Jessica Swan, Executive Director of Recovery Consulting and President-Elect of the Virginia Association of Addiction Professionals (VAAP), recently took the global stage at the 3rd International Conference on Addiction, Psychiatry & Neurology and Brain Disorders, held in Rome, Italy, on November 18-19, 2024. Organized by SCIsynopsis LLC, the conference convened researchers, clinicians, and educators from around the world under the theme, “Mental Health Resilience: Navigating Addiction in a Changing World.” Swan delivered two keynote addresses, standing alongside esteemed international experts, including Angé Weinrabe from the University of Sydney, Kerstin Liesenfeld from the Leisenfeld Institute in Germany, and Derick Lindquist from Jindal Global University in India.
“This international conference was important because we gathered as a multidisciplinary symposium in addiction, psychiatry, neuroscience, and other brain sciences to educate each other on our respective research areas,” Swan shared. “The shared knowledge allows us to connect and improve programming, scholarship, research, and implementation of new ideas across the globe.”
On the conference’s opening day, Swan addressed the role of families in addiction treatment. Her keynote explored how clinical outcomes improve when families are actively engaged in the recovery process and how evidence-based practices like family therapy and psychosocial education can be used to strengthen addiction treatment services. She discussed the longstanding challenges clinicians face in effectively integrating families into treatment and offered practical solutions for building family-based programs that support both patients and their loved ones.
The following day, Swan delivered a second keynote on reframing codependency through a trauma-informed lens. Drawing on family systems theory and ecological systems theory, she challenged traditional notions of codependency, offering insights into how families’ responses to addiction are often rooted in trauma. By identifying the similarities and differences between trauma responses and codependent behaviors, Swan emphasized the importance of understanding family dynamics in a way that fosters healing and resilience. Her work highlights how treatment providers can move beyond stigmatizing language to address the deeper needs of families navigating addiction.
“I brought the unique perspective of the applied sciences,” Swan said, “offering a theoretical framework for attendees to understand family and addiction better, reduce stigmatizing and labeling language, and ultimately, view family and addiction in the context of culture and trauma.”
Swan hopes her presentations will spark change on a global scale. “I hope participants can take what they’ve learned back to their universities and organizations to help local communities develop new programs for families affected by addiction,” she said. “The goal of our work at this conference was to share knowledge and, through sharing, grow as scholars and practitioners while integrating new ideas across the globe.”
The conference, which featured keynote addresses, oral presentations, and workshops, was hailed as a resounding success. With its focus on collaboration and innovation, the event fostered meaningful exchanges that will shape the future of addiction treatment worldwide. Jessica Swan plans to continue her global advocacy, with plans to attend the 4th International Conference on Addiction & Psychiatry in Vienna, Austria, in September 2025.
To learn more about the conference and its mission, visit SCIsynopsis Conferences.