Conference Notes
Ashley Durkee, M.A., & Amanda Surdock, M.A.

ABCT
November 13-16, the week after the Mental Health/Mental Retardation (MH/MR) Joint Conference, the Association for Behavioral and Cogni-tive Therapies (ABCT) held its 42nd annual national conference at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Flori-da. I was lucky enough to attend the convention as a representative of The Baddour Center and The University of Mississippi. The conference was a bit of a whirlwind, as I gave several presentations and also needed to spend my off-time with Mickey and Minnie.

There were a multitude of presentations given on various topics relating to therapy processes and mental illnesses. Of the most interest to me, of course, were the presentations on intellectual and developmental disabilities. Among the presentations in this session were several studies exploring social skills interventions in people with autism spectrum disorders. Similarly,another presentation explored the relationship between Asperger's Disorder and social skills deficits.

Additionally, there were two presentations by former and current Baddour Center interns! Former intern Carly Gardner and I gave a presentation examining the relationships between IQ, level of involvement in activities, and social acceptance by peers in individuals with varying degrees of intellectual disability. Fellow current intern Corinn Johnson and I also presented our findings related to the DSP support group that we began last year. As discussed in previous newsletters, initial findings indicate that participation in the groups may be related to decreased levels of job stress, increased self-confidence in ability to handle residents' challenging behaviors, and increased knowledge about behavioral interventions. At both the ABCT convention and the MH/MR conference, we have received a great deal of positive feedback and interest in our group curriculum. We hope to begin another round of DSP support group very soon!

Possibly one of the most exciting parts of my ABCT convention experience was getting the chance to see famous, influential psychologists in person. From across a room I was able to see Dr. David Barlow, one of the foremost researchers in the field of anxiety disorders. I also had the opportunity to meet the keynote speaker, Dr. Aaron Beck, who founded cognitive therapy in the 1960s (That's him in the picture with me on this page). All in all it was a great experience. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my research and learning about what other people in the mental health field are doing.

MH/MR
This November, we had the pleasure of attending the 27th Annual Mental Health/Mental Retardation Joint Conference in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was a three-day conference and speakerscame from all areas of mental health and intellectual disabilities. Two of the presentations came from the E&R department.

The first presentation, "Supporting Residents Through Supporting Staff: A Model for a Staff Support Group with Behavior Analysis Training", was given by Ashley Durkee and Corinn Johnson. They talked about the DSP groups they designed and ran, how and why they were developed, and the feedback provided by DSPs. People in the audience asked questions about how things had gone, how we would change things for future groups, and reported that they were excited by what we are doing at Baddour.

The second presentation, "Grief Group Therapy for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: Process oped, how we were changing things, and what the residents thought about the groups. The audience seemed impressed with these services and asked many questions.

In addition to our own presentations, we also had the opportunity to learn about things other people are doing around the state. One presentation I particularly enjoyed involved a recycling program in place at the Quail Run group home in Batesville. The clients in Batesville are recycling newspapers, aluminum and tin cans, as well as glass and plastic, and are using the profits to pay for treats! We were excited by the recycling program and hope that Tate County one day has the facilities that would allow us to participate in something similar.