The relationship between substance use disorders and schizophrenia has long intrigued mental health researchers and clinicians. When individuals develop psychosis in the context of substance use, what does that tell us in terms of etiopathophysiology and likely prognosis and outcome? How does one differentiate schizophrenia from substance-induced psychotic disorder? What are the treatment and prognostic implications of that distinction? In this presentation, the above questions will be addressed and clinical characteristics that enable differential diagnosis will be outlined. 

This presentation will focus on common errors and best practices when using long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs). Key topics covered include: LAI Kinetics: The importance of understanding the kinetics of different LAI agents and which ones require loading injections or oral coverage. Combination Treatment: Detailed guidance on which oral or injectable agents can be combined. The presentation emphasizes that partial agonists like LAI aripiprazole have high D2 receptor affinity and should not be used in combination with other D2 antagonist LAIs. Specific Recommendations: For LAI aripiprazole, the presentation suggests adding oral xanomeline-trospium (XT) or clozapine. For other agents like LAI risperidone or paliperidone, it advises against combination LAIs and instead suggests either a dose increase of the oral agent or adding XT or clozapine. First-Generation Antipsychotics (FGAs): The presentation highlights that FGAs, such as haloperidol decanoate, still have a role in treatment and provides a simple conversion formula from oral to injectable doses. 

Despite advances in pharmacological and psychosocial interventions, many patients with schizophrenia continue to experience persistent symptoms, functional impairment, and reduced quality of life. This session will review evidence-based management strategies for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, including optimizing antipsychotic therapy, addressing adherence challenges, and evaluating augmentation. Dr. Christoph Correll will draw upon clinical trial data, meta-analyses, and real-world evidence to highlight practical approaches for improving long-term outcomes. 

This session will review novel pharmacological agents and mechanisms of action recently approved or in late-stage development for schizophrenia. Learners will gain insights into efficacy, safety, and tolerability data, as well as practical considerations for incorporating these latest and evidence-based therapies into individualized treatment plans. 

This presentation will include a high-level review of diagnostic criteria in addition to clinical implications for personality disorders and psychosis with a focus on Borderline Personality and Psychosis. Engagement and therapeutic interventions will be explored and discussed through real-time clinical case examples with audience participation.

Working in the milieu often means engaging with individuals who are reluctant, resistant, or ambivalent about services. This interactive workshop explores how to build trust and connection in structured environments by focusing on relationship, understanding barriers to engagement, and learning everyday ways to bolster engagement. Participants will learn practical strategies for approaching resistance as a form of communication, apply trauma-informed care principles to everyday interactions, and strengthen their ability to use motivational interviewing techniques in the moment. Through case examples and skills practice, participants will leave with concrete tools for fostering engagement, reducing power struggles, and supporting client autonomy.

Understanding the Patient is an interactive one-hour webinar in the SMI Essentials series for state hospital staff. Through real patient stories and case examples, participants will step into the lived experience of serious mental illness—especially for individuals in forensic settings. The session sheds light on the impact of trauma, homelessness, and system barriers on engagement and recovery, helping staff see the person behind the illness. Together, we’ll explore how purpose, connection, and respect can spark motivation and hope, even for justice-involved individuals early in recovery. Participants will leave with practical, trauma-informed strategies to build trust, promote dignity, and inspire healing in everyday care.

This session provides practical communication strategies for defusing tense situations while maintaining safety and dignity for both staff and clients. Participants will also explore how burnout shows up in high-stress environments and identify personal, team-based, and supervisory approaches to prevention. Emphasis will be placed on “setting yourself up for success” by developing realistic daily habits that promote resilience before, during, and after shifts. Through roleplay, reflection, and peer sharing, participants will gain tools to stay calm under pressure and sustain themselves in challenging work.

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This webinar will provide a practical framework for the recognition and assessment of drug-induced movement disorders (also known as extrapyramidal symptoms) associated with antipsychotic and other dopamine-modifying therapies.

In this webinar, participants will review the pathophysiology and clinical presentation of common drug-induced movement disorder subtypes—including acute dystonia, akathisia, drug-induced parkinsonism, and tardive dyskinesia. Following this webinar on January 20, 2026 at 12 PT, the speakers will host an interactive workshop to practice what was learned in this webinar. This includes applying assessment tools, detecting and monitoring, case discussions and using validated rating scales.

Over the course of both Part 1 and Part 2, learners will strengthen their ability to identify, document, and communicate drug-induced movement disorder findings to optimize patient care and medication safety.

