Is The Medication Working?

How to Collect Data on Psychiatric Symptoms and Measure Progress

An afternoon Community Education Session was held at 3608 South Burdick Street Professional Offices, when a group of participants joined in a teleconference presented by the National Association of Dual Diagnosis, titled: “Is The Medication Working? How to Collect Data on Psychiatric Symptoms and Measure Progress” on Thursday, June 9, 2011.

The presenter was Theodosia Paclawskyj, PhD, BCBA, Behavioral Psychology, a research scientist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is a Case Manager in the Neurobehavioral Unit Outpatient Clinic at Kennedy Krieger Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The NADD website described the teleconference by saying: “Psychotropic medication is the foundation of treatment of many psychiatric disorders, yet judging whether or not a person is responding can be very difficult when a person can't fully report his or her symptoms. This presentation will outline various methods for collecting objective data to measure response to psychotropic medication in individuals with intellectual disabilities.” (from www.theNADD.org)

Dr. Griffith has been a member of the NADD for several years. For anyone who works with consumers who have intellectual deficits (ID) and mental illness (MI), this group is a great source of educational services and training materials. The mission of the NADD is to advance mental wellness for persons with developmental disabilities through the promotion of excellence in mental health care.

NADD always chooses excellent presenters and the information is practical and evidenced based. This training lived up to our expectations!