Psychosocial Treatment of Schizophrenia
Program Description
Schizophrenia continues to be one of the most common and most disabling disorders in the
mental health service system. This workshop will provide an overview of schizophrenia and
explore recommended psychosocial treatment approaches and evidence-based practices. The
presentation will show how research findings can inform real-world practice.
Objectives
Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:
 Describe the current knowledge about the illness including clinical presentation, risk
factors, and etiological theories;
 Discuss the experience of a person dealing with schizophrenia through case study, video
clips, and clinical vignettes;
 Explain the family experience of schizophrenia and effective ways to work with families;
 Discuss the psychosocial treatment modalities that research has shown to be the most
effective in fostering the recovery process;
 Identify some tools and techniques for working with the population with ample time for
case consultation.
Agenda
9:00-10:30
10:30-10:45
10:30-12:00
12:00-1:00
1:00-1:30
1:30-4:00
Schizophrenia: Illness and Experience
Break
Treatment Basics
Lunch Break
Working with Psychiatrists and other Medical Professionals: What Does
the Non-Medical Practitioner Need to Know?
Evidence-Based Practices: Psychosocial Treatments and Tools
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Family Psychoeducation
Social Cognition Interaction Training
Clinical Case Management
Barbara B. (Bebe) Smith, MSW, LCSW, is a clinical assistant professor in the School
of Social Work and an adjunct clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently project director for Critical Time
Intervention: Local Pilot and Statewide Championing, a new initiative funded by the Kate
B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. Critical time intervention is an evidenced-based intensive
case management model designed to assist persons with mental illness in making
successful transitions from homelessness to housing, or from institutions to communities.
She also teaches graduate students in the mental health curriculum.
She is a founder and former co-director of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community
Mental Health. From 1995-2009, she served as director of outpatient services for the
Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (STEP), a specialty clinical program in
the UNC Department of Psychiatry. In 2005, she and her colleagues Diana Perkins, MD,
MPH and David Penn, PhD collaborated on the creation of Outreach and Support
Intervention Services (OASIS), an early intervention program for young persons in the
initial phase of a psychotic disorder that was modeled after international programs in
early psychosis.
In her clinical and educational work, Bebe has focused on helping people with psychotic
disorders with interventions and strategies that are key to social work practice—family
psychoeducation, psychotherapy, case management and self-empowerment.
Underpinning these strategies is the relationship, a key to engaging persons with
psychotic disorders in meaningful treatment, and in meaningful communities. She has
also been a strong proponent of the team approach to care and community collaboration.
Bebe graduated from Vassar College with a BA in English in 1984, and received her
MSW from the UNC School of Social Work in 1993. She worked as a volunteer in a
psychiatric hospital in England in 1984; and received some of her best training as a
graduate student at Club Nova, a clubhouse model program in Carrboro.