Photo courtesy of the USC Gould School of Law Oxford scholar and Yale law graduate Elyn Saks will discuss her struggles and successes with schizophrenia as the keynote speaker at a mental health conference May 16 in Oxnard, designed to focus on prevention and early intervention.

An Oxford scholar and Yale law graduate will come to Oxnard next week to discuss her struggles and successes with schizophrenia, as the keynote speaker at a mental health workshop designed to focus on prevention and early intervention.

The daylong workshop is free to the community. There's a $25 fee for professionals in continuing education, who can earn six credits by attending.

"I'm going to talk about my history with schizophrenia, punctuated with passages from my book," said Elyn Saks, a USC law professor and author of "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness."

For more than 30 years, as she forged her career, Saks wrestled with uncouth visions, violent commands and suicidal impulses.

She hopes her keynote address on May 16 will dash some myths surrounding an illness that affects 3 million Americans.

"One of the things I like best about my book is that it gives people a window into the mind of someone who suffers," said Saks, whose book tells the stresses that mental illness places on personal and professional relationships, as well as how they can be overcome, giving hope and encouragement to others.

"It offers a way for people to recognize their illness and seek treatment," she said. "They're suffering unnecessarily."

Saks' talk will highlight "Prevention and Early Intervention: Beginning the Dialogue," a daylong workshop at Residence Inn by Marriott in Oxnard, presented by the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department.

The conference will be a kickoff event for the county's prevention and early intervention funding under the Mental Health Services Act, said Susan Kelly, MHSA manager at the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department.

"The development and implementation of preventative and early intervention strategies throughout our county will be felt by the community as a whole," Kelly said. "This provides the opportunity and funds to look at our system of care within the county, identify best and emerging practices, and implement them throughout the county."

In recognition of May as Mental Health Awareness Month, the Behavioral Health Department hosts an annual conference for mental health professionals, consumers and others to promote mental health.

"The day will be filled with information, professional presentations on best practice models emerging throughout the nation an overview on what MHSA prevention and early intervention funds will support, and guidelines to moving the planning process forward," Kelly said.

"The goal is to inform the community," she said, as well as to "create an awareness of mental health, provide stigma-reduction and offer professionals the opportunity to learn about some of the most recent advances in the area of mental health prevention strategies."

Speakers will include Will Rhett-Mariscal, an associate with the Center for Multicultural Development at the California Institute for Mental Health, who will present an introduction to prevention and early intervention.

He will provide an overview of these concepts and outline the community planning process required to establish and fund such projects in Ventura County, discussing the guidelines released by the State Department of Health.

Among other speakers, Sandra De Silva, a psychosocial treatment co-director at UCLA, will discuss how to identify youths at risk for developing psychosis, preventive steps that can be taken during this critical time and why early intervention is so important.

"There needs to be a greater awareness that there are steps that can be taken before one develops such an illness that can help to prevent the illness from coming on or improve outcome," De Silva said. "The ultimate goal is that clinicians will recognize the specific symptoms that suggest someone is at risk for developing psychosis and be able to adjust their treatment plan accordingly to best prevent symptoms from escalating."

Events like this are important, Saks said, because they make way for change.

"Conferences in general that bring people to together (are) a great way for people to gain more understanding," Saks said. "Events like this get different constituents talking and thinking and caring."