Over 1000 unique attendees virtually joined the 2024 South Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) First Episode Psychosis (FEP) Conference from June 5-6. Individuals with lived experience, family members, providers, and researchers gathered to celebrate achievements and explore a future of sustained growth and accountability in FEP care.
This year’s theme was Pausing with Purpose: Guiding FEP Care with Human Connection, which focused on the crucial role of human connection in establishing effective FEP care.
The conference highlighted the importance of fostering genuine relationships within the FEP care community— including team members, young people in services, family and other supporters, and even the connection with yourself. Our team emphasized understanding oppression and advancements around diverse perspectives, with special attention to race, ethnicity, class, urbanicity, and language.
Since starting in 2020, this conference has grown tremendously with the help of our teams at the Texas Institute of Excellence in Mental Health (TIEMH) and South Southwest MHTTC. We asked organizers Jennifer Baran-Prall, LCSW and Samantha Reznik, PhD to share their thoughts about this year’s experience.
Jennifer: I loved the entire thing! As a conference planner, I truly enjoyed working with my team to make the experience happen. We have such great people dedicated to ensuring excellence in all that we do for others.
I also felt very honored to work with all of our speakers. Each person who presented was extraordinary. It was a privilege to collaborate with them and then to experience their actual presentation during the event.
I would also say that I felt a real sense of connection with everyone who attended the conference. Even though it was a virtual setting, I could feel the engagement, strength, interest, and compassion from our audience. That’s a very special feeling to experience such closeness of community within an event.
Sam: I also loved the entire conference. My favorite part was seeing how all the individual elements came together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
Each speaker delivered an outstanding presentation, but it was the collective impact of these presentations that highlighted the vital importance of compassion and connection with ourselves, our relationships, and our broader communities.
This integration of ideas perfectly mirrored the conference theme— it’s not about us as individuals but about what we can achieve together when we focus on our relationships and communities. I was inspired by how many attendees shared this vision, which makes me hopeful for a future where mental health services are more humanistic and interconnected.
Jennifer: I always learn something new when I hear people share their lived experiences, and our speakers’ stories made an impact on my life.
“Seek first to understand then to be understood” resonated with me as I was reminded of how essential it is to actively listen and be fully present with others. I was also surprised by how often I need to remind myself to practice self-compassion. This is foundational for us all and I appreciated Dr. Neff’s presentation on centering this mindset.
Sam: I learned so many things from collaborating with community partners and leaders in Texas community mental health, Sharhonda Webster and Linda C. Williams, to develop the leadership panel. They challenged me to think deeply about how to be an authentic, transparent, and relationship-driven leader.
Their local leadership has been a source of inspiration for me, and seeing their influence resonate with a larger audience was incredibly impactful. Linda’s team motto: “I am, because we are” captures the spirit of the conference and the approach I aspire to bring to my work.
Jennifer: Thank you first and foremost for making the time to attend. Schedules are busy, and I’m so happy you could be present. I recognize that those who attended participated for a good reason.
You are out there doing outstanding work to help support people. Your work makes a difference in people’s lives. I hope that the information from this conference helps you in your efforts to support, mentor, and lead.
I also want to encourage you to practice self-compassion. This is essential to our well-being and will help us connect authentically with others. Please be sure to take advantage of the recordings and materials from the conference. We hope that you’re able to share this information with others, too!
Sam: I was moved by the attendee who asked about future conferences that focus on systems-level change. Both reflection and action are needed for transformation of our mental health systems. The insights shared at this conference were profound and essential.
In particular, we need to prioritize lived experience and marginalized voices as we change our systems. I’m excited for how each of us can apply these reflections in our work and our daily lives to effect real change. I hope that every conference attendee feels inspired to turn reflection into action, advancing recovery-oriented mental health systems.
At the end of the conference attendees were asked, “What about the event was most useful to you?” Below you’ll find a few of our favorite responses.
“So. Many. Things! This was probably the most helpful and impactful conference I have attended. Genuinely, so well cultivated. Much consideration was put into each person involved and it shows. I have admired Sam and Jennifer as a kind of mentor/teacher since I met them in provider calls as a new clinician in WV, carried through today for their ability to listen, encourage, honor, give thoughtful care and consideration for others, and their gifts to build people up so well.”
—
“The presentations were of excellent quality. They were informative, directly relevant to clinical work, and hugely helpful from a provider support standpoint.”
—
“I greatly appreciated the opportunity to hear about the lived experiences of people who have experienced psychosis. I also appreciate learning about alternatives/complements to medication.”
—
“I was so grateful for the Trauma and Psychosis presentation and reflections on Indigenous psychology. I find Indigenous psychology to be the most compatible in my mind between psychiatry and human experience. Overall, I have learned a lot and feel confident in my therapy approaches. I also appreciated the practical concepts learned in the opening session regarding compassion and the types of compassion.”
—
“I am new to mental health services. The topics gave me a great understanding of the issues at hand with services, strides made and filled me with hope, as speakers spoke frankly of changes that need to be made and the respect, dignity and grace that has been missing on both the patient and advocating side.”
Our website has resources for staying up-to-date on FEP care, including video recordings and slide decks from the conference presentations.
Also, during the conference attendees shared resources on a Padlet. Visit the board to check out insightful ideas, exercises, books, team-building activities, and more.
