Accurate assessment of suicidality remains one of our most difficult tasks. You will learn the latest research on risk factors for suicide. You will increase your skill in eliciting relevant information. Dangers of no-suicide contracts will be reviewed along with other pitfalls of potential liability for failing to prevent suicide.

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

1. Improve assessment skills for suicide risk;
2. Recognize liability for completed suicide;
3. Learn liability prevention strategies

You will learn predictors of violence and interview techniques in the assessment of dangerousness. Violence will be discussed in persons with various symptoms of psychosis. You will learn how to appraise "perceived intentionality," and other aspects of paranoia.

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

1. Identify predictors of violence.
2. Learn interview techniques in the assessment of dangerousness.
3. Develop violence reduction plans.

Psychiatrists face a daunting task every day- diagnosing patients using an imperfect diagnostic manual, limited data and external pressures. Problems with diagnosis can impact treatment outcomes and clinician liability. Tools used in forensic psychiatry may improve diagnostic validity and reliability in clinical psychiatric practice. This session will review some of the problems we face in psychiatric diagnosis as well as a practical comparison of how clinical and legal decision makers use "evidence," explore uncertainty and avoid pitfalls. The participants will identify pitfalls and potential remedies to a sample case.

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

1. Illustrate reliability of several DSM-IV diagnoses;
2. Compare clinical and legal approaches to "the evidence" and decision making; and
3. Identify tools that can enhance clinical diagnosis and management.

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.

Behavioral Health is constantly changing, and a large percentage of behavioral health organizations have seen a steady increase in denied claims. These health care claims which are rejected or denied lead to millions of dollars of lost revenue each year for health care organizations. Begin turning around the denial rate of your organization by attending Understanding Managed Care: Reducing Denials. This presentation is a must attend event for anyone working in the health care field. Impactful change is possible, and there are proven key steps to reducing insurance denials. Find out more about this topic and what you can do to optimize profitability, decrease costly denials, and improve your daily work load.

After completing this educational activity, participants should be able to:

1. Have a detailed understanding of the authorization and denial process that Managed Care Organizations use;
2. Identify the rules that Managed Care Organization should be following and the appeal rights; and
3. List and be able to utilize the CORE Principles to reduce denials".

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

BasicNeeds (BN) is arguably the leading mental health organization in the developing world, working in 8 developing countries with new partnerships underway. Founded in the UK in 2000, BN has developed a Model for Mental Health and Development that provides a framework for and guides its work. This course describes the Model for Mental Health in the Developing world in some length and will draw parallels to US public mental health policy. Despite the enormous differences between the US and developing nations, this model is extremely relevant to US public mental health programs working with the seriously mentally ill and in resource poor locations. The course will end with a broader discussion of the future for BasicNeeds and the common challenges of sustainability faced by all mental health programs in resource poor areas.

Upon the completion of this activity, participants will be able to: . Provide a detailed description of the elements of BasicNeeds' mental health and development model . Demonstrate how these elements work in developing countries through case examples and discussion . Describe how BasicNeeds has implemented the model in different countries and the outcomes we have achieved . Describe new strategies for mental health program sustainability

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.

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

1. Avoid major pitfalls of both tangible & intangible marketing;
2. . Explain the ramifications of patient services and integrate this knowledge into better patient care; and
3. Develop a marketing budget and an effective 12-Month Marketing Plan, individualized for their practice.

Forensic psychiatry is an emerging area of specialization in psychiatry and it is important for general psychiatrists to familiarize with this area to help in their interface with the legal system.

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

1. Discuss the commonly encountered psychiatric problems in correctional centers;
2. To become familiar with the prevalence of mental illness in Correctional facilities and to understand the complexities of assessment and treatment of the mentally ill in this setting; and
3. Identify the legal challenges practitioners face.

Behavioral Health is constantly changing, and a large percentage of behavioral health organizations have seen a steady increase in denied claim and reduced revenue. These health care claims which are rejected or denied lead to millions of dollars of lost revenue each year for health care organizations. Begin turning around the reduced revenue of your organization by attending Understanding Managed Care: Increasing Profitability. This presentation is a must attend event for anyone working in the health care field. Impactful change is possible, and there are proven key steps to improving revenue. Find out more about this topic and what you can do to optimize profitability, decrease costly denials, gain a full working knowledge of coding, and learn what strategies pay when it comes to collections.

Upon the completion of this activity, participants will:

1. Have an understanding of the importance of data, tracking, and benchmarking and be able to begin to use these principles to improve outcomes in their practice.
2. Be able to utilize at least three strategies to immediately improve their practice's bottom line.
3. Understand the importance of the billing cycle and ways to improve the amount and rate at which revenue is collected.

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.

Both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric clinicians tend to underutilize screeners and rating instruments in their busy practices. This is an error worth rectifying expeditiously for the following reasons: use of screeners and rating instruments can actually improve outcomes, it can be very time efficient and many quality tools are available for no charge. This workshop will show videos of a few clinical scenarios and discuss what tools might have been appropriate to use. Copies of noncopyrighted screeners and rating instruments, appropriate for both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric settings, will be made available to participants. A toolkit filled of screeners and rating instruments will be brought to the workshop to show participants how they can create one for their own use.

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

1. Recognize the many noncopyrighted tools available for clinician use covering a range of psychiatric disorders;
2. Define these tools that are very time efficient and improve diagnostic yield; and
3. Describe how to choose the right tool and how to score them.

So you've got the basics of coding and documentation down. Now it's time for the real fun! Just when you thought picking the right code was easy! Here we go into depth regarding advanced of psychiatric and psychotherapy coding, with emphasis on advanced techniques such as the usage of modifiers, places of service other key components to coding correctly for maximizing reimbursement. We will also look at policies and procedures related to improving reimbursement such as benefit checking, service prepayment, payment variance audits and other areas in the revenue cycle. Included in the discussion will be case studies and examples.

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

1. Understand and use advanced and rarely used CPT codes for services.
2. Understand what CPT Modifiers and Places of Service are and how to apply them.
3. Use policies and procedures to improve reimbursement and their relationship to proper coding and charging.

Medication adherence can be a major challenge in patient care. This course will cover ten specific, practical and easily adopted interviewing techniques to improve medication adherence. These techniques are derived from the highly acclaimed motivational strategy known as the "medication interest model."

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

1. Apply techniques such as the "inquiry into lost dreams" and the "trap-door question";
2. Identify the challenges in medication adherence by understanding how and why patients weigh the pros and cons of taking medications; and
3. Demonstrate the principles and applications of the medication interest model in a sophisticated fashion to a variety of difficult clinical situations.

Both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric clinicians tend to underutilize screeners and rating instruments in their busy practices. This is an error worth rectifying expeditiously for the following reasons: use of screeners and rating instruments can actually improve outcomes, it can be very time efficient and many quality tools are available for no charge. This workshop will show videos of a few clinical scenarios and discuss what tools might have been appropriate to use. Copies of noncopyrighted screeners and rating instruments, appropriate for both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric settings, will be made available to participants. A toolkit filled of screeners and rating instruments will be brought to the workshop to show participants how they can create one for their own use.

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

1. Recognize the many noncopyrighted tools available for clinician use covering a range of psychiatric disorders;
2. Define these tools that are very time efficient and improve diagnostic yield; and
3. Describe how to choose the right tool and how to score them.

Public outrage has justifiably ensued when convicted sex offenders who are released from prison commit subsequent sexual assaults.  At least seventeen states currently allow for the indeterminate civil commitment (i.e., locked psychiatric placement) of those sex offenders assessed as dangerous once they have completed their prison terms. These SVP statutes have engendered controversy both on constitutional and ethical grounds. All the DSM-IV-TR system can provide is a catalog of the specific mental disorders.  But which ones should count towards SVP civil commitment?

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

1. Identify why twenty states have passed statutes mandating long term civil psychiatric commitment for sexually violent predators who are about to be released from prison.
2. List the legal and ethical difficulties that make this one of the most controversial areas in all of mental health practice.
3. Differentiate how well or poorly different DSM diagnoses fit into the statutory definition of mental disorder that triggers sexual predator civil commitment proceedings.

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

1. Avoid major pitfalls of both tangible & intangible marketing;
2. Understand the ramifications of Customer Service & know how to offer patients "star treatment"; and
3. Develop a marketing budget and an effective 12-Month Marketing Plan, individualized for their practice.

This course will take an indepth look into the legal and ethical dilemmas in late life care. There will be a focus on the issues related to driving, inappropriate sexuality, financial issues, decision making and the right to refuse treatment.

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

1. Briefly describe the causes of dementia;
2. List the differences between normal aging and dementing illness;
3. Describe the stages of functional loss with age; and 4) List the general ethical concepts that govern the provision of care and apply these to a few common areas of concern

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

1. Define the legal basis of the concept of negligence;
2. Enumerate the sources for the psychiatric standard of care; and
3. Determine which types of health information are protected by HIPAA.

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.

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

1. Define the difference between forensic versus clinical evaluation.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the concept of agency.
3. List the differences in approach between evaluating a clinical treatment patient and a forensic evaluee.

Over the ages, our patients have at times been revered as saints, murdered as witches, and harmed with all manner of treatments that amounted to physical Abuse and/or poisoning. From the advent of humane psychiatry in the nineteenth century brought, the development of scientific psychiatry in the twentieth century, there has so far been surprisingly little transfer between the remarkably rich findings of neuroscience and the day to day clinical practice of psychiatry. We will discuss likely future trends and why a deep understanding of obsessive/compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder will probably long precede an understanding of major depression or schizophrenia.

1. Upon the comletion of this activity, participants will be able to:
   1. Describe how present day psychiatry emerged from myth and folk medicine and what the legacy of the past suggests about our future.
   2. Discuss he remarkable advances in neuroscience in the past 50 years and how these have, and have not, influenced the clinical practice of psychiatry.
   3. List likely ways in which psychiatric diagnosis and treatment will evolve in the coming decades.