Postpartum Support International 2020, Annual Conference

This conference was scheduled to take place in New Orleans, but due to COVID-19, was offered via ZOOM Inc., and it was superb. PSI and Parthenon, did a wonderful job in making it all happen virtually.

The Virtual Conference Experience
This is my 4th PSI Annual Conference. They were in  Philadelphia (2017), Texas (2018), Portland (2019), New Orleans (2020, cancelled and went online). First, I thought that ZOOM was incredible in how they could set up sessions where the panelists/presenters speaking could be seen if their videos were on, but none of the attendees could be seen. The chat function was optional for the presenter to view (I chose to have mine off until the end so I wasn't distracted when I was presenting). Parthenon and the PSI Staff had their videos there too to support the presenters, but they weren't visible to the attendees. I found the ease of coming in and out of sessions, jumping back in, etc., to be so user-friendly. The presenters and attendees were not disrupted by my logging in or out of a session. The virtual environment also made it so that many more delegates from around the world could join without needing to be away from home and travelling. It was more accessible, affordable, and convenient. Those who attended have full access to all the videos and all the slides so are able to watch all the ones they missed or want to see again. Some were so good that I want to watch them again and take better notes. The caliber of the presentations are exceptional and I feel proud to have been part of the presentations. I was involved in 3- all focused upon maternal infanticide/filicide and the criminal justice system/expert witness. I've been involved in this work since 2016 in Canada and my greatest mentors are from PSI. I feel very fortunate.

The drawbacks of the virtual environment was whether presenting or as an attendee, there were no visual or audio cues from anyone except the moderator. Questions would be posted in the chats and feedback, but there wasn't that same sense of connection during the sessions. But, as I remarked in my session on the last day, I still felt very connected to my colleagues and peers. There was a lot of social media where folks posted pics of sessions they went to, and general posts to eachother. I met a few others and connected over email with them, so it still worked. But, I miss the happy hour and great meals and the informal hanging out we do at our face-to-face. But, we will be in person in 2021 in New Orleans so I look forward to that!

Image
This was one of the slides in my presentation about research on the experiences of perinatal expert witnesses. It is a quote by Grace Andren in her book Speaking in Tears.

Overall Inspired
Being in the company of like-minded individuals across the globe sharing wisdom about maternal and parental mental illness warms my heart and fills me with inspiration. One woman introduced herself to me who had suffered a psychotic episode many years ago and tragedy of her taking the life of her baby befell. She's shares her story to educate others and to help in gaining more compassion for mothers in these terrible circumstances where they are victims of their mental health.

I also attended a session about Parent-Infant Psychotherapy-- very apropos since I'm starting a training--Perinatal/Infant Mental Health - Using a Relationship-Based Approach to Perinatal Mood Disturbance through the Centre for Perinatal Psychology in Melbourne, Australia. I'm very excited as it is a paradigm shift to a parent-infant psychotherapy lens. Can't wait to enhance and develop new skills to work in this capacity.