Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: New Approaches in Early Detection and Therapies

20% of youth ages 13-18 live with a mental health condition.
11% of youth have a mood disorder.
10% of youth have a behavior or conduct disorder.
8% of youth have an anxiety disorder.
50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% by age 24.
The average delay between onset of symptoms and intervention is 8-10 years.
Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in youth ages 10-24.
*Statistics provided by the National Institute of Mental Health. www.nimh.nih.gov

This conference will help educate and bring awareness to the needs of the growing number of children and adolescents with mental health issues; and highlight the importance and necessity of early intervention.

Click here for conference flyer.

KEYNOTES:

• Morning Keynote – The Role of Attachment in the Development of Psychopathology in Youth with Carla Sharp, Ph.D., Professor, Director of Clinical Training, Department of Psychology, University of Houston
• Lunch Keynote – Children and Adolescents and Medication with Dr. Lawrence Diller, a Behavioral/Developmental Pediatrician and Family Therapist; Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco; and author of Running on Ritalin: A Physician Reflects on Children, Society and Performance in a Pill, and Should I Medicate My Child? Sane Solutions for Troubled Kids With—And Without—Psychiatric Drugs
• Closing Keynote – Journeying Through Life With a Chronic Mental Illness with Elizabeth McIngvale-Cegelski Assistant Professor, Baylor University, Diana R. Garland School of Social Work; National Spokesperson for the International OCD Foundation; and Founder of the Peace of Mind Foundation

CONFERENCE TRACKS:

Spiritual-Clergy

1. How to Pastor to Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Problems and Their Families with Daniela White, MD, Midtown Psychiatry and TMS Center; Board Certified, Adult Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
2. How to Help Your Congregation/Clergy Help Families and Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Disabilities, with Lorna Bradley, DMin; and Fellow in Developmental Disabilities and the Family at the Hope and Healing Center & Institute
3. Church Leadership and Mental Health with Erik D. Salwen, PhD, LPC, Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling, Dallas Theological Seminary; and Founder of College Station Christian Counseling, PLLC

Therapeutic-Professional/Teachers

1. Further Discussion on Medication in Children and Adolescents for Therapists with Larry Diller, MD
2. DBT Tools for Adolescents and Professionals with Karyn Hall, PhD, and the Founder and Director of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Center
3. Research Update on ADHD and ODD:  Prevention, Detection, Genetics, Clinical Options with David F. Curtis, Ph.D., and Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Psychology Section, Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital

Practical, Preventative and Therapeutic-Parents/Caregivers

1. Ten Things You Can Do for Teens with Depression Other Than Medication – Speaker to be Announced
2. Social Media – How It’s Affecting Mental Health in Children and Adolescents with Renata Nero, Ph.D., and Chair, Psychology Department, Houston Baptist University
3. Understanding Symptoms and Behaviors of Teen Addiction with Crystal Collier, PhD, LPC-S; and Director of the Behavioral Health Institute, The Council on Recovery

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Lawrence Diller, M.D.

Lawrence Diller is a behavioral/developmental pediatrician and family therapist.  He has evaluated and treated more than three thousand five hundred children and their families over the past thirty-seven years.  He practices in Walnut Creek, a San Francisco Bay area suburb, and lives nearby in the town of Piedmont with his wife, Denise.  She teaches screen writing at the college level.  He has two sons; Martin and Louie, both successful musicians based in Los Angeles. Diller is an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco training child neurology fellows and pediatric residents in child psychiatry.  He has written countless articles on children’s behavior and psychiatric medication for the professional and lay literature that have garnered national and international notice.  He has been the book editor of the Journal of Attention Disorders since 2005. His book, Running on Ritalin: A Physician Reflects on Children, Society and Performance in a Pill, published in 1998, was featured in a Time Magazine cover story on Ritalin.  He has also written Should I Medicate My Child? Sane Solutions for Troubled Kids With – And Without – Psychiatric Drugs (2002), The Last Normal Child: Essays on the Intersection of Kids, Culture, and Psychiatric Drugs (2006) and Remembering Ritalin: A Doctor and Generation Rx Reflect on Life and Psychiatric Drugs (2011). Dr. Diller has appeared many times on television and radio nationwide, including Nightline, PBS Newshour, Good Morning America, CBS Early Morning, the Today Show, Frontline and NPR’s Fresh Air.  His two part series, “Kids on Drugs,” featured in the online magazine Salon.com, won the Society of Professional Journalist’s ”Excellence in Journalism” award in 2000.  He provided expert testimony on Ritalin before a U.S. Congressional Committee in May 2000 and the President’s Council on Bioethics in December 2002.  His current essays appear on the Huffington Post website (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-diller/).  Check his website, www.docdiller.com. – for a complete list of Dr. Diller’s publications.

Dr. Diller spent July 2015 to June 2016 living and working in Australia to recharge his professional and personal batteries.

Elizabeth Mc-Ingvale-Cegelski, Ph.D.

Elizabeth McIngvale-Cegelski, Ph.D. is the founder of the Peace of Mind foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder also known as OCD. Elizabeth was diagnosed with OCD at the age of 12 and she underwent treatment which included both inpatient and outpatient therapy and continues to engage in outpatient therapy to this day to manage her OCD on a daily basis. Elizabeth has made it her life mission to make a difference in the lives of those living with a mental illness. Elizabeth and her family were once told her OCD was too severe to be treated but today she stands before you as someone who successfully manages her illness. She is a national spokesperson for the International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation and is a licensed therapist in Texas. Elizabeth received her bachelors and masters in social work from Loyola University Chicago and her Ph.D. in social work at the University of Houston. Elizabeth proudly serves as an assistant professor at Baylor Universities Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. Elizabeth and her family founded the Peace of Mind Foundation; a non-profit dedicated to OCD. Elizabeth’s foundation runs the ocdchallenge.org which is a free interactive self-help website for obsessive compulsive disorder based on the principles of exposure with response prevention. Elizabeth is dedicated to giving a voice to the voiceless; being a social worker allows her to continue her work in the field and to stamp out the stigma of mental illness everyday.

Carla Sharp, Ph.D.

Dr. Sharp trained as a clinical psychologist (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) from 1994-1997, after which she completed a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychopathology at Cambridge University, UK, 1997-2000. In 2001, she obtained full licensure as a clinical psychologist in the UK. From 2001-2004 she was appointed as a Research Post-doctoral Fellow in Developmental Psychopathology, Cambridge University. In 2004, she moved to the United States to take up an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine. In 2009, she was appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston and was promoted to Full Professor in 2015.

Her published work includes over 150 publications reflecting her interests in the social-cognitive basis of psychiatric problems and problems of behavioral health, and the application of this work in developing diagnostic tools and interventions. She has co-authored three books: An edited volume with Springer titled The Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents, an edited volume with Oxford University Press titled Social cognition and developmental psychopathology and a book with MIT Press titled Midbrain mutiny: Behavioral economics and neuroeconomics of gambling addiction as basic reward system disorder.

ADDITIONAL SPEAKERS

Lorna Bradley, DMin

Rev. Dr. Lorna Bradley, an ordained deacon in the United Methodist Church, serves as a Fellow at The Hope and Healing Institute in Houston, Texas. She creates resources for special needs family support, including her recently published book Special Needs Parenting: From Coping to Thriving. She has led parent support groups for over six years and worked in welcoming ministries for over ten years. She and her husband of thirty years have an adult son with Asperger’s.

Crystal Collier, PhD, LPC-S

Dr. Crystal Collier has been working with adolescents and adults suffering from mental illness, behavior disorders, and substance abuse since 1991.  She has been licensed by the State of Texas as a professional counselor since 1999 and counselor supervisor since 2008.  She possesses a master’s degree in clinical psychology and a doctorate in counselor education. Her area of expertise includes adolescent brain development, prevention programming, independent living skills training, parent coaching, and training new clinicians. Crystal is currently the Director of the Behavioral Health Institute and the Choices Prevention Program for The Council on Recovery. Her innovative, comprehensive prevention program, Choices, recently was selected for the 2015 Prevention and Education Commendation from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. The Choices program is currently being implemented in seven local schools.

 David Curtis, Ph.D.