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This session provides a strong foundation in Motivational Interviewing (MI) for clinicians working with individuals in forensic settings. Participants will explore how the MI Spirit of partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation guides effective communication even in mandated or high-resistance environments. The session also introduces the Stages of Change model and teaches participants how to assess a patient’s level of readiness, particularly when motivation is inconsistent or obscured by challenging behaviors. A focus will be on using MI to build engagement during brief interactions, such as on busy inpatient units or in fast-paced restorative programming. Through practical demonstrations and structured exercises, clinicians will learn how to reduce defensiveness, enhance rapport, and create openings for meaningful dialogue, even when patients appear shut down, oppositional, or disengaged.

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This is a follow-up to “Seeing Beyond the Shake: Drug-Induced Movement Disorders in Focus” which provides a practical framework for the recognition and assessment of drug-induced movement disorders (also known as extrapyramidal symptoms) associated with antipsychotic and other dopamine-modifying therapies. In this interactive workshop, participants will apply structured assessment tools to enhance detection and monitoring in clinical practice through case-based examples and demonstration of validated rating scales. Learners will strengthen their ability to identify, document, and communicate drug-induced movement disorder findings to optimize patient care and medication safety.

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This skill-building session focuses on applying core MI strategies to effectively navigate ambivalence and challenging behaviors in forensic settings. Participants will learn how to use values-based conversations to uncover what matters most to patients, particularly when external pressures (such as court involvement or hospitalization) dominate the treatment environment. The session also provides in-depth training on OARS (Open Questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries) with an emphasis on maintaining safety, clarity, and therapeutic alignment in secure or structured settings. Additionally, participants will learn to use the Elicit–Provide–Elicit approach to offer psychoeducation in a way that respects autonomy and minimizes resistance. Through interactive role plays and guided practice, clinicians will strengthen their confidence in using MI techniques to promote engagement, reduce oppositional responses, and support progress toward treatment and competency-related goals.

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Throughout this webinar, we will focus on applying best practices in crisis de-escalation. By the end, you will understand how your presence and actions impact a crisis situation; be able to identify the unique wants and needs of the individual experiencing the crisis; and learn how to use the environment strategically to reduce potential risks and promote safety.

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This session helps clinicians refine their Motivational Interviewing skills for situations involving ambivalence, avoidance, and challenging interpersonal dynamics. Participants will learn how to elicit, amplify, and strengthen change talk using the DARN framework (Desire, Ability, Reasons, Need), and how to help clients develop personally meaningful reasons for change even when participation is mandated. The session will also cover practical, non-confrontational methods for rolling with resistance including responding to defensiveness, disengagement, and oppositional statements while preserving rapport and therapeutic momentum. Through integrated practice scenarios that mirror real-world forensic interactions, participants will learn to apply advanced MI techniques to enhance motivation, reduce behavioral escalation, and support patients’ movement toward treatment participation and competency-related goals.

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This training is designed to equip healthcare and support staff with practical, evidence-based skills to safely and effectively de-escalate patient behavior following a crisis event. Emphasis is placed on restoring safety, rebuilding therapeutic rapport, and preventing re-escalation while supporting patient dignity and emotional regulation.

Participants will learn to recognize post-crisis emotional and behavioral cues, apply trauma-informed communication strategies, and implement structured de-escalation techniques tailored to individual patient needs. The training also addresses staff self-regulation, reflective practice, and team communication to reduce burnout and improve overall care outcomes.

Through interactive discussion, case scenarios, and skill-based practice, participants will strengthen their confidence in managing post-crisis interactions, supporting patient recovery, and contributing to a safer, more therapeutic care environment.

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This webinar provides a practical overview of co-regulation and orientation as vital tools for emotional and nervous system regulation, particularly in therapeutic or supportive relationships. Co-regulation is the process where one person provides a calm, regulated presence to help another person’s nervous system return to a feeling of balance, often using attunement like a gentle tone or secure presence. Orientation involves drawing attention to the present, external world using the senses to ground the individual and interrupt states of overwhelm, stress, or flashback, thereby shifting their focus away from internal distress toward objective safety and reality. Mastering both co-regulation and orientation helps build emotional resilience and strengthens the capacity for eventual self-regulation.

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Increasing attention has been paid to healthcare provider wellness in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. One phenomenon that is increasingly described is compassion fatigue, a combination of burnout and prolonged exposure to traumatic events over the course of providing care. Compassion fatigue manifests as individually distressing symptoms of depression or anxiety which can be associated with decreased quality of care at the individual level and contribute to high turnover in healthcare positions, particularly those in forensic facilities. Participants will learn about the concepts behind compassion fatigue and how individual and organizational factors can contribute. They will learn about validated assessment measures estimating levels of burnout and compassion fatigue that can be self-administered or given to large groups. We will review available evidence on ways to improve wellness, satisfaction, and reduce compassion fatigue such as mindfulness.

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This webinar will explore how safety and psychotherapy are complementary rather than opposing goals. Dr. Sarah Kopelovich will review the clinical and empirical reasons for including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as part of standard care in forensic hospitals, highlighting how CBT principles and techniques can be applied flexibly by professionals across disciplines—including psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and psychiatric technicians.

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This webinar will bring these concepts to life. Participants will see how CBT can be effectively delivered by every member of the treatment team to promote safety, recovery, and successful discharges. The session will also demonstrate how CBT techniques can be adapted for patients with challenges such as cognitive impairments, traumatic brain injury (TBI), trauma histories, and difficulties with emotion regulation—issues that are common among patients in the state hospital system.

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This crucial webinar addresses the inherent tension between the regulated requirements of a demanding job and the need for personal authenticity and well-being. Participants will explore practical strategies for defining and managing the professional persona—the highly ethical, objective, and boundary-adherent version of self required by the workplace—without sacrificing the vital components of their personal identity, such as core values, passions, and self-care needs. The session aims to provide tools for achieving sustainable authenticity at work, preventing burnout, and integrating the self to foster resilience and long-term professional satisfaction.

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With increasing numbers of forensic cases that include mental health components, it is important to understand the cultures and contexts where mental health symptoms present. It is also imperative to understand the cultural contexts of patients within correctional systems for the practicing clinician. In this talk, Dr. Adi will present the basics of cultural psychiatry, explanatory models of illness, and the cultural formulation interview. Dr. Adi will then walk the attendees through some deidentified legal cases, as well as correctional cases, that illustrate these concepts, and present tips and tricks on how to effectively screen for cultural elements affecting mental health symptoms.

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Teamwork and collaboration are critical components of healthcare systems, particularly when delivering treatment in inpatient settings. They are processes in which professionals from diverse backgrounds can engage in shared problem solving and decision-making to improve patient care. Many factors influence teamwork, including characteristics of workplace culture and the quality of interdisciplinary communication. Interventions that improve these factors are associated with better patient outcomes, improved staff satisfaction and well-being. However, numerous systemic issues, such as busy workloads, unclear or overlapping job roles, and conflicting policies can make a culture of collaboration challenging to maintain in real-world clinical practice. Utilizing case examples, Dr. Valdez will describe the components that make up effective teamwork and provide practical strategies for improving interdisciplinary collaboration in forensic settings.

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Mental health professionals routinely engage in emotionally demanding and high-responsibility work, making self-care an essential component of ethical and sustainable practice. This webinar explores the evolution of self-care from its historical roots to its current role in mental health and social service settings. Participants will examine how ongoing workplace demands and personal stressors affect well-being and professional effectiveness. The training emphasizes self-care not as a luxury, but as a professional responsibility, and provides practical, realistic strategies for integrating self-care into daily professional and personal routines. Participants will also be guided in developing a personalized, values-based self-care plan.

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Mental health professionals are routinely exposed to high levels of emotional labor, trauma, and loss, placing them at increased risk for burnout, compassion fatigue, and cumulative grief. This webinar explores the critical role of self-care as an ethical, professional, and practical response to these challenges. Participants will examine key definitions and warning signs of burnout, compassion fatigue, and grief, and analyze how each uniquely impacts professional functioning and personal well-being. The training emphasizes realistic, accessible self-care strategies that can be applied both on the job and outside of work, supporting sustainability in emotionally demanding roles.

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This webinar explores the critical role of self-care in sustaining professional and personal balance for mental health professionals. Participants will examine how self-care acts as a bridge to resilience when facing the emotional challenges of working with clients. The session will provide practical strategies, tools, and tips to implement self-care both during work hours and beyond, helping professionals maintain balance, and enhance overall well-being.

