Meet one of your #TCOM2018 Presenters!
Featured in this post: Dan Dubovsky
Dan Dubovsky, MSW is a mental health clinician who has worked for over 40 years in residential treatment with children and adolescents, outpatient settings, medical settings, and a medical school based continuing behavioral health education program. For 15 years, Dan was the fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) specialist for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) FASD Center for Excellence. Dan also raised a son with fetal alcohol syndrome and mental health issues. e: ddubovsky@verizon.net
Q: What does Person-Centered Care mean to you?
DD: The concept of person-centered care is that each person involved with an individual, focuses on identifying what he or she (and their family) need in order to be successful with what success is for them. Then the focus is on how (as a community) to help them achieve that success. It also means identifying the individual’s strengths, abilities, interests, and needs.
Q. Why should individuals attend this year’s conference/your presentation?
DD: The TCOM conference is an excellent venue for getting information on approaches and having a dialogue with a number of different presenters.
Q: What drew you to attend this year?
DD: The ability to present information that attendees might not have thought of is a strong draw. Last year, I presented on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and the response was very positive.
Q: Why did you choose to present on this specific topic?
DD: I have focused a lot of my work with substance use treatment centers for the last couple of years. I realized that people in treatment and other people with behavioral issues are constantly told what they do wrong but are rarely told what they do right. I was asked to consult with one treatment program where I met with two individuals. My first question to each of them was “what do you do well.” Neither of them could answer that question. That reinforced my desire to share what I think is an essential approach for any program which is a positive focused system of care. That is the title of this session.
The other session that I am presenting was developed by my son and I. He had been in a number of mental health treatment programs and had very specific feelings about what helped him and what didn’t. As his parent, I also dealt with these programs and experienced both positive and negative responses. This session presents what has been helpful and what has not in professionals who work with people from an individual’s and a family’s perspective. This can help professionals see the perspective of the person and family and what is most helpful in forming a positive relationship.
Connect with Dan!
Attend their presentation at the 14th Annual TCOM Conference on Friday, 10/5/2018 at 10:10 am and 11:20 am.
Developing and Maintaining a Positive Focused System of Care
| This session presents an argument on how negative based approaches affect those with an FASD, mental health issues, substance use issues, and developmental disabilities. Methods to shift to a positive focused system of care from a negative or reward and consequence approach are examined. Benefits and barriers to this approach and how it can be sustained in our systems of care are presented and examples of ways to modify policies are discussed. |
Therapeutic Alliances: Building positive outcomes from a consumer and family perspective
| The essence of positive outcomes in treatment is forming therapeutic alliances. The essence of a therapeutic alliance is relationship. Unfortunately, in our efforts to provide quality support and treatment within limited time frames, we sometimes lose sight of this fundamental notion. The core of this workshop is a discussion of what has and has not been helpful from the point of view of a consumer of services and his family over a 20-year span of interactions with systems, programs and people. Specific examples to illustrate these points will be shared. As these alliances are essential for positive outcomes, methods of building therapeutic alliances within the constraints of current service provision, as well as methods to address the need for time to establish these alliances, are highlighted. Recommendations will be offered that can improve working relationships between persons with disabilities, families, and professionals; enhance the outcomes of treatment; and are extremely cost effective. Without addressing therapeutic alliances, programs, services, and people cannot be optimally effective. |
A special thanks to our sponsors this year and other individual donors!
The Praed Foundation, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, Casey Family Programs, eINSIGHT (eCenter Research), Seneca Family of Agencies, Centene Corporation, Okay to Say (Meadows MHPI), Magellan Healthcare, Community Data Roundtable, California Alliance of Children and Family Services, TenEleven Group