Dr. David F. Curtis is a Licensed Psychologist who specializes in working with children and families. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Section of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. His clinical and research interests focus on developing innovative treatments and improving existing behavioral interventions for children with disruptive behavior problems, primary care interventions and physician education, and clinical-school consultation. He has conducted applied research in academic and clinical settings within the U.S. and internationally. In addition to his doctoral studies in psychology at the University of Houston, he is a former J. William Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand and a former postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School/Children’s Hospital, Boston. Dr. Curtis leads two programs at Texas Children’s Hospital, the Family Skills Training for ADHD-Related Symptoms (Family STARS) intervention and the Pediatric Primary Care Psychology Service. Both programs provide clinical services to children and families, direct training to psychologists and physicians, and venues for conducting applied clinical research. Dr. Curtis is currently studying the effectiveness of a new behavioral interventions for children with ADHD that were developed in his research lab. Outside of the office, Dr. Curtis enjoys family life, participating in church fellowship, travel, and outdoor activities with his wife and three daughters.

Karyn Hall, PhD
Dr. Hall has been in private practice for over twenty years and is the founder and Director of The DBT Center in Houston, Texas. The Center offers both standard and intensive DBT treatment. She focuses on working with treatment resistant depression,chronic anxiety, trauma, suicidality, self-injury, eating disorders and borderline personality disorder. An expert in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Dr. Hall is a licensed psychologist and a certified coach. She has served as a speaker/trainer for both private and public schools on a national level and has served as a consultant for implementation of DBT in residential treatment and mental health centers. She is a DBT trainer with Treatment Implementation Collaborative and has presented workshops on a local and national level. She blogs for Psychology Today and PsychCentral. She is co-author of The Power of Validation and author of SAVVY, Mindfulness Exercises, and The Emotionally Sensitive Person. She’s on the board of directors for NEA BPD and the founder of Healing Hearts of Families annual conference.

Renata L. Nero, Ph.D.

Renata L. Nero, Ph.D. is the Chair of the Psychology Department and the Director of Graduate Studies in Psychology at Houston Baptist University. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice.  An experienced workshop leader, Dr. Nero has presented on issues pertaining to mental health for over 25 years. For the past two years, she has served as a board member for the Ashley Jadine Foundation (AJF). The foundation was named for Ashley Jadine Duncan, a senior at Bellaire High School who committed suicide in January 2012.  As an AJF board member, Dr. Nero lectures and helps to organize workshops around suicide awareness and prevention. She is the former president of the Southwest Region Board of Directors for the Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) and a member of the American Psychological Association and the Texas Psychological Association. Dr. Nero earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Fisk University and a Master of Arts degree in Afro-American Studies from UCLA. She was awarded Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  She completed pre- and postdoctoral internship training in Clinical Psychology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Erik Salwen, PhD, LPC

Erik Salwen exercises leadership in the discipline of counseling across business, educational and church contexts.  His background spans from executive management in the technology industry to pastoral leadership on a church staff to teaching in graduate-level theological education.  Since 2014, his primary role has been in teaching and mentoring students at the Houston Campus of Dallas Theological Seminary as Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling.

Daniela White, MD

Daniela White, MD finished her residency in Adult Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in 2000 and continued her training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the same institution till 2002. During her training, she served as Chief Resident at Baylor Clinic in 2000 and Chief Fellow Resident in the Fellowship Program in 2002.

She received her Diploma in Psychodynamic Therapy after she completed the two year training program at the Houston Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute between 2000 and 2002. Currently she is Board Certified in both Adult Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 2002 she started her Private Outpatient Clinic (currently named Midtown Psychiatry and TMS Center) while she also worked as the director of the Child and Adolescent Inpatient unit at the Intracare Psychiatric Hospital in Houston,Texas. In 2011 she became certified in TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Therapy) a noninvasive, outpatient therapy cleared by FDA as an innovative treatment for Major Depressive Disorder resistant to medication therapy and for patients that encounter side effects from the traditionally used pharmacological agents.

In 2013 she received her training in NLP (Neurolinguistic Programing) as a motivational coach and NLP practitioner, preceding her certification as a Master NLP practitioner. Her practice’s established goal is to help patients achieve mental wellness through an integrative approach. Highly trained in pharmacology, pharmacodynamic therapy, neurolinguistic programming, she attempts to guide patients to make changes in their
internal perception of the environment (through coaching, therapy and medication) as well as in the environment itself (changes in diet, exercise level, interpersonal communication).

Dr. Daniela White is well known in the Houston Psychiatric Community and collaborates with several therapists, social workers, psychologists and nutritionists to provide a complex treatment.