CAC's Asthma Day Conference is targeted to clinical and community-health staff within the asthma space. It will address a broad range of knowledge base, but with interest in understanding how mental health impacts asthma.
Register Now — 2.5 CEU Credits Available!
- CAC Members: $25
- CAC Members - CEU: $35
- Non-members: $50
- Non-members - CEU: $60
- Students: Free! Please reach out to info@chicagoasthma.org to receive registration code.
Schedule
8:30AM – 9:00AM - Registration - Quick Start Breakfast available
9:00AM – Welcome / Introductions
9:20AM – Lexi Kacena, Emily R Simmons & Paige Larson "Identifying and Addressing Barriers to Asthma Care"
10:20AM – Break - Water & Coffee replenished
10:30AM – Dr. Sally Weinstein "Psychosocial Influences on Child Asthma Risk and Response to Treatment: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial"
11:30AM – Break
11:40AM – Dr. Lauren Swift "Breathe Easy, Feel Better: Integrative Approaches to Pediatric Asthma and Mental Health"
12:40PM – Wrap up - Boxed Lunches available
1:00PM – 1:30PM Networking
Presenters
Session 1: Identifying and Addressing Barriers to Asthma Care
Alexandra (Lexi) Kacena, APRN-NP, CPNP-PC
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner - High Risk Asthma / General Pulmonary, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
LinkedIn
Lexi has been working within the Pulmonary Division at Lurie Children's Hospital since 2020. She first worked as a registered nurse in Pulmonary and now she is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner within the High-Risk asthma program. She has a passion for working with patients with severe asthma who have required intensive care admissions for their breathing. She currently is the Director of the Mobile Health Program at Lurie, bringing specialized asthma care to her patient's communities. Lexi and her team are dedicated to providing compassionate care to this venerable patient population.
Emily R. Simmons, APRN-NP, CPNP-PC
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Pulmonary Medicine; Clinical Director, High Risk Asthma Clinic; Clinical Director, Mobile Asthma Clinic
Emily began her career in 2005 providing care to medically complex children. She is dedicated to helping families identify a cause for their child's respiratory problems. She has a passion for severe asthma, and those patients who have required overnight stays in the hospital for asthma. Emily and her team offer children with severe asthma a clinic focused only on severe asthma. Even though her main focus is asthma, she helps families identify why their child has respiratory problems.
Paige Larson
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Paige Larson is a licensed clinical social worker that has been working with Lurie Children’s Hospital’s High Risk Asthma population since August of 2022. Prior to that she was the primary inpatient pediatric social worker for the general medicine population and the pediatric intensive care unit at Loyola University Medical Center. Paige has experience in the Illinois Army National Guard where she previously served as an Executive Officer of a ground ambulance company before transitioning to her new role as a Behavioral Health Officer with an Area Support Medical Company. She attended the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Jane Addams College of Social Work where she gained experience in resource assessment, care coordination and psychiatric treatment through internships at Illinois Masonic Medical Center and Lurie Children’s Hospital. Prior to her professional career she worked in her home state of Nebraska providing vocational and educational skills to youth in the juvenile justice system.
Session 2: Psychosocial Influences on Child Asthma Risk and Response to Treatment: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial
Dr. Sally Weinstein, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, University of Illinois Chicago
Sally Weinstein, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Associate Director of the University of Illinois Center on Depression and Resilience (UICDR). Dr. Weinstein is engaged in programs of research investigating the psychosocial treatment of children with bipolar disorder, the assessment and treatment of suicidality within pediatric bipolar disorder, and the influences of parent and child psychosocial factors on pediatric health conditions. In addition, Dr. Weinstein provides clinical evaluations and treatment for children and adolescents with mood disorders; facilitates the RAINBOW group therapy program for children with bipolar spectrum disorders and the Teen Girls Depression Group; and is the Director of Psychosocial Training in the Pediatric Mood Disorders Clinic at UIC.
Session 3: Breathe Easy, Feel Better: Integrative Approaches to Pediatric Asthma and Mental Health
This talk will review the prevalence of mental health conditions for children with asthma, especially anxiety and depression, and the interaction of mental health and asthma symptoms. The importance of assessing and intervening for mental health concerns and recommended screening tools will be discussed. Finally, basic mental health interventions appropriate for children with asthma will be covered.
Dr. Lauren Swift, PhD
Pediatric Psychologist, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Lauren Swift, PhD, is a Pediatric Psychologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Swift graduated with a PhD from the University of Delaware and completed her clinical training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia prior to settling in the Chicago area. She has particular expertise in multidisciplinary approaches to behavioral health, treating mental health difficulties in chronically ill children, coping with medical illness/treatment, and brief integrated intervention models. Dr. Swift works on the inpatient medical floors at Lurie Children’s, offering tailored support and multidisciplinary approaches to address the unique challenges facing hospitalized children and their families.
*2.5 CEU Credits available for the following certifications:
- Universal credits
- Licensed Social Workers/Licensed Clinical Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Registered Nurses
- Physical Therapists
- Occupational Therapists
- Speech-Language Pathologists/Audiologists
- Nursing Home Administrators
- Respiratory Therapists
CEUs provided via Oakton Community College/ Alliance for Lifelong Learning/ Continuing Education for Health Professionals; Oakton/ALL/CEHP has been approved as a sponsor of continuing education by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR).
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