TN-NADD Conference 2022

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 2022 TN NADD conference hosted by the TN-NADD Board, the Inn at Opryland, and the UT-Knoxville virtual team. Our theme this year is Heal the Hurt Within the Heart: The Art of Healing Through Trauma-Informed Care. It is now not uncommon for a universal trauma screening to be completed when we come into contact with a healthcare professional, but how well have we integrated and leveraged strengths of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities to improve well-being vs treating symptoms of trauma. Persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities are far more likely to experience and have experienced more traumatic events for years, and for years they have been overlooked; “Johnny doesn’t understand it anyway.” Our approach to provide adequate support (healing) has been one of slow gradual improvement; it has been a process. This year we will learn how to make a lasting impact on those who have experienced trauma through developing meaningful relationships and engaging caregivers, while at the same time taking care of ourselves from secondary trauma. We have the science, we have the tools, we have the resources; but we also need to integrate these with compassion, nonjudgement,  and allow for autonomy.

Frontier Health is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.  Frontier Health maintains responsibility for this program and its contents.  In this conference, there are a total of 12 possible trainings available; however, the maximum number of trainings any single participant can attend is 6 due to the overlapping schedule for breakout sessions.  In order to receive 1 hour of CE credit for any training, the virtual participant must log in on time, remain logged in throughout the training, and complete the post-training evaluation afterwards. Technical challenges that prevent continuous access will be handled on a case-by-case basis with the emphasis being placed on ensuring that the participant was able to satisfy the learning objectives. The in-person participant must also check-in on time, and remain present throughout the training, and complete the post-training evaluation afterwards. Partial credit for any individual training is not available.  For the whole conference, the maximum number of CE credits available for any single participant is 6.  Therefore, participants may earn as little as 1 hour of CE credit and as much as 6 hours of credit. The same policy applies to the remaining professional disciplines regarding logging in and out of sessions virtually.

Your Feedback is critical to us. We want to hear from you regarding how we did. By providing feedback you help us know what worked and what changes are needed for future conferences. Please take a minute to complete the conference evaluation and completing the conference survey.