Forensic Psychiatry Steps into the Social Media Age

Regular followers of this blog know that every year about this time I put up a series of posts entitled "What I Learned." The purpose of the posts is to give people a peek inside the annual conference of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law as well as some exposure to the kind of topics forensic psychiatrists are interested in. General psychiatry residents may find it helpful, particularly if they are considering a career in forensic psychiatry and if they can't afford to travel to the conference. Our organization, AAPL, is an international group with members from Canada, the UK, Australia, and South America. Our international members deserve to see what's going on, as well.

This year, we will boost our international presence by livestreaming a select number of presentations through the Meerkat mobile app. Here is a schedule of the presentations we will stream. Directions on how to use Meerkat are below. In addition, select AAPL members have volunteered to moderate questions on each presention through Twitter. Hashtags will be announced through Meerkat, Twitter, and slides at the actual presentation. We've never tried this before, and we are all volunteers rather than professional videographers, so there may be a few snags or hitches but overall we're hopeful people will find it educational and fun. The conference begins on Thursday, Oct 22nd and continues through Sunday.

Here's the schedule:

Thursday 8:00-10:00	Graham Glancy  Witness Protection Program: A Matter of Training
Thursday 10:15-12:00	Ken Appelbaum The New APA Guidelines on Correctional Psychiatry
Thursday 2:15-4:00	Ryan Wagoner The Psychiatrist in Peril: Current Topics in Malpractice
Friday 8:00-10:00	Tobias Wasser  Novel Approach to Teaching Residents About Violence & Safety
Friday 8:00-10:00	Drew Kingston PhD  The Relationship Between Mental Illness and Violence
Friday 10:15-12:00	Caitlin Costello  Adolescents and Social Medica: Privacy, Brain Development and Law
Friday 10:15-12:00	Robert Forrest  Treatment of Transgender Inmates
Friday 4:15-6:15	Rosa Negron Munoz  Educational Factors Contributing to Juvenile Delinquency
Saturday 10:00-12:00	Madelon Baranoski  Role of Forensic Psychiatry in Veteran Evaluations
Saturday 2:15-4:00	Anna Glezer  Myths and Realities of Women in Prison
Saturday 2:15-4:00	Jennifer Piel  What Gets Judges in Trouble?
Saturday 4:15-6:15	Keith Stowell  Forensic Issues in Emergency Psychiatry
Sunday 8:00-10:00	Hal Wortzel  TBI Update: International Collaboration on mTBI and DSM-5
Sunday 8:00-10:00	Stephen Simring  Forensic Psychiatry and the Death Penalty
Sunday 10:15-12:15	Lynn Maskel  Rock and a Hard Place: Debating Sexual Sadism Diagnosis

Here’s how you use Meerkat:

1. First, go to the app store, search for “Meerkat app,” and download it.
2. Meerkat will ask you to type in your phone number for verification. Then, they’ll send you a four-digit confirmation code.
3. Next, connect the app with your Twitter account. (If you prefer, you can skip this step and check the app out in stealth mode.)
4. If you don’t want to add friends, don’t connect your accounts. Simply scroll down and you’ll see anyone who’s live streaming right away. Keep scrolling for more.
5. Search for and follow @AAPL2015. We will have a schedule of streams posted each day. For simultaneous sessions, AAPL members may use their own Twitter accounts which we will announce. You can search for them on Meerkat as well.

This is all a tremendous experiment so I want to thank my colleagues, AAPL, and our viewers in advance for participating. I'm looking forward to your questions, comments, and discussion.

--ClinkShrink AKA @ClinkShrink AKA Annette Hanson, MD Program Co-Chair