Frequently asked questions
CAPA Conference

As it’s the first time we’ve hosted the CAPA International Conference we imagine there are questions about the intention of the conference.  We’ve tried to anticipate some of those questions.  Please reach out with ones we’ve missed.  If you have a question, someone else is probably wondering the same thing. We’ll up-date the FAQs when we have new information to share.      

Who can submit a contribution to the conference?
We are invested in interesting workshops, panel discussions, and presentations that are directly relevant to your work and that offer an opportunity to think about ideas in new ways.  We encourage you to share experiences (with or without data) and ways of working that others might be able to incorporate into their practice, too.  We are especially interested in presentations submitted together with clients, caregivers, and other stakeholders – like community partners - so we hear and learn about their experience of joining with us in care. We are hoping that you or your team members will contribute to the conference through the request for contributions process.  

May I invite a client or family member to join?
Yes! They are welcome to attend. We want to include clients and families.  There are many ways they can be involved including presenting or attending any of the sessions.  We are looking forward to thinking together about the ways we provide mental health care.  

Is this conference just for clinical staff?
No. CAPA informs all parts of the way we work together in our system.  This includes the important roles that non-clinical staff play in our system and the innovation and expertise they bring. This could include how we share information with families before they come to an appointment, how we strive to ensure all our appointments are filled, or how we think about organising the way that teams work together. We want our administrative and support staff, leaders, and managers to be part of the conversation so we can think together about how we provide the best care possible to clients and caregivers.  

I see that you have broken the conference into three afternoons to help people fit this into their busy schedules. How will those short sessions be used?
We know that a lot of time on Zoom is hard.  People have a lot of important demands on their time. In order to keep focus and balance work commitments we have 3 afternoon sessions planned.

Day 1 features our two inspiring keynote speakers: Dr. Ann York, who co-developed CAPA, and Dr. Duncan Law, whose work focuses on the process of working with goals. The next two afternoons will have a variety of different options focused on ways to strengthen clinical practice and services in ways that matter to clients and families. We hope to have a wide variety of topics from teams locally, nationally, and internationally.  You will be able to choose topics and ways of learning that are most helpful or meaningful to you. 

What if our team isn’t using all the components of CAPA right now? 
The conference will provide a space for us to share experiences and knowledge from international teams who are using CAPA.  We hope it will be a time to consider our common values that places the client and caregiver at the centre of the work we do together.

CAPA can be a model of care that crosses all ambulatory, outreach, day treatment, and inpatient services. CAPA is focused on family-centred care and is both an approach to care and a method of organizing the care we provide.  Some teams will be working more directly with CAPA in all its forms than others. The conference will create opportunities to develop a shared understanding of CAPA and support our clinical practices. No matter where your team falls on that CAPA continuum, we’re hoping the conference can be a time to be curious about CAPA, deepen our understanding of the philosophy of care it represents, and provide practical ideas we can incorporate into our everyday ways of working together. 

Isn’t CAPA just about job planning? Why learn more about it?
CAPA is both a philosophy of care and a way of providing care. Job planning is just one of many tools that help us provide the type of care we strive for. There are a lot of mysteries and myths about CAPA.  We hope the conference will start conversations about what CAPA is and what it’s not.  We also know that we have work to do to keep bringing the values of CAPA to life in our work, and that there are times when CAPA feels difficult.  Our understanding of CAPA has grown considerably the more we work in this way, and we’ve no doubt there’s much left to learn. This is true of our international colleagues’ experience with CAPA as well. By learning together and sharing our experiences, we hope to deepen our knowledge of CAPA, continue to improve the work we do, and support one another.  

If we aren’t currently using CAPA with our team is this conference for us?
This conference will provide an opportunity for us all to reflect on our practices and help strengthen connections between teams.  We hope to learn from others around the world – understanding common challenges and unique ways to work. The values that are reflected in CAPA show up practically in ways like:

• Working collaboratively with clients, caregivers, and stakeholders so that we all understand the presenting concerns, best hopes, and options for change in the same way.
• Thinking about what a client experiences when they come for services and how we can make our care understandable, friendly, and collaborative. 
• Reflecting on the process of working with goals with clients and caregivers and ensuring we’re all focused on what’s important.
• Strengthening family-led decision making throughout their healthcare experience. 
• Discussing progress towards goals in ways that are open and transparent and making decisions based on these discussions. 
• Making the transitions between teams easy so that the goals a client is working on with one team transitions with them to the next team seamlessly.

Questions? Ideas?
We’d love to hear them – please reach out: CAPAConference@iwk.nshealth.ca