Panhandle Annual Conference 2024

In support of improving patient care, University of Nebraska Medical Center is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center designates this activity for 6.0 ANCC contact hours. Nurses should only claim credit for the actual time spent participating in the activity.

As a Jointly Accredited Organization, University of Nebraska Medical Center is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 6.0 general continuing education credits. The content level of this activity is intermediate.

Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs. This activity has been approved for 6.0 credit hours of continuing education credit.

Registration is now closed. If you need assistance with your registration or you have questions please contact Ann Kraft.

NOTE: Once you complete your registration, we will have your information available for check-in on June 14. You do not need to print a ticket. Please disregard Eventbrite messages about bringing your ticket, credit card, or downloading their app.

The Objectives of Making a Psychiatric Diagnosis: To Label or Not to Label?

Presenter: Sarah Fischer, PhD

Dr. Sarah Fischer is a licensed clinical psychologist at UNMC. Most of her clinical time is with the Active Support for Psychosis in Recovery (ASPIRE) clinic, with a smaller portion of her time in the Reproductive Psychiatry clinic. Her clinical and research training has focused on psychosis and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. This includes undergraduate work in the Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Center at IU Bloomington, graduate work in the Serious Mental Illness lab at UNL with Will Spaulding, a predoctoral internship at the Maryland VA in the Serious Mental Illness track, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Durham VA Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery (PSR) fellowship. She is passionate about ensuring that individuals who have experienced psychosis or have a serious mental illness can receive the best, most comprehensive care available, as well as creating opportunities for different health disciplines to come together to provide this care.

The Function and Dysfunction of Emotions: A Treatment-Focused Approach to Differential Diagnosis

Presenter: Peter C. Meidlinger, PhD

Dr. Peter Meidlinger was raised in central Nebraska and trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, completing his internship at the Durham VA Medical Center in Durham, NC.  He has been practicing as a psychologist in Nebraska since receiving his doctorate in 2017, with a focus on evidence-based interventions for PTSD, exposure-based treatment of anxiety disorders, as well as consistently providing dialectical behavior therapy.   He has a strong interest in training and has served as faculty for an accredited psychology internship since 2018, a supervisor with the UNL Clinical Psychology Training Program since 2018, and has been the director of their training clinic, the UNL Psychological Consultation Center, since 2022. 

Identifying The Impostor: Differential Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder

Presenter: Ryan McCann, MS, LIMHP, NCC

Ryan McCann is a psychotherapist with the Nebraska Medicine Department of Psychiatry for the last 3 years. He is the intake coordinator for the ASPIRE (Active Support for Psychosis in Recovery) subspecialty clinic for the treatment of psychotic disorders. Ryan was born in Bellevue, Nebraska, but spent time in the Azores, Texas, Guam, and New Mexico as a military dependent before returning to Bellevue. He graduated from Bellevue University with a Masters Degree in Clinical Counseling in 2012.

A Dynamic Overview of Differential Diagnosis and Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Presenter:  Amanda DeDiego, PhD, LPC, NCC, BC-TMH

Dr. Amanda DeDiego is an Associate Professor of Counseling at the University of Wyoming. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor practicing in-person and via telehealth with a specialty in complex trauma treatment. She has training in EMDR and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. She holds licensure in Wyoming and Colorado. She has over ten years of trauma-informed clinical experience treating mental health conditions, including trauma, personality, depression, and anxiety-related disorders. She also has an extensive record of health services research focused on addressing health disparities for underserved communities, including quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and program evaluation analysis.