Letter from the PRF Chair

It’s that exciting time of the year when final preparations for our annual Workforce Summit are in full swing and the anticipation of seeing so many colleagues in the psychiatric rehabilitation community is growing! As always, our Summit is poised to offer state-of-the-science sessions regarding best practices in our field, and is also a time to reflect on the future of our field. We have a chance to explore innovative adaptations that ensure our programs are contemporary and further build and extend our networks with our colleagues.

Our psychiatric rehabilitation community is unique in the diverse and multidisciplinary composition of our workforce. We have experience in social work, psychology, occupational therapy, or vocational rehabilitation. Some of us are individuals with lived experience as well as training in an academic discipline. As such, our roles in promoting recovery require that we advance beyond our introductory or graduate training. Continuing education is a cornerstone for our field, particularly as mental health policy, funding streams, and access to care continue to be challenged at the state and federal levels. The 2015 Workforce Summit is a singular example of how our community builds upon our strengths and continues to evolve to confront these challenges together. I am consistently engaged by the commitment all of you have made to promoting recovery and to consistently pushing for access to the best designed and evidence-supported programs.

For me, attending the Summit is not only a time to explore new programs and promote continuing education, but also a time of personal growth and revitalization. Each year, I return from the Summit having experienced something refreshingly unexpected. Generally, it is something personal in the experiences of other attendees from a workshop or conversation that continued over coffee about the vital role of psychiatric rehabilitation in promoting and supporting recovery. And most often, these discussions focus on the ways in which the training and talent of certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioners continue to grow. Clearly, we have supported the development and expansion of the CPRP and its influence on the workforce before similar recovery-oriented initiatives were conceived and launched by other associations. Likewise, our growing program in children’s mental health and our new designation of CFRP reflects our commitment to being at the forefront of new challenges for those within our community at any age.

That said it’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. The quality of the sessions slated for the 2015 Summit and the ongoing excellence of our Academy programming support lifelong learning and development for us all. I look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia!