Public Psychiatry Fellowship Annual Report  2007-08
Highlights:

In response to requests for consultations from psychiatrists planning on developing public psychiatry fellowship training programs at eight academic medical centers throughout the nation, the Public Psychiatry faculty has developed seven core elements which they view as essential for such a training program.  A manuscript describing these elements, entitled  “Core Elements of a Public Psychiatry Fellowship”,  has been  published in the July 2008 issue of Psychiatric Services: Ranz JM,  Deakins SM, LeMelle SM, Rosenheck SD, Kellermann SL: Core Elements of a Public Psychiatry Fellowship. Psychiatric Services 59: 718-720, 2008

In October 2007, the Fellowship was awarded the 2007 Lilly Reintegration Award, Education-First place.

Drs Ranz and Deakins guest edited a second section in the March 2008 issue of Psychiatric Quarterly entitled “The Role of the Medical Director in Public Mental Health Organizations”  The section contained three articles written by alumni Claire Henderson, Julie Maggi and Juliana Ekong.

Jeanie Tse, a second-year Fellow, is co-principal investigator on the Diabetes Co-Morbidity Initiative, which has received a $572,000 grant from the New York State Health Foundation to pilot a diabetes care program for people with serious mental illness. Participating agencies include the Institute for Community Living, The Bridge, F.E.G.S., William F. Ryan Community Health Center, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, Services for the Underserved, and Comunilife, with coordination by the Urban Institute for Behavioral Health. The pilot program includes a Diabetes Self-Management Workbook co-developed by Dr. Tse.
   
The 2007-08 class consists of 10 fellows working in a wide variety of settings. Three fellows are working at community-based agencies: Project Renewal, the Program for Psychiatric Outreach to the Homeless and Bowery Residents Committee. Three Fellows are working at Columbia University Medical Center, one in the Special Needs Clinic, one at the IOP, and a third at Washington Heights Community Service, conducting a funded research project examining the effectiveness of a modified behavior therapy in reducing risk of developing metabolic syndrome in Hispanic adults with severe mental illness.  Two fellows from the University of Toronto are placed at St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, one in the adult division and another in the child division. One Fellow is working in the outpatient department of Manhattan Psychiatric Center. One Fellow is working with Dr. Lloyd Sederer, medical director of  the NYS Office of Mental Health.

Activities and Awards of Alumni:

Hunter McQuistion is president, American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP), 2008–10. Stephanie LeMelle continues as Area II representative to the AACP Board.  Jules Ranz, Paula Panzer and Tony Ng are representatives-at-large.

Tony Ng is president of the American Association of Emergency Psychiatrists (AAEP). He is a member of the board of Mental Health America in addition to his AACP board membership.

John Bishof is 2008-09 President of the Oregon Psychiatric Association of the APA. He is also Associate Medical Director, Public Sector, NW Care Advocacy Center - OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions.

The following alumni are members of the  2007-8 Executive Council of the NY County District Branch of the APA: Hunter McQuistion is Treasurer, Tiffany Cummins is a Council Member and Andrew Kolodny is Assembly Representative

Sheku Magona is president, Jeanie Tse is president-elect and Osman Ali is immediate past president of the NY Chapter of the American Association of Psychiatric Adminstrators. Arkady Bilenko, Anna Skiandos and Allison Grolnick have become Councilors in the Chapter’s Executive Committee.

Claudia Sickinger is Program Coordinator-Elect, Westchester District Branch of the APA.
   
Zamir Nestelbaum became Vice Chairman and Residency Training Director, Department of Psychiatry, Caritas St. Elizabeth Medical Center, Boston, MA       

Mary Sciutto became Advisory Dean,  Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons           

Mary Barber became Director of Community Services at Rockland Psychiatric Center

Pam Weinberg became Senior Vice President for Clinical Services, PSCH

Esther Langer became Division Chief of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, Sound Shore Medical Cente in addition to Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Vernon Hospital.
                                           
Joseph Weiner became Chief, Division of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry, North Shore University Hospital/Manhasset and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He received the following awards: (1) Hospice Care Network’s Annual Team Award given to Long Island Jewish Medical Center’s Palliative Care Service for advancing hospice care. (2) Teaching Award, Department of Medicine, Long Island Jewish Medical Center (second receipt of this Award). (3) Visiting Professor Award, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (Second consecutive year). He also conducted a workshop on End-of-Life Prognostication and Communication in British Columbia, and multiple presentations throughout the US.     

Shane Spicer became Founding Medical Director of Center CARE Recovery at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.  This clinic, opened this year, is  the first licensed, medically-supervised outpatient substance abuse treatment program specifically designed for LGBT people in New York State.

Raj Parekh became Director of SF FIRST (San Francisco Fully-Integrated Recovery Services Team, San Francisco, CA. The team’sjob is to provide outreach and case management services to chronically homeless individuals, but also to continue working with the most vulnerable of them toward recovery goals such as employment, community integrations, re-establishing or forming new relationships, pursuing hobbies, and pursuing greater spiritual fulfillment.

Giovanni Collela became CEO, Relay Health (https://www.relayhealth.com/rh/default.aspx), a company that provides “a secure, private way to communicate with your doctor online”. 

Avrim Fishkind became President and CMO, JSDA Health (http://jsahealthmd.com/Homepage.html), a company that provides “Telemedicine for Emergent, Urgent and Routine Psychiatric Care”. He is also currently President of American Association of Emergency Psychiatrists (AAEP) through October 2008.

Rose Yu-Chin became Associate Clinical Director, Manhattan Psychiatric Center - Supervising Psychiatrist of STAIR Unit
   
Ayodeji Somefun and Matthew Perkins were the first two fellows to graduate from the Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH) supported by the Dorothy Dix Fellowship, created specially for Public Psychiatry Fellows.  Olusegun Bello, Sheku Magona,  Rob Andrews and Denise Leung are all currently enrolled in the MSPH Dorothy Dix Fellowship.

Page Burkholder Page became Medical Director, Chem Dependency Program, Kings County Hospital

Mercedes Brito became senior psychiatrist, Comunilife Inc, Bronx NY

Hunter McQuistion became Chairperson, Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) on “Substance Abuse Treatment with People Who are Homeless;” U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Knowledge Application Program.  Product will be a practical guide for substance abuse counselors to effectively treat substance abuse in homeless populations and for their administrators to best support this effort.
           
Claudia Sickinger is Program Coordinator-Elect, Westchester District Branch, APA

Gertie Quitangon will become Unit Chief, Continuing Day Treatment Program, Bellevue Community Support Services in August.

Claire Henderson is principal investigator on two funded grants: (1) A  Multi-Family Group Intervention for OEF/OIF Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors and their Families. US Department of Defense, total cost $398,024, (2) A Modified Delphi Consultation: Implementing the VA Psychiatric Advance Directive. VA HSR&D, total cost $35,763. She is also co-applicant on a 1.9 million British Pound grant: CRIMSON Study (Crisis plan impact: subjective and objective coercion and engagement) Medical Research Council.

Publications:        
               
Henderson C, Swanson JW, Szmukler G, Thornicroft G and Zinkler M. A typology of advance statements in mental health care. Psychiatric Services, 59(1):63-71, 2008.
   
Jonathan Posner, M.D. Julia Eilenberg, M.D. Jill Harkavy Friedman, Ph.D. Mindy J. Fullilove, M.D. Quality and Use of Trauma; Histories Obtained From Psychiatric Outpatients: A Ten-Year Follow-Up. Psychiatric Services. 59:318-21   
Gertie Quitangon, M.D., Dinara Amanbekova, M.D., Sermet Demir, R.N.,   Fiona Mason, M.S.W., Vera Osipyan, M.S.W., Sara L. Kellermann, M.D.:  House Call to the Homeless:  the Role of the on Site Ppoh Psychiatrist in a Drop-in Center. 2007 IPS Poster:

Wolf-Klein G, Pekmezaris R, Chin L, Weiner JS: Conceptualizing Alzheimer’s Disease as a terminal medical illness.  American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine 24(1): 77-82 (2007).

Weiner, JS: Stage theory of grief [Letter] Journal of the American Medical Association 297(24): 2692-3 (2007)

Wallace MP, Weiner JS, Pekmezaris R; Almendral A, Cosiquien R, Auerbach C, Wolf-Klein GP: Physician Cultural Sensitivity in African American Advance Care Planning: A Pilot Study.  Journal of Palliative Medicine 10(3):721-7 (2007).

Hoffman M, Weiner JS: Is Mrs. S depressed? Journal of Clinical Oncology 25(19): 2853-6 (2007).

Seetharamu N, Iqbal U, Weiner JS: Determinants of trust in the patient-oncologist relationship.  Palliative and Supportive Care 5: 405-9 (2007).

Levin TT, Li Y, Weiner JS, Lewis F, Bartell A, Piercy J, Kissane DWl: How Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders are Utilized in Cancer Patients: Timing Relative to Death and Communication-Training Implications. Palliative and Supportive Care 6(4), 2008 (in press)

McQuistion HL, Rosenheck SD.  Heroes in community psychiatry:  C. Christian Beels and the evolution of community psychiatry in New York City.  Community Mental Health J 42 (6), 513-520, 2006

McQuistion HL:  Recovery, psychiatric education, and the future.
MIWatch.org.  Editorial, Feb 17, 2007

McQuistion HL: Book Review; Susser ES, Schwartz S, et. al.  Psychiatric Epidemiology: Searching for the Causes of Mental Disorders.  Psychiatric Services 59 (1), 121-122, 2008.

McQuistion HL, Felix A, Samuels, Serving homeless people with mental illness.  In Tasman A, Lieberman J, Kay J (eds), Psychiatry, 3rd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, London (Publication scheduled for May 2008)

McQuistion HL, Almeida C, Nossel I. Effective management of psychiatric crises in people who are homeless: from street to emergency department.  In Glick R, Berlin J, Fishkind A, Zeller S (eds) Emergency Psychiatry: Principles and Practice, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore MD (Publication scheduled for May 2008).

Gwynn RC, McQuistion HL, McVeigh KH, Garg RK, Frieden TH, Thorpe LE: Prevalence, Diagnosis and Treatment of Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder in New York City: a Multicultural Urban Environment.  Psychiatric Services (in press).

Appelbaum P, Le Melle S. Techniques Used by Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Teams to Encourage Adherence: Patient and Staff Perseptions. Community Mental Health Journal 2008 May; DOI 10.1007/s 10597-008-9149-4.

Nathanson, M. “Geriatric Mental Health: Diagnosis, Assessment and Treatment,” Chapters 4-6 in Howe, J., Sherman, A., and Toner, J.
(Eds.) Geriatric Mental Health and Emergency Preparedness: A Curriculum for Health Professionals. (2006). The Interuniversity Geriatric Mental Health Panel of the Consortium of New York Education Centers (CNYGEC).College of Nursing, New York University.

Hellerstein DJ, Bennett Staub A, LeQuesne ER. Decreasing the use of restraint and seclusion among psychiatric inpatients. J Psychiatric Practice 2007;13:308-317   

Hellerstein DJ. The disappearing patient. Medscape General Medicine 2007;9(3):34

Hellerstein DJ. Review of: The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Personality Disorders, Edited by John M. Oldham, MD, Andrew E. Skodol, MD, and Donna S. Bender, PhD., American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., Washington DC, in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 2007:44; 117-118

Hellerstein DJ, Batchelder S, Hyler S, Arnaout B, Corpuz V, Coram L, Weiss G. Aripiprazole as an adjunctive treatment for refractory unipolar depression. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 2008;32:744-750

Rutherford B, Hellerstein DJ. The humanization of medicine and the dehumanization of psychiatry. Academic Psychiatry 2008;32:in press

Arnaout B, Batchelder S, Rosenthal RN, Hyler S, Hellerstein DJ. Does a history of alcohol use disorder affect response to antidepressant medication in patients with dysthymic disorder? J of Dual Diagnosis 2008:in press
Hellerstein DJ: Supportive therapy of a depressed 49-year-old man. In: Approaches to the Psychiatric Patient, ed. John Barnhill. American Psychiatric Press, 2008:in press

Hellerstein DJ: Combining supportive psychotherapy with medication.  The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychotherapeutic Treatments in Psychiatry, ed. Glen Gabbard, section on Supportive Psychotherapy, section editor Arnold Winston. American Psychiatric Press 2008:in press

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Public Psychiatry Fellowship Annual Report  2006-07
Highlights:

Drs Ranz and Deakins guest edited a section in the June 2007 issue of Psychiatric Quarterly entitled “The Role of the Medical Director in Public Mental Health Organizations”  The section contained three articles written by alumni David Hellerstein, Sam Law and Andrew Kolodny.  A second section on the same topic will appear in a subsequent issue of Psychiatric Quarterly, with articles written by alumni Claire Henderson, Julie Maggi and Juliana Ekong.  

Hunter McQuistion was co-author of a newly published book,  The American Association of Community Psychiatrists' Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Mentally Ill Homeless Person. Besides Hunter, alumni Ralph Aquila, Elizabeth Oudens, Brian Bronson and Tony Ng wrote chapters in this book.

Mary Barber became editor of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health (AGLP's journal), co-chair of the GAP Committee on LGBT Issues, and a distinguished fellow of the APA,  She also produced a film  documentary:  Barber ME and Scasta DL, co-chairs, production team. Salzer A, director and producer, Salamon A, co-producer and editor. “Abomination: Homosexuality and the Ex-Gay Movement,” film documentary, 35 mins.

The 2006-07 class consists of 10 fellows.  Continuing a development first noted last year, the majority of Fellows did their residency training out of state. In fact, we have five fellows from other states (PA, IL, MI, and two from MA) as well as Montreal, Canada. For the first time, we have a fellow working in a Medicaid Managed Care organization. For the second year in a row, we have a fellow working at Kirby Forensic Center. Three Fellows are working in child psychiatry (two in school based) programs, three others in community-based programs, one at an HIV agency and another at the NYU/Bellevue Victims of Torture Program.



Publications:

Drs Ranz and Deakins guest edited and wrote the introduction to a section in the June 2007 issue of Psychiatric Quarterly:

Jules M. Ranz and Susan M. Deakins. The Role of the Medical Director in Public Mental Health Organizations.

The section consisted of the following three articles:

(1) David J. Hellerstein, Goretti Almeida, Michael J. Devlin, Nathaniel Mendelsohn, Stacia Helfand, Dianna Dragatsi,  Raquel Miranda, Julie R. Kelso and Lucia Capitelli: Assessing Obesity and Other Related Health Problems of Mentally Ill Hispanic Patients in an Urban Outpatient Setting.
(2) Samuel Law: The Role of a Clinical Director in Developing an Innovative Assertive Community Treatment Team Targeting Ethno-racial Minority Patients
(3) Andrew Kolodny: Psychiatrists as Administrators: The Perspective of a Mental Health Department Psychiatrist

   
Ranz JM, Vergare MJ, Wilk JE, et al. The Tipping Point From Private Practice to Publicly Funded Settings for Early- and Mid-Career Psychiatrists, Psychiatric Services 57:1640-1643, 2006

Tse  J, Strulovitch J, Tagalakis V et al. Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism. J. Autism Dev Disord
   
Gillig PM, McQuistion HL (eds). The American Association of Community Psychiatrists' Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Mentally Ill Homeless Person. American Psychiatric Press, Inc., Washington, D.C., 2006

The following alumni wrote chapters in the above book:
McQuistion HL, Gillig PM.  Introduction: mental illness, homelessness, and clinical practice.
Aquila R, Kelleher J, Sweet T. Housing.
Bronson B, Piette A.  Primary Care Settings
Oudens E,  McQuistion HL. Adult shelters.
Ng, A. Mobile Crisis Team,   


Perkins MB, Jensen PS, Jaccard J, et al. Applying Theory-Driven Approaches to Understanding and Modifying Clinicians' Behavior: What Do We Know? Psychiatr Serv 2007 58: 342-348

Tam C and Law, S. Best Practices: A Systematic Approach to the Management of Patients Who Refuse Medications in an Assertive Community Treatment Team Setting; Psychiatr Serv 2007 58: 457-459

Barber, ME. Today and tomorrow. In Drescher J and Merlino JP, eds.American Psychiatry and Homosexuality: An Oral History. New York: Haworth Press, 2007.

Magura S, Lee SJ, Salsitz EA, Kolodny AJ, Whitley SD, Taubes T, Seewald R, Joseph H, Kayman DJ, Fong C, Marsch LA, Rosenblum A. Outcomes of Buprenorphine Maintenance in Office-based Practice. Journal of Addictive Disorders. 2007; 26(2): 13-23.



Activities and Awards of Alumni:

The following alumni are members of the  2006-07 Executive Council of the NY County District Branch of the APA: Hunter McQuistion is Treasurer, Tiffany Cummins is a Council Member and Andrew Kolodny is Assembly Representative

Lisa Norelli is Chief of Psychiatry at Capital District Psychiatric Center. There are now 4 Alumni serving as clinical directors at state psychiatric centers (Pam Weinberg, Rosanne Gaylor, Stephanie LeMelle), and two more as chiefs of psychiatry  (Inti Ahmad, Lisa Norelli).

John Bischof is Chief Psychiatrist, Oregon State Hospital, through a newly created partnership with Oregon Health and Science University.

Joe Weiner is Chief of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at North Shore University Hospital/Manhasset.

Brian Bronson, in addition to being Director of CL Psychiatry at the New York VA, is now Director of Primary Care-Mental Health Integration for the NY-NJ Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN3).

Claire Henderson is Associate Director for Evaluation and Health Services Research VISN 3

Kevin Baill is director, ACT team, Providence Center, Providence, RI

Olivier Farmer is  Chief of Inpatient Psychiatry, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada

Steve Theccanat is Acting Chair and, continuing as Outpatient Behavioral Health Medical Director, Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ.

Andrew Kolodny is Advisory Board Member, New York State Office of Alcoholism & Substance Abuse Services and Associate Board Member, Physician's Reciprocal Insurance Company, NY



Board and Subspeciality Board Certifications:

William Cook - Ten year recertification for Adult Psychiatry

Vassilios Latoussakis - Adult Psychiatry

Andrew Kolodny -  American Society of Addiction Medicine

 
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Public Psychiatry Fellowship Annual Report  2005-06

Highlight:  Alumni make up a large percentage of the major professional committees in the New York metropolitan area:

The following alumni are members of the  2006-07 Executive Council of the NY County District Branch of the APA: Hunter McQuistion is Treasurer, Laura Dalheim and Susan Deakins are Council Members, Andrew Kolodny is Assembly Representative  and Scott Masters is Immediate Past President

Mercedes Brito is President-Elect (06-07) of the Bronx DB of the APA.

The following alumni are members of the Public Psychiatry Committee of the NY County District Branch of the APA: Andrew Kolodny (chair),  Dova Marder, Jorge Petit, Rose Yu-Chin, Osman Ali, Derek Tate, Meg Poe.

The following alumni are members of the 2006-07 Executive Committee of the NY Regional Chapter of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators: Rose Yu-Chin (president), Osman Ali (president-elect), Elizabeth Oudens (secretary), Anwar Ahad,  Richard Gersh (past president).

Stephanie LeMells is Area II (NYS) representative, American Association of Community Psychiatrists.    


The 2005-06 class consists of 10 fellows.  The most striking development is that, for the first time, the majority of Fellows did their residency training out of state. We have fellows from six states (CA, CO, LA, CT, MA, RI) as well as Montreal, Canada. Also for the first time, we have a fellow working at a forensic facility. Three Fellows are working in community based organizations, four in NYS facilities (two of them on inpatient units), two in NYC HHC programs and one at NY Presbyterian..

Publications:

Ali OM, Milstein G, Marzuk PM, "The Imam's Role in Meeting the Counseling Needs of Musim Communities in the United States" Psychiatric Services, 56:202-205, 2005.

Hassan A, Kuluva J: Arranged Marriage: A Socially Acceptable Form of Migration? Case Report and Cultural Formulation. Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 1:65–75, 2006

Markowitz JC, Skodol AE, Petkova E, Xie H, Chang J, Hellerstein DJ, Gunderson JG, Sanislow CA, Grilo CM, McGlashan TH. Longitudinal comparison of depressive personality disorder and dysthymic disorder, Comprehensive Psychiatry 2005;46:239-245
   
Kolodny AJ. Psychiatric consequences of methamphetamine use. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy. 2006; 10:67-72.

Kolodny AJ, Sederer LI. Brief Interventions for Alcohol Problems. City Health Information. 2005; 24(8): 51-58. 2005.

Wainberg MW, Kolodny AJ, Drescher J. Crystal Meth and Men Who Have Sex with Men: What Mental Health Care Professionals Need to Know. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 2006.
       
Yang, J Law S, Chow W, Andermann L, Steinberg R, and Sadavoy J. Best Practices: Assertive Community Treatment for Persons With Severe and Persistent Mental Illness in Ethnic Minority Groups.  Psychiatr Serv 2005 56: 1053-1055.

Kerker B, Bainbridge J, Li W, Kennedy J, Bennani Y, Agerton T, Marder D, Torian L, Tsoi B, Appel K, Gutkovich A. The Health of Homeless Adults in New York City: A report from the New York City Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene and Homeless Services, 2005.

Rotter, M, McQuistion, HL, Broner, N, Steinbacher, M. The Impact of the Culture of Incarceration on Reentry for Adults with Mental Illness: A Training and Group Treatment Model.  Psychiatric Services 56 (3), 265-267, 2005.

Caton CLM, Dominguez B, Schanzer B, Hasin DS, Shrout PE, Felix A., McQuistion HL, Opler LA:   Risk factors for long-term homelessness:  findings from a longitudinal study of first-time homeless single adults.  Am J Public Health 95 (10), 1753-59, 2005.
  
Ng, A.T.  Culturally Diversity Cultural Diversity in the Integration of Disaster Mental Health and Public Health: A Case Study in Response to Bioterrorism. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health. 7(1):23-31, 2005.

Ng, A.T. The Role of PES in Disaster: Toward a Closer Interface with Emergency Medicine. Psychiatric Issues in Emergency Care Settings. 4(2):11-18, 2005..

Ng, A.T. The Helper Who Needed Help. Psychiatric Issues in Emergency Care Settings. 4(2):19-22, 2005.

Ng, A. How 9/11 Changed My Life, In: Danieli, Y and Dingman, RL (Eds). “On the Ground After September 11”, Haworth Press, Binghamton, 2005.

Petit J, Sederer LI. Detecting and treating depressin in adults. City Health Information 25(1): 1-8. 2006

Petit J, Christman M, Paone D, Ramos S and Sederer LI. Changing the Landscape for the  Treatment of Depression in NYC. A policy paper for the Health Policy Institute.
 
Tse L: Research on Day Treatment Programs for Preschoolers With Disruptive Behavior Disorders. Psychiatr Serv 57: 477-486. 2006

Rudin SB, Volpp SY, Marshall RD.  Clinical Issues in the Psychopharmacology of PTSD.  In: Psychological Effects of Catastrophic Disasters: Group Approaches to Treatment.  LA Schein, HI Spitz, GM Burlingame, PR Muskin (Eds). New York: Haworth Press, 2006.

Weiner JS, Efferen LS: Recognition and communication: Essential elements to improving end-of-life care.  Chest
 127(6): 1886-8 (2005).

Weiner JS, Arnold R, Tulsky JA, Back A, Puntillo K: A call to research manualized approaches to palliative care     communication, Journal of Palliative Medicine 8(1): 184, 2005.

Weiner JS, Arnold R, Curtis JR, Back A, Rounsaville B, Tulsky J: Manualized communication interventions to enhance palliative care research and training: Rigorous, testable approaches. Journal of Palliative Medicine 9(2): 371-81, 2006.

Weiner JS, Roth J:  Avoiding Iatrogenic Harm to Patient and Family while Discussing Goals of Care near the End of Life, Journal of Palliative Medicine 9(2): 451-63, 2006.


   
Activities and Awards of Alumni:

Osman Ali is Secretary of AAPA NY/NJ/CT Regional Chapter. He is also Secretary/Co-founder of Muslim Mental Health, Inc., which will produce the Journal of Muslim Mental Health, in April 2006 published by Taylor & Francis/Routledge.

Michele Fallon Travers is Residency Training Director and Director of Admissions, Delaware Psychiatric Center.

Claire Henderson is Associate Director of Evaluation and Health Services Research, Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, New York/New Jersey Region, James J Peters VA Medical Center (Bronx)
                       
Andrew Kolodny has been appointed Vice-Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Maimonides Medical Center. He received an award for Outstanding Service to New Yorkers With Substance Abuse and Mental Disorders; NYC DOHMH; December 2005.  At the Annual Meeting of the APA in May 2006 he gave a speech and received an award for Contributions and Leadership in the Field of Administrative Psychiatry; AAPA.  He is a co-investigator on a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grant studying Substance Abuse, HIV, & Hepatitis Prevention for Minority Populations and Minority Reentry Populations in Communities of Color.  Contributions and Leadership in the Field of Administrative Psychiatry; AAPA, May 2006   

Esther Langer has been appointed  Chair, Department of Psychiatry, The Mount Vernon Hospital
       
Stephanie LeMelle has been appointed Clinical Director, NYS PI. She has also been elected Area II (NYS) representative, American Association of Community Psychiatrists.    
       
Bryan McGreal is  medical director of Bowery Residents Committee (BRC)

Hunter McQuistion received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 2005 (for work in criminal justice and mental health). He has been appointed Director, Division of Integrated Psychiatric Services, Dept of Psych, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center

Tony Ng  received an APA Special Presidential Commendation. He is on the Board of Directors - National Mental Health Association
 and a board member of the American Association of Emergency Psychiatrists
 
Jorge Petit received the Lilly Welcome Back Award for Psychiatry in 2005

Jeanie Tse received the following two awards: American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Elaine Schlosser Lewis Pilot Research Award in Attention Disorders, and the Gabrielle Weiss Prize. She presented a Poster for which whe won the CACAP Best Resident Poster awardat the Joint Meeting of the American and Canadian Academies of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Toronto, 2006: Tse J, Strulovitch J, Tagalakis V, Meng L, Fombonne E.  Social skills training for verbal adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. 

Serena Volpp is chair of the APA Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues

Joe Weiner was appointed to the Editorial Board, Journal of Palliative Medicine. He received Subspecialty Certification, Psychosomatic Medicine.                    


Board and Subspeciality Board Certifications:

Anne Bauer - American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry

Olusegun Bello -  Adult Psychiatry

Brian Bronson - Psychosomatic Medicine

Vanessa de la Cruz - Adult Psychiatry

Robert Doty - Adