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Keynote: Duct Tape & Determination: The Power of Small Wins

Room: Paradise Ballroom

Speaker(s): 

Elaine Kochanowicz, BA

Presentation: You show up every day to do serious work — often while running on caffeine, compassion, and sheer determination. In this energizing and humor-filled keynote, Elaine Kochanowicz offers a new way to measure success that doesn’t require perfection or superhero status. You’ll learn how small wins can free you from unrealistic expectations, quiet those relentless inner critics, and remind you why you started this work in the first place. Through laughter, relatable stories, and practical mindset shifts, you’ll leave lighter, encouraged, and guaranteed to see your impact in a whole new way.

Objectives:

  • Identify unrealistic expectations that contribute to stress and emotional fatigue in professional practice
  • Reframe negative or self-critical thought patterns into constructive, healing perspectives
  • Recognize and document small wins as indicators of meaningful impact in client care
  • Apply practical strategies for incorporating appropriate humor and perspective to reduce personal stress
  • Implement a daily mindset shift practice that reinforces resilience and professional sustainability

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Keynote: Sleep & Mental Health

Room: Paradise Ballroom

Speaker(s): 

Angeline Stanislaus, MD

Presentation: Sleep is an important part of our mental wellness and health. Without sleep the human body cannot function – new learning does not occur, memory does not consolidate and immunity is affected. Sleep disturbance is very common in mental illnesses. In this talk, Dr. Stanislaus will discuss the physiology of the healthy sleep cycle, the role of each component of the sleep cycle, the circadian rhythm and its effect on the neurotransmitters, and the need to optimize sleep to maintain good mental health. She will also discuss the different types of sleep disturbances that occur in mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD etc., and the importance of sleep data in identifying early signs of relapse.

Objectives:

  • To learn the physiology and functions of sleep
  • To learn about the role played by neurotransmitters in sleep
  • To understand changes in sleep patterns that occur in mental illnesses

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Cannabis Breakout

Room: Paradise B

Speaker(s): TBD

Presentation:

Objectives:

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When Reality Breaks After Birth: Postpartum Psychosis

Room: Nautical Wheeler

Speaker(s):

Madeline Cusimano, MD

Presentation: Postpartum psychosis is a rare but severe maternal mental health condition that can emerge rapidly after childbirth and requires coordinated intervention across healthcare and community systems. This presentation will review core clinical features, risk factors, and early warning signs, with emphasis on distinguishing postpartum psychosis from more common perinatal mood disorders. Case examples will illustrate how symptoms may present across obstetric, emergency, outpatient, and child welfare settings.

The session will focus on the maternal health continuum of care, highlighting practical strategies for early identification, safety planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and prevention of escalation. System-level considerations – including care fragmentation, access to perinatal psychiatric services, and coordination with families and caregivers – will be discussed to support professionals working across behavioral health, medical, and community settings.

Objectives:

  • Describe the epidemiology, clinical presentation, and diagnostic framework of postpartum psychosis (PPP)
  • Differentiate PPP from postpartum OCD, severe postpartum depression, and primary psychotic disorders
  • Review evidence-based acute treatment and relapse-prevention strategies, including lithium, antipsychotics, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
  • Recognize suicide and infanticide risk using a prevention-focused, evidence-based framework.
  • Apply systems-level and family-centered strategies to the care of patients at high risk for PPP.

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Missouri’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP): What’s Included

Room: Paradise C

Speaker(s):

Kerri Tesreau, MBA

Presentation: This session will walk participants through Missouri’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) application. The presentation will outline Missouri’s efforts under five distinct pillars: Regional Coordination Networks; Alternative Payment Models; Digital Backbone, Rural Health Workforce Programs; and Provider Transformation.

Objectives:

  • Describe Missouri’s RHTP Application
  • Explain Missouri’s RHTP budget
  • Discuss how to get involved in RHTP

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Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Conversational Approaches to Changing Alcohol Behavior

Room: Paradise A

Speaker(s):

Fred Rottnek, MD

Presentation: Changing alcohol behaviors is not easy. These conversations can be uncomfortable, but they are where real progress begins. In Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Conversational Approaches to Changing Alcohol Behavior, an addiction medicine physician and a certified peer specialist will demonstrate practical, compassionate strategies for engaging individuals in meaningful discussions about alcohol use. Participants will explore evidence-based tools for supporting alcohol reduction, practice motivational interviewing and screening techniques, and learn how to collaborate across professional roles to promote healthy choices. The session will also highlight community and policy-level interventions that make lasting impact possible.

Objectives:

  • Review evidence-based and best-practice approaches to support alcohol reduction
  • Apply screening and motivational techniques effectively
  • Utilize the talents of professional team members in promoting healthy habits
  • Identify community and policy strategies that work

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DMH Forensic Mobile Team

Room: Windgate 60-61

Speaker(s):

Nicole Reitz, MSW

Bethany Van Lant, MSW

Presentation: The DMH Forensic Team and the lessons we’ve learned.

Objectives:

  • Local and National Trends of Comptency Restoration
  • To Learn about the roles of the mobile team members
  • To Learn about how the mobile team intersects with courts, jails and community

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Neurocognitive Dysfunction in Schizophrenia: an Updated Review

Room: Nautical Wheeler

Speaker(s):

Mariana Edwards, MD

Presentation: Schizophrenia is a chronic illness that affects approximately 23 million people in the world. It is associated with high chronic risk of suicide and lifelong functional impairment, and it is one of the leading 15 causes of disability. People with schizophrenia are at more vulnerable to human rights violations, neglect, and homelessness and there is still stigma about the illness from society at large.

Objectives:

  • Highlight data and statistics about schizophrenia, and its cognitive symptoms
  • Present case of a patient with schizophrenia with prominent cognitive symptoms
  • Talk about cognitive symptoms and social difficulties in schizophrenia
  • Talk about the overall negative impact of cognitive symptoms in the lives of patients with schizophrenia
  • Discuss evidence-based treatments of cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia

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Understanding the Rural Health Transformation Program

Room: Paradise C

Speaker(s):

Kerri Tesreau, MBA

Presentation: This presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of the new federal Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) designed to evolve rural healthcare and increase sustainable access to care. This session will outline funding available to states, timelines, and how states can use the funds to strengthen rural infrastructure and improve patient access. This session is ideal for those wanting to understand the RHTP, what is allowed and what is restricted within the grant parameters.

Objectives:

  • Review RHTP grant funding awards
  • Discuss RHTP grant timelines
  • Describe RHTP grant allowable expenditures

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