2022 Yale NEABPD Conference - Opening Remarks

good morning everyone we're absolutely thrilled to welcome you to the 17th annual Yale Nea BPD conference my name is Maggie Davis and I'm joined here by Emily Edwards and Suzanne Decker and we look forward to sharing an outstanding lineup of talks presentations and workshops with you today this conference was first conceived nearly 20 years ago now by its Founders doctors Perry Hoffman and Seth Axelrod who were frustrated by the often extended lag between research being conducted and when the research actually made its way into the hands of the people who need it most those living with BPD their families and their clinicians Dr Hoffman and axelroad's vision for the conference was simple bring the BPD Community together each year to bypass those wait times and bring cutting-edge research information and resources into the hands of people who need it most over the years this conference has evolved It Now features a combination of lived experience and academic speakers and is the only event to bring researchers clinicians and individuals with lived experience of borderline personality disorder and their families together to learn and benefit from each other's experience and wisdom this conference has also evolved into a means of providing Fellowship for the VPD Community Fellowship that we really hope you enjoyed today during our conference proceedings we're really happy to share that this year we've hit a record-breaking 600 registrants and to each of you welcome yeah this year's conference theme focuses on life disrupting behaviors borderline personality disorder is a complex condition characterized in part by behaviors that disrupt the lives of the person affected by BTD these behaviors may include suicide and self-harm aggression substance use or others for the person with BPD these behaviors are often experienced as inconsistent with personal values as a source of tremendous shame and a target for stigma for those around the person these behaviors May elicit feelings of confusion frustration or bewilderment our goal for this year's conference is to increase non-judgmental understanding of an empathy toward these behaviors and the individuals struggling with them throughout today you'll hear about a range of Life disrupting behaviors everything from self-harm to aggression to Suicide you'll also hear about the impacts of these behaviors on the person with BPD and on the lives of those close to them as we move through today join us in seeking to understand these behaviors and their effects through a lens of non-judgment empathy and blamelessness only then can we all truly come to a place of empathy and healing earlier this year the BPD Community lost an incredible Advocate clinician and Mentor Dr Seth Axelrod Seth devoted his life and his career to improving the quality of mental health care provided to individuals affected by borderline personality disorder his tenacity and his passion for this population was unparalleled and his commitment to helping his patients come closer to their lives worth living as defined by them was unyielding in all ways Seth embodied the principles of dialectical behavior therapy those enough those of us lucky enough to work with him and learn from him witnessed his seemingly effortless balance between an unrelenting push for Change and genuine heartfelt acceptance for his patients his trainees his colleagues and Friends a few years ago Seth was one of the ones to make the opening comments for the Yale Nea BPD conference today we'd like to share some of his comments with you as they so absolutely reflect Seth's passion commitment and dedication to those with lived experience of borderline personality disorder my professional career focuses on this disorder including direct clinical work training is a major piece of it research and um I have such mixed emotions today and coming into this conference because on one hand this Con the the work I do fills me with satisfaction uh that there's help that can be offered that people's lives improve um I'm a DBT provider we focus on helping people have a life worth living and I get to see people move toward that and it just fills me with um with a real sense of purpose in terms of how I spend my time what I devote myself to and this conference fills me with joy and pride just the just the fact that it's it's grown in so many ways um and our focus is the dark flip side of of the disorder which is the risk of self-destructive behaviors in particular suicide and I'm absolutely not only is it something that um fills us all with with fear uh I am completely horrified by the state of affairs with regard to access to services for borderline specifically but also in terms of mental health systems that are not keeping up with the best science with the best practices that are clearly defined and you'll be hearing about these things today you'll be hearing about just how far the science is progressing and things that could be brought into practice and need to be you all have have elected to spend your day with us today and it already indicates that this is on your radar that you see these uh issues of suicide borderline personality disorder as important and yet coming to this conference is not nearly enough and there's lots of research showing that going and getting some ideas at a conference doesn't actually change very much unfortunately unless you do two things you apply what you learn you take it into your workplace you take it to your personal relationships you find ways to incorporate uh what's offered another thing we need to do is we need to address a cold irony of this disorder which is that individuals with borderline personality disorders struggle with self-destructive behaviors are painfully aware of how that affects everyone around them how it affects particularly the people they love and they tend to feel intense shame and and don't know what to do with with the burden the emotional burden the financial burden uh that they create um and Dr Thomas Joyner has identified that that feeling of Burden itself becomes a huge risk factor for suicide so again we need to figure out how can we support individuals in getting the help they need how can we assure them that we are accepting of them where they are as best they can how can we get the support we need ourselves and assure them that we're doing that so I will encourage you to look for ways to do all of those things to get the support to give