March 6, 2025

Ottawa Network for Borderline Personality Disorder

Free Public Lecture

Understanding the Good Psychiatric Management (GPM) approach to BPD

Deanna Mercer, MD FRCPC psychiatry
Heidi King, MD FRCPC psychiatry

Summary

Good Psychiatric Management is the result of 40 years of research and clinical experience by John Gunderson and colleague Lois Choi-Kane from Mclean Hospital and Harvard University. This treatment approach performed as well as DBT in a large randomized controlled trial (McMain 2009), and is taught to psychiatrists and mental health clinicians across North America.

This talk will help family members understand the GPM approach to BPD including: the central role of interpersonal hypersensitivity, prognosis, common myths about BPD, common mental illnesses associated with BPD, and the role of family based interventions.

The Lecturers

Dr. Deanna Mercer completed psychiatry residency at McMaster University in 1996. Early in her career she developed a passion for helping people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and for 25 years has provided Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to people with BPD in rural and urban centers. She is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa and Psychiatrist with the CMHA Ottawa DBT program. She has delivered more than 250 presentations on BPD and the treatment of BPD, locally, provincially, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Heidi King graduated medical school from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2009 and subsequently moved to Ottawa to complete her psychiatric residency. While training, Dr. King was fortunate enough to be supervised by Dr. Deanna Mercer and it was there that she began to develop an interest in working with patients with borderline personality disorder. In 2014, Dr. King joined the Department of Psychiatry at the Ottawa Hospital, working in inpatient psychiatry (Civic and Montfort sites), outpatient psychiatry (special interest in neurological disorders), shared care psychiatry, psychiatric emergency services and consult-liaison psychiatry. Dr. King has consulted for the military as part of the Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centre, and now is the Lead Psychiatrist for the Montfort's Borderline Personality Disorder Program. Aside from clinical work, Dr. King has a passion for educating patients, families, psychiatry residents, medical students and other clinicians about the treatment of BPD.

Registration

Date: Thursday, March 6, 2025 | 7:00 PM

This Public Lecture is free of charge and open to all. It will be a digital event offered via Zoom. Advance registration is required. Click here to register.

The Ottawa Network for Borderline Personality Disorder is a registered charity for family members and caregivers.