DSM-5 and Cultural Formulation:
From Theory to Practice in Working
with Latino Immigrants
Friday, April 10, 2015 9:00 am – 4:30
pm at MSPP
Sponsors: Lucero Latino Mental Health Program and the Center for
Multicultural and Global Mental Health at the Massachusetts School of
Professional Psychology
Conference Coordinator:
Mari Carmen Bennasar, PsyD, Director, Latino Mental Health Program
Keynote Presenters:
Roberto Lewis-Fernández, MD,
Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center and Director, New
York State Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence and the Hispanic
Treatment Program
Michelle Contreras, PsyD,
Director, MA in Counseling Psychology in Global Mental Health, MSPP
Nilda M. Laboy, PsyD,
Chair, Counseling Psychology Department, MSPP
This
conference will provide a unique forum to discuss pressing socio-political and
mental health issues related to immigrant Latino populations and their
implications for services. Dr. Lewis-Fernandez will focus on the impact of
culture in changes to DSM-5 and how to incorporate cultural information into
diagnostic practice through the use of the Cultural Formulation Interview
(CFI). Presenters will address the political and social circumstances of recent
migrations from Central and South America. We will outline the intersecting
concerns and vulnerabilities of these immigrants within a life course theory
frame. The view of the US as a promised land for the Central American refugees
will be contrasted with the mainstream media view of the refugees as diseased
and burdensome. The reality of minors arriving to reunite with family members
will be explored. Implications for treatment of both unaccompanied refugee
minors and domestic sex trafficked minors will be discussed.
Program Code: LMH15
6 CE Credits
Fee: $135
Mari
Carmen Bennasar, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist with psychodynamic background and
specialty training and experience in Behavioral Medicine. Born and raised in
the Dominican Republic to Spaniard immigrants, she moved to the United States
in 1986. Dr. Bennasar has an equivalent to a MA degree (Licenciatura) from D.R.
and was granted a PsyD degree by Nova Southeastern University in 1993. Dr.
Bennasar interests include a variety of populations and settings such as
working with children and adults with issues of complex trauma, anxiety
disorders, and substance abuse; psychological testing; disaster mental health;
and student training, supervision and mentoring. Dr. Bennasar is actively
involved with the American Psychological Association (member of Division 45/
diversity issues and Division 35/ women's issues), the National Latino
Psychological Association and is a working member of CRSPPP (Committee for the
Review of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional psychology). Dr.
Bennasar was the Associate Director of the Center for Multicultural Training in
Psychology at Boston University Medical School for 14 years, and has been in
private practice in Southborough, MA for 20 years. Dr. Bennasar is the MSPP
Associate Director of Field of Education for the PsyD program and is the
Director of the Lucero Latino Mental Health Program.
Michelle
Contreras, PsyD, is a
core faculty member in the MA Counseling Psychology Department and Director of
the MA in Counseling Psychology in Global Mental Health. Dr. Contreras earned
her PsyD in Clinical Psychology from MSPP, she also holds a Psychology
Licentiate Degree from Universidad Rafael Landívar conferred in Guatemala. She
has authored several publications on trafficking and speaks and consults on the
psychological consequences of human trafficking. Dr. Contreras was a member of
the APA’s Presidential Task Force on the Trafficking of Women and Girls. Her
scholarship on feminist concerns has been widely recognized. Most recently, the
APA’s Committee on Women in Psychology gave Dr. Contreras the Emerging Leader
for Women in Psychology Award.
Nilda M. Laboy, PsyD, is the
Chair of the Counseling Psychology Department at MSPP. She obtained a PsyD in
clinical psychology at the Carlos Albizu University (San Juan, PR). She
completed advanced training in forensic psychology at the University of
Virginia Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. She is licensed as a
psychologist in MA, and as a clinical psychologist in Virginia; certified as a
health services provider in MA and in the National Register, and certified as a
sex offender treatment provider in Virginia. In addition, she is a trained mediator.
Dr. Laboy's volunteer work has included being an evaluator for Physicians for
Human Rights. She is also an intermittent federal employee with the National
Disaster Medical Services, Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) MA-1 from
Boston, where she is one of a handful of mental health professionals on the
team. She participated in the screening of unaccompanied refugee minors in the
summer of 2014 in Oklahoma.
Roberto Lewis-Fernández,
MD, professor of
psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the New York
State Center of Excellence for Cultural Competence, and the Hispanic Treatment
Program, at New York State Psychiatric Institute, received his M.D. from Yale,
a Masters of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School, and training
in medical anthropology at Harvard. His
research is focused on developing culturally valid interventions and instruments
to enhance patient engagement, reduce misdiagnosis, and help overcome
disparities in the care of underserved cultural groups, especially
Latinos. He is Chair of the Cultural
Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, President-Elect of
the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture, and Immediate Past
President of the American Society of Hispanic Psychiatry. He was until recently a member of the NIMH
National Advisory Mental Health Council and Chair of the Cross-Cultural Issues
Subgroup of DSM-5.