the reassurance to give the acceptance to be involved uh which we've learned and Perry Hoffman did the research showing that getting involved with their care helps them but get involved in a way that shows that that you are also taking care of yourself and not and they're not creating an undue burden is we must get involved with issues of advocacy uh we need to get our voices out there so the conference Will Go On we will be here we are already planning for next year during his tenure at Yale Seth invested a great deal of his time and energy into building the next generation of therapists and dialectical behavior therapy just a few years ago I was one of Seth's Starry eye students and I distinctly remember that while we were sitting in his office during our supervision meeting one day he looked at me and he said this work is hard people with BPD they're living in hell but as hard as this work is we can't let up they deserve our 100 commitment our 100 dedication and persistence in getting them to their lives with living and that's who Seth was a complete Powerhouse with an unyielding commitment to his patients and an Ever strong dedication to supporting students for development of the same for these reasons the Yale Nea BPD conference committee will be starting the Seth Axelrod mentorship award and Seth's honor as of today we welcome nominations for the first award which will be given as part of next year's conference proceedings and annually thereafter in line with Seth's Legacy nominations will be judged according to the mentors demonstrated commitment to mentorship and development of Junior colleagues in the treatment of borderline personality disorder thank you Emily this conference stems from partnership between Yale School of Medicine and the National Education Alliance for borderline personality disorder and we therefore now welcome some opening remarks from Dr John Crystal Dr crystal is the chair of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine hello my name is John Crystal I'm the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine I want to thank you all for coming and participating in this important and valuable meeting and I particularly want to acknowledge the long collaboration between the department of Psychiatry and the National Education Alliance for borderline personality disorder the conferences that the conference that we're having this year it really follows a series of conferences that started in 2006 um and were the a result of the collaboration of Dr Seth Axelrod in the department of Psychiatry and Dr Perry from the alliance these conferences have been wonderful they addressed a topic that is borderline personality disorder which affects many individuals and families and is an important Public Health burden in our society and yet is understudied and under treated I hope all of you find the talks that you will hear as part of this Symposium useful and important to you in your work with people with borderline personality disorder I particularly want to acknowledge the passing of Dr Seth Axelrod Dr Axelrod has been an important member in our community and an important contributor to the success of these conferences over the years he came to Yale and completed his training with a Dr Marshall Linehan and the the DBT program and brought that technique to our community and helped us to become more effective in the way in which we treated borderline personality disorder he also was an important teacher a scholar uh and um mentor to many people in our community Dr Axelrod struggled with a lung illness and faced it with courage with resilience and was despite his illness a very constructive presence in our community his loss is felt very sorely by us and we feel sorry for his family and others in our community for whom he was an important person so as we go forward with our conference today let's remember Dr Axelrod and take his example of being courageous committed and compassionate in our interactions with and treatment of people struggling with borderline personality disorder again thank you for participating in today's event thank you Dr Crystal and now some opening remarks by the president of the National Education Alliance for borderline personality disorder Dr Julie Chesley Dr Chesley served 20 years in the U.S Air Force before retiring as a lieutenant colonel her dedicated leadership with Nea BPD helps the organization to extend BPD advocacy efforts across the globe we are so thrilled to have her here to share some remarks this morning Julie good morning and welcome to the 17th annual Yale National Educational Alliance for borderline personality disorder otherwise known as Nea BPD conference my name is Julie Chesley and I'm the board chair for Nea BPD for those of you who don't know us we are a non-profit organization that helps family members who have someone in their life with emotion dysregulation or borderline personality disorder our mission includes advocacy research awareness Outreach and education we are best known for our family connections program family connections is a free 12-week class led by trained family members and clinicians the purpose of family connections is to provide psycho education skills and support to reduce suffering and improve relationships we offer family connections throughout the United States as well as in 28 countries around the world and we hope to grow we recognize a substantial need families have when loved ones suffers and our strategic priorities are focused on improving our reach to underserved communities and all those in need Dr Perry Hoffman the founder of any abpd and Dr Seth Axelrod from Yale University founded this conference bringing together clinicians researchers family members and people with lived experience we are saddened by the loss of these two Visionaries and our hope is to continue in their legacy and learn together this year's conference has a theme of Life disrupting behaviors we are pleased that many of the volunteers and staff of Nea BPD are participating sharing their knowledge and experiences and presentations workshops and poster sessions once again welcome today's conference wouldn't be possible without the incredible help of this year's outstanding conference Coordinating Committee I therefore want to share and thank thanks and acknowledgments with the rest of our committee Abby Inger from the neapolitiva from Yale Suzanne Decker from Yale and the West Haven VA Tina Moore from Nea BPD Gene Fox from any