Inland Empire Chapter of CAMFT

November 14, 2014 Meeting

Healthcare Reform & Insurance: What Every Therapist Should Know

9 am - 1 pm

Location: California Citrus State Historic Park, Sunkist Center, 9400 Dufferin Ave., Riverside, CA 92516

Map

This entertaining presentation addresses what EVERY therapist should know about insurance, especially in light of the sweeping changes going on right now with healthcare reform, recent parity laws, a new claim form, and changing diagnosis codes.  Even if you never sign a plan contract, what you don't know can hurt you and your clients, so it is important to be informed in this ever-changing arena.In this economy, clients need therapists who accept their insurance, and insurance clients can fill your empty therapy slots.  But must working with insurance mean fee discounts, limited sessions, mountainous paperwork, and compromising confidentiality?

From this workshop, you will learn:

• An overview of the Affordable Care Act and what it means for clients – and you
• How to turn first-time callers into new clients – even if you aren’t on their health plan.
• The 12 Crucial Questions to ask when checking coverage to avoid denials
• The tricks for writing successful treatment requests (Medical Necessity Criteria)
• The pros and cons as well as the myths and realities of participation
• How to join insurance plans, and how to get on even if they are “full”

Are We Getting it Right? Strategies for Working with Adoptive Children and Their Families

 Presenters:

Sheralyn Shockey-Pope, LMFT and Jill Johnson-Young, LCSW

Adoptive children are often misdiagnosed with more serious mental health concerns than are warranted. This workshop challenged that notion and asked that the therapist take a look at her/his own bias s/he may have in respect to adoptive children and families and develop her/his own clinical style in respect to adoptive families.

In recent years too many adoptive children have been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) or other serious diagnoses that are not warranted; the traumas experienced by children may be the cause of the behavioral problems seen by clinicians. Research was presented that suggests children who experience trauma have actual structural changes within the brain. Additionally, some family therapists incorrectly diagnose adoptive children with more serious mental illnesses versus non-adoptive children. Further, it will be suggested other diagnoses might be more appropriate and therefore more treatable, providing more hope to the families.

Results of a brief survey of four Southern California counties revealed that about half of all post-adoption service calls received were from adoptive families seeking a “good adoption therapist.” Additionally, many families had already gone through 3-5 therapists who were of little or no help with their family problems. Becoming a capable therapist working with adoptive families is a skill set that is not taught in graduate school. These families need therapists that have the proficiency to decipher if “the adoption” or “the trauma” that occurred before is now the problem.

Children adopted from the foster care system have experienced at least one, but often many, traumatic events in their lives. These children often do not receive quality mental health services while in care, and once they are adopted, finding the properly-skilled therapist is difficult as the therapist needs to be able to decipher the behavioral symptoms that these children exhibit and apply the proper techniques to assist the family. This workshop reviewed how these symptoms present, including trauma behaviors (fight or flight response), emotional responses, delays in emotional, social, and/or physical developmental stages, as well as how to deal with the concerns of the adoptive family. An interactive exercise was featured which allowed participants to review behavioral symptoms and relate them to diagnostic classifications based on the DSM-V.  Intervention strategies were also discussed and resources offered.

For more information, go to our Seminar Information & Discussion on the website.

Martinez Sellers & Monica Bates

Board Members Re-elected by unanimous vote:

Janine Murray, President; Doreen Van Leeuwen, Past President; Garry Raley, Financial Officer; Ilse Aerts, Program Chair; Carol Bouldin, Membership Chair; Janell Gagnon, Secretary; Annette Compton, Jeanne Joslin, Janetta Peltz, Hospitality Co-Chairpersons; Alyssa Giambra, CEU Chair; Marie-Louise Bosin, Donell Miller,  Board Members-at-Large

WE NEED A PRESIDENT-ELECT!  Anyone who is interested, please let us know.

 Thanksgiving

 Oprah was not the originator of a gratitude journal, but her promotion of it has changed lives.  It encourages going past "seeing the glass half full" to truly embracing that at anytime, there are always things for which to be grateful. 

A cognitive challenge is to look for the evidence of the thought.  Clients who struggle with depression are many times the ones who are prone to a world view that life is like a roller coaster. A more balanced view can be encouraged by emphasizing that life is more like a road.  There are joys and struggles at any given time.  Two questions that can assist the client to identify this for her or himself is to ask "So what is working?" or "What has been a source of comfort or joy?"  At this time of Thanksgiving we can all benefit from identifying our sources of gratitude.  Daily, it can become a personal place of peace. 

An exercise that I do and I know others do as well around the Thanksgiving table, is to state for what we are grateful or thankful.  It is a way to bring "peace" to the table and renew a new way of acknowledging one another's lives.  It also can break the cycle of some of the negative conversations that shadow family communication.

Whatever your family experience, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a time of gratitude.

Janine Murray, MFT

President - Inland Empire CAMFT