Conference in Niagara Falls
Went to Niagara Falls for ACT conference this week. was quite busy one as they had evening sessions until 9 pm, which I appreciate as if I am going to be there, might as well make most use of time. This means being pretty tired though, as sessions in the morning started right at 830. Combined with jetlag=tired. I had to skip one session to nap, as I thought I just couldn't do it.
Wednesday evening, I missed evening one and met up with the Wensinks. Jason and Ryan were playing their final game, so we all watched and then went to Bill and Kathy's for visit. Not a whole lot new there-Bill and Kathy bought a cabin in PEI-was in disrepair, but they have already done stuff and made it habitable. The previous owner had set it up for solar power, composting toilet etc. Everyone else is doing fine-Franco is back working-doing modified duties.
Conference had lots great content, and I met people from a lot of different places-NYC-there was a team from Bellevue Hospital (I said, oh, that Bellevue!), New Orleans, Oregon, and of course from all over Ontario. I met the judge who helped draft the mental health legislation there. We had a little interesting discussion about the differences between Ontario and BC. Ontario, person has to be declared unable to decide on treatment and go before courts etc to determine competency, whereas in BC that doesn't have to happen. This is why there is a lawsuit I am in favour of the lawsuit, though when I brought it up at our am meeting, the psychiatrist went off on a tangent about 'liberal do-gooders' (to which I replied, I am a liberal do-gooder). I think our current legislation leaves way too much power in the hands of physicians with patients unable to really have choice.
Anyway, conference was good, one session talked about tensions in peer work, which I thought was the most interesting one-the presenters discussed how simply having a peer on your team does not mean you can congratulate yourself on being inclusive, and they argued against it. Also gave a nice overview of historical and sociological perspectives on mental health clients.
Wednesday evening, I missed evening one and met up with the Wensinks. Jason and Ryan were playing their final game, so we all watched and then went to Bill and Kathy's for visit. Not a whole lot new there-Bill and Kathy bought a cabin in PEI-was in disrepair, but they have already done stuff and made it habitable. The previous owner had set it up for solar power, composting toilet etc. Everyone else is doing fine-Franco is back working-doing modified duties.
Conference had lots great content, and I met people from a lot of different places-NYC-there was a team from Bellevue Hospital (I said, oh, that Bellevue!), New Orleans, Oregon, and of course from all over Ontario. I met the judge who helped draft the mental health legislation there. We had a little interesting discussion about the differences between Ontario and BC. Ontario, person has to be declared unable to decide on treatment and go before courts etc to determine competency, whereas in BC that doesn't have to happen. This is why there is a lawsuit I am in favour of the lawsuit, though when I brought it up at our am meeting, the psychiatrist went off on a tangent about 'liberal do-gooders' (to which I replied, I am a liberal do-gooder). I think our current legislation leaves way too much power in the hands of physicians with patients unable to really have choice.
Anyway, conference was good, one session talked about tensions in peer work, which I thought was the most interesting one-the presenters discussed how simply having a peer on your team does not mean you can congratulate yourself on being inclusive, and they argued against it. Also gave a nice overview of historical and sociological perspectives on mental health clients.
posted by lisaandrichard at 10:11 AM
2 Comments:
It's good to hear lots of different points of view.
Sounds like it was worth going to.
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