A virtual education series created by patients and families, for patients and families, to help us understand concurrent disorders better.
The Demystifying Concurrent Disorders Webinar series is a quarterly education series to help patients and families better understand topics relating to mental health and substance use issues, or concurrent disorders. Participants will learn about things like trauma-informed practice, the Mental Health Act, the forensics system, medications and more.
The webinar series is free and open to anyone interested in learning about these topics. Each session will be led by an expert in mental health and substance use and will include a live Q&A, facilitated by our webinar series host, a person with lived and living experience.
The Demystifying Concurrent Disorders Webinar Series has been developed by the Health Literacy Working Group, a patient- and family-led committee working to advance health literacy across BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services and beyond.
Host: Victoria Maxwell, Lived Experience Strategic Advisor at BCMHSUS, mental health keynote speaker and performer, and recognized international keynote speaker for mental health. Victoria uses her personal story of rcovery from mental illness to increase awareness, transform negative beliefs and ignite powerful conversations about mental health.
Demystifying Prison Healthcare: Join our diverse panel of speakers to learn more about prison health from various perspectives. We will be discussing physical health, mental health, and substance use supports for people in and leaving prison in BC, and how to advocate for them. Register to learn more about demystifying prison health and discuss ways we can help reduce the stigma.
July 19, 2024 from 1:00-2:30PM PST
Register Here
Amanda Butler: Dr. Amanda Butler is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Amanda is a mixed-methods researcher, and her work focuses on improving outcomes for at-risk and justice-involved people with mental health and substance use disorders.
Steve Pelland: Steve is a Peer Support Coordinator with the Community Transition Teams (CTT). Steve's role with CTT is to provide mentorship and support for our peer suppoer workers and provide direct client care for folks transitiong out of the provincial correctional system. This work is meaningful for him as a person with lived experience of addiction as well as incarceration in BC Corrections.
Deanna Romm: Deanna is a registered psychiatric nurse and is in the role of Regional Director, Correctional Health Services. She brings a decade of clinical and operational leadership experience in correctional health settings and was part of the transition from Chiron Health Services to PHSA BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services,
Pam Young: Pam has worked with Unlocking the Gates as a Program Manager since 2011, and was previously the peer support worker. Pam is passionate about advocating for people involved in the criminal justice system. Pam uses her voice to improve health care services for patients and their loved ones.
Friday, April 12, 2024
Speakers: Becky Hynes (Director, Interprofessional Practice, AMHSUS), Anita David (Lived Experience Strategic Advisor), Margo Dent (Family Partner)
Summary sheet coming soon
Watch "Demystifying Recovery"
Wednesday, 18 October, 2023
Speakers: Rick Johal (Senior Lead of Provincial Education with BCMHSUS), Chris Lamoureux (Leader of Patient Experience and Community Engagement with BCMHSUS), Dr. Heather Fulton (Registered Psychologist)
Summary sheet coming soon
Friday, 28 April, 2023
Friday, 10 February, 2023
Speakers: Tracy Windsor and Abigail Schultz, Lived Experience Experts.
Friday, 3 February, 2023
Speakers: Dr. Randall White, Medical Director of Vancouver Community Mental Health Services and Clinical Director of the BC Psychosis Program, and Dr. Matthew Johnston, Sociologist.
Watch "Demystifying prescribed medications for treating psychosis and substance use"
Friday, 9 September, 2022
Speakers: Reza Rafizadeh, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at BCMHSUS, and Dr. Christian Schutz, Psychiatrist and Clinical Researcher at Red Fish Healing Centre.
Watch "Forensic journey and beyond: Where healthcare and legal systems intersect"
Friday, 10 June, 2022
Speakers: Peter Parnell, director of access, transitions and forensic clinical risk at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, and Midhath Mahir, deputy supervising lawyer at CLAS.
Summary sheet coming soon.
Watch "Demystifying the Mental Health Act"
February 22, 2022
Speakers: Dr. Vijay Seethapathy, MD and Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians of Canada, Chief Medical Officer for BCMHSUS and Kendra Milne, Executive Director of Health Justice with Canadian Mental Health Association.
Watch "Demystifying Trauma-informed health care"
November 26, 2021
Speaker: Dr. Linda Uyeda, MD, CCFP
BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services is committed to safeguarding your privacy and confidentiality. As an attendee in a Zoom for Webinars event, your name will be hidden throughout the presentation, and you may choose to ask your questions anonymously in the Q&A chat box. Participants’ audio and video will be disabled. Questions will be monitored and selected by a facilitator, based on relevance and appropriateness. Please note that the speaker will not be able to address specific individual case questions. Sessions will be recorded and shared on our website, making them available to the public.