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This talk provides an overview of anosognosia, an impairment of insight commonly seen in SMU, particularly psychotic disorders. The talk reviews what is known about its underlying neurocognitive mechanisms, including disruptions in frontal and parietal brain networks involved in self-monitoring and awareness. Then focusing on prevalence, that talk reviewers rates among people with SMI and schizophrenia. Considering management, the presentation emphasizes that there is currently no established pharmacological treatment for anosognosia, shifting the clinical focus toward the assessment, identification, and understanding of its impact on outcomes such as nonadherence, relapse, and rehospitalization. Finally, the talk considers the implications for inpatient state hospital settings and how anosognosia can shape engagement, discharge planning, and long-term recovery.

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Pregnancy and postpartum are culturally expected to be the happiest times of a woman’s life. However, depression and other mental illness occur during pregnancy, and the postpartum period is a time of elevated risk for mental illness. This presentation will review mental illness in pregnancy and the postpartum, including depression, bipolar disorder, and psychosis. We’ll review screening, medication and other treatments, the risk-benefit assessment for treatment, and consideration of capacity to refuse treatment.

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Psychiatrists and psychiatric treatment staff who work in mental health settings are in an optimal position to treat co-occurring substance use disorder for people with serious mental illness. Nearly half of people with serious mental illness have a co-occurring substance use disorder. Additionally, clients with co-occurring disorders are far more likely to receive mental health care than substance use treatment. Substantial evidence documents the impact of untreated substance use disorders on clients’ mental health, functioning, and quality of life. This webinar will review the principles of identifying and treating SUD for clients with serious mental illness served within mental health settings specifically including the use of addiction medications. The presenter will also review the treatment planning, documentation, privacy regulation, and billing implications.

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Alcohol use is highly prevalent in the United States, with more than 220 million Americans reporting lifetime alcohol use and approximately 29 million meeting criteria for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in the past year. Despite its prevalence, AUD remains significantly under-treated and this contributes to significant morbidity, mortality, and healthcare utilization. In high acuity and community settings, individuals with AUD often present with complex psychiatric and medical co-morbidities that complicate assessment and treatment. This webinar will provide a practical, evidence-based overview of AUD, including epidemiological trends, diagnostic assessment, withdrawal management, and treatment approaches. Participants will leave the webinar with pharmacological and psychosocial strategies to support stabilization, relapse prevention, and continuity of care for individuals with AUD.

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This webinar will provide learners with the detailed information on the epidemiology and evolving trends in stimulant use. Differentiation of pharmacological mechanisms and the clinical effects of stimulants will be reviewed. Discussion surrounding evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and how to mange acute intoxication and withdrawal syndromes will be outlined. While psychosocial treatments are harder to implement in various practices, these will also be discussed with details on the evidence based for their utilization.

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This webinar will explore how safety and psychotherapy are complementary rather than opposing goals. Dr. Sarah Kopelovich will review the clinical and empirical reasons for including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as part of standard care in forensic hospitals, highlighting how CBT principles and techniques can be applied flexibly by professionals across disciplines—including psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and psychiatric technicians.

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This webinar will bring these concepts to life. Participants will see how CBT can be effectively delivered by every member of the treatment team to promote safety, recovery, and successful discharges. The session will also demonstrate how CBT techniques can be adapted for patients with challenges such as cognitive impairments, traumatic brain injury (TBI), trauma histories, and difficulties with emotion regulation—issues that are common among patients in the state hospital system.

Empowering The Psychiatric Workforce: Taking Control of Our Practices One Step at a Time

In a time when psychiatrists face increasing administrative demands, workforce shortages, and rapid changes in how care is delivered, the 2026 Annual Meeting theme, “Empowering the Psychiatric Workforce: Taking Control of Our Practices One Step at a Time,” captures both the challenges and opportunities ahead. It’s a call to focus on what each of us can do, day by day, to strengthen our profession and the care we provide.

Empowerment begins with small, deliberate actions. It happens when psychiatrists find new ways to simplify processes, build more collaborative teams, or advocate for systems that support meaningful, patient-centered care. By taking ownership of these incremental changes, we begin to transform not only our practices, but also our collective confidence in shaping the future of mental health.

The 2026 Annual Meeting in San Francisco will highlight practical, evidence-based approaches to navigating today’s complex environment, through workshops, discussions, and shared strategies that meet psychiatrists where they are. It’s an opportunity to connect, learn, and reenergize our sense of purpose.

This theme reminds us that lasting progress rarely comes all at once. It’s built step by step, through persistence, creativity, and community. Together, we can ensure psychiatry remains adaptable, resilient, and deeply connected to the people and values that define it.