abpd a ddvj from Georgetown school of medicine and the many many volunteers who helped make today a reality finally Emily Edwards who's done a truly incredible job leaning our efforts this year and without whom none of this would have been possible to each of you thank you for your tireless efforts and dedication to making today a reality and also to our incredible sponsors Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital McLean Hospital Sunrise residential program and Silver Hill Hospital thank you for your continued support and for all you do for those affected by borderline personality disorder everyone please be sure to stop by our sponsor's exhibits during the exhibit hall this afternoon to learn about the incredible treatment services available through their programs you can also scroll down to the bottom of your page to click on each program's logo and learn more now before we get into today's lineup I'd like to review a few housekeeping points first even though we're Gathering virtually here today I encourage everybody to embrace the opportunities for Fellowship that this conference provides and the way to do that in a virtual environment is using the chat feature you'll see it to the right of your live feed while you're interacting with each other with conference presenters and the rest of the audience please keep in mind that everyone in here may have different roles people with lived experience of borderline personality disorder family members loved ones the person with BPD treatment providers researchers and many of us have overlapping or intersecting roles as well so as we enjoy today's conference proceedings and we interact with each other we ask that everyone commit to using respectful language to a job adapting a non-judgmental lens toward one another and to giving others the benefit of their doubt if their words happen to come across as ill-frazed our team will also be monitoring the chat on the back end to help ensure this Mutual commitment to respect second throughout today's conference proceedings we'll be talking about a range of potentially painful topics deeply painful emotions life disrupting behaviors the consequences of those life disrupting behaviors and others reactions to those behaviors everyone may have different reactions to these talks so we want to urge everyone to take care of yourselves today if you find it something we're discussing here feels overwhelming take a step back take a break join us again when you feel able and third we realize this is a day-long virtual conference that is a long time to be staring at a computer screen and by now we all know that Zoom fatigue is very real we'll schedule in a few breaks throughout the day and we encourage you to really use those times to take care of yourself stand up take a walk have some water chat with your friends for those of you looking to receive continuing education credits for today we have a few reminders receive your credits there are a few steps you need to complete make sure you're registered for your continuing education credits through TMS if you're in the Department of Veterans Affairs or train if you're outside the VA instructions on how to complete that registration were sent to your email earlier this week and again this morning and if you haven't completed that registration make sure you go ahead and do that now second to receive credit you have to attend the conference today in full including all presentations on the live feed in participation in one of the breakout sessions today we'll be monitoring your attendance so please make sure that you're here all day unfortunately we can't offer partial credit for attendance after the conference today please make sure to return to TMS or train to confirm your participation and complete the post-conference evaluation you'll need to complete this evaluation in a timely manner to ensure your credits are processed appropriately and lastly I want to give you a quick tour of our conference website special thanks to our partners over at brandlive for putting this together for us the first feature which we've already mentioned a couple of times is the chat it's going to be located over to the right of your live feed you're logged in from a mobile device you may need to click the chat button underneath the feed in order to access that chat strongly encourage you to use this feature to interact with one another provide feedback and share questions we're going to do our best to reserve a little bit of time at the end of each segment for questions and we'll also have a panel discussion at the end of today to revisit any questions that we may have missed so please don't be shy and second if you scroll down your page a bit you'll see our conference schedule for today this will help give you an idea of where we're at in the day and what to expect next third right above that schedule you'll see a series of tabs lightning round presenters slides handouts and materials and so on feel free to explore these tabs is they're going to provide valuable resources including copies of each presenter's slides and all of those are available for download for you also on that last tab we've got live closed captioning for anyone who may need it as breakup sessions come up in today additional tabs will appear on your screen to help get you where you need to go if you start to experience technical issues at any time today please first try to refresh your browser this is going to resolve about 90 of your issues and if that issue persists please don't worry we've got volunteers standing by to help answer your questions and it gets you back on track you can reach them by emailing GSE 2106 at tc.columbia.edu that's g s e 2106 at tc.c-o-l-u-m-b-i-a dot EDU and lastly I want to remind everyone that all of our conference events today are going to be recorded and available to you for the next year this includes all of our wonderful workshops scheduled for this afternoon so if you aren't able to attend for the full day or you're really torn between two or three or four different workshops this afternoon please feel free to come back and re-watch what you've missed to access this conference recordings You're simply just going to return back to this webpage using the link sent in your email and logging in using your name and email address

Channel: NEA BPD

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Length: 22min 53sec (1373 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 23 2022