psychologic stressors. Persistent pain worsens psychological adaptation and depression and anxiety make pain worse. Having a supportive relationship with primary care providers leads to better patient care and improved outcomes.

Upon the completion of this activity, participants will be able to:

1. Describe what primary care is looking for in referring patients with persistent pain;
2. Prepare the referring provider to care for future, similar patients; and 3) Separate the pain complaints from the psychologic issues.

Aggressive behavior is the one of the most common referral problems in child and adolescent psychiatry.

By participating in this activity, attendees will be able to:

1. List the psychiatric conditions that are associated with aggression;
2. Discuss the biological, social and psychological factors underlying the aggressive behavior; and
3. Identify the preventive interventions that will address building the therapeutic alliance with the parents and the adolescent, addressing the cultural issues, treating the comorbid psychiatric conditions etc.

What if, for the same hour of work, you could increase your reimbursement by 20%? Or 50%? Or even 100%? It would be like that money you found in the seat cushion, wouldn't it? The reality of most practices is that with correct coding and documentation, revenue increases of this magnitude can be possible. Best of all, it can be achieved without significant new effort by you - it's just a matter of understanding the proper codes and documentation you need to support your charges.

In this session, we introduce you to the basics of Correct Coding including ICD-9 / DSM IV diagnostic code basics, Correct Procedural (CPT) coding for Behavioral Health Professionals. We will focus on basic coding techniques and practices for psychiatric and psychotherapy encounter including hints and tips to reduce denials and improve overall reimbursement.

Upon the completion of this activity, participants will be able to:

1. Understand what ICD-9, DSM IV, and CPT codes are, what they mean, and when to use them
2. Unerstand how to use Common CPT codes for Behavioral Health Management
3. Increase overall reimbursement through hints and tips they learned for improving coding

Many experts say that the key to treating patients with agitation, aggression and dangerousness is to understand the factors that lead to this behavior and the treatments that are currently available.

By participating in this activity, attendees will be able to:

1. Discuss the etiology of agitative and aggressive feeling and dangerous behavior, and explore how various forms of psychiatric comorbidity increase the likelihood of such behavior;
2. Recognize the effective ways to conduct accurate risk assessments; and
3. Identify various integrated treatments, including cognitive behavioral and other skill-based interventions, to address such behavior.

Treating patients who suffer from Anorexia and/or Bulimia can cause psychiatrists and psychotherapists tremendous frustration or great satisfaction. Successful treatment of Eating Disorders requires a complete understanding of the multiple etiologies involved, the psychotherapies required and the sophisticated use of psychotropic medications. We will focus in this session on the keys optimizing clinical outcomes and achieving remission based upon the biopsychosocial etiology of these disorders. We will identify the factors that result in failure and frustration, as well as the keys to successfully reach appropriate treatment goals.

By participating in this activity, learners will be able to:

1. Understand the multimodal treatment necessary for the successful treatment of these biopsychosocial disorders.
2. Enhance their ability to successfully utilize cognitive/behavioral psychotherapeutic techniques within a dynamic understanding of Anorexia and Bulimia.
3. Update their ability to successfully utilize psychopharmacologic agents to treat Eating Disorders.

Health care reform has opened the door to integrating psychiatric mental health and behavioral interventions into medical settings. With a call for the Integrated Medical Home, prevention and patient wellness education will be rewarded as an innovation that will drive down medical costs. This opens the door for psychiatric mental health practitioners of all levels to apply the evidence based practices of the field to short term treatments in primary care settings. To capitalize on this evolution of our professions, we need to understand how to work collaboratively with medical offices, and the new NCQA standards for the patient centered medical home that focuses on early identification, patient education and modalities that can be effective in treatment of psychiatric mental health and behavioral issues in the primary care environment. By understanding the business issues involved with using commercial-based insurance, psychiatric nurses (RN,CNS, or NP), and other psychiatric mental health clinicians will have new opportunities to engage his or her full scope of practice that will directly impact patients' lives.

