(MHTTC Network Early Psychosis Working Group HealthEKnowledge Course Subgroup)

Are you new to working with individuals with early psychosis? Are you interested in learning more about what early psychosis coordinated specialty care is all about? Please join our monthly webinar series beginning 2/3/22 at 2 PM ET.

Coordinated specialty care for early psychosis is an evidence-based treatment model aimed at fostering resilience and recovery for individuals who have experience a first episode of psychosis or are at clinical high risk for developing psychosis.  Each webinar will be co-presented by a professional with expertise in that component of care, as well as an individual with lived experience who can speak to how this aspect of care was meaningful in their journey towards recovery. This series is geared towards any individuals that are new to working on an Early Psychosis Specialty Team – including students, clinicians, prescribers, supported employment specialists, family clinicians, and peer specialists. 

The content from these webinars will be recorded and used for the development of an online course aimed at helping to provide a basic orientation to new staff and trainees that are beginning to work in a coordinated specialty program for individuals experiencing early psychosis. The series will happen once per month starting in February, on the first Thursday of each month at 2 PM ET (11 AM PT). 

Our first session will be 2/3/2022 at 2 PM ET (11 AM PT) focused on Peer Support Services in Coordinated Specialty Care for Early Psychosis.  Our speaker will be Patrick Kaufmann, who is a Supported Education and Employment Peer Specialist with the First Episode Psychosis Navigate Team and the Supervisor for the Wellness Team, at InterAct of Michigan in Kalamazoo.

Patrick Kaufmann has served at InterAct for 9 years and also worked at a Clubhouse, as a Family Support Partner, and as director of a peer-run non-profit. He has utilized his personal experience as someone in recovery who has been diagnosed with a psychosis-related illness to support his peers and create positive change. Patrick is inspired by the power of research and its potential to transform systems and enforce the rights of people who have been diagnosed. He believes that highlighting the attributes of people with lived experience will ultimately end stigma. By joining the MSU Mental Health Research Connect project he hopes to forward the progress of systems and eventually connect to additional research projects. Patrick is currently writing his memoirs and hopes to publish his story by 2022.