Participants should be able to:

1. Identify elements of collaboration in medical setting;
2. Understand what is needed to get credentialed and paid for collaborative services;
3. Define the role and training needs to participate in collaborative care;
4. Illuminate the issues involved in creating a model of collaborative care programs in your community; and
5. Understand the steps needed in developing community outreach and collaboration tools.

Walking away from the closed door of our office, into medical offices, opens the door for new applications of psychiatric mental health and behavioral interventions that will drive down medical costs. Collaborating with primary care providers directly in medical offices requires new skills built on the understanding of the office, community and patient cultures. This discussion about the integrated mental health will focus on clinical issues, skill development, complementary and alternative mental health practices and how to work with health care reform to perpetuate a new clinical environment rich in opportunities for clinical research and outcome studies. This presentation will address behavioral interventions indicated for several medical conditions (diabetes, cardiac disease, infertility, pulmonary disease, and autoimmune diseases) as well as the collaborative process. While this presentation will highlight the role of psychiatric nurse in this exciting milieu, it could enhance the knowledge base of all practitioners interested in participating in a integrated medical home.

Participants should be able to:

1. Identify boundaries to the collaborative process and appropriate safeguards for patient information;
2. Define the process for comprehensive assessment and wellness planning;
3. Define the impact of mental illness on specific diseases discussed;
4. Identify collaborative involvement, role in referral and follow up;
5. Develop a tool specific to attendees' practices that will enhance the role, health care management, and communication between team members.

The best examination of a patient's neurocognitive status is a careful history and includes a clinical assessment that looks for variations from normal changes in a patient's neuroanatomy and records specific findings.

By participating in this activity, attendees will be able to:

List the primary domains of the neurocognitive mental status exam. 2) Employ simple, effective clinical tests to probe brain function. 3) Utilize systematic cognitive screening to confidently diagnose common dementia syndromes in geriatric patients.

In 1984, Libby Zion died of a fatal drug interaction, and her death led to our present system of residency workplace hourly restrictions. Despite these changes, would a well-rested clinician be able to recognize and prevent her death today?

By participating in this activity, attendees will be able to:

1. Recognize clinically relevant drug interactions;
2. Utilize a framework and teaching tool to predict those patients most at risk for serotonin syndrome and other drug interactions; and
3. Describe the cytochrome P450 system.

The practice of psychiatry can be a source of both great satisfaction and great stress.

By participating in this activity, attendees will be able to:

1. Identify professional goals;
2. Recognize the steps for recovering from burnout and avoiding burnout altogether; and
3. Discuss the management of career-specific stressors, and how they can achieve balance between their personal and professional lives to maximize satisfaction.

Dr. Weiner, a nationally regarded clinician and educator, has dedicated his career to helping health care professionals from medical students to chairmen of departments become happier people and better clinicians. This course, which will allow active audience participation, is based on years of working with stressed clinicians individually and in groups. At the end of this course, the audience will learn tools to successfully work on three things:

1. Identify the top causes of his or her professional stress.
2. Map out a personal plan to diminish or eliminate these stresses.
3. Create "SMART" goals and clear outcome measures to better align your career with what you value in life.

Does "Motion', that is, exercise have a place in our treatment armamentarium? This is a question all clinicians have frequently asked of themselves. The last decade of clinical and animal research has revealed surprising powerful positive effects of exercise on mood disorders. We now know that exercise affects brain volume, inflammatory cytokines, and the autonomic system. Clinical research data also points to exercise's powerful anti-depressant effects. In light of these exciting findings, this seminar is aimed at providing clinicians the research findings, as will as provide attendees with tools on how to "prescribe" exercise to their patients. Clinicians will be provided with tools to assist them in implementing an exercise prescribing program in their practices.

Upon the completion of the this activity, participants will be able to:

1. Develop an scientifically and data based appreciation of the complex neurobiology of exercise's positive effects on  on mood.
Examine the clinical, randomized data of exercise treatment in mood disorder and develop practical skills in applying this information to clinical care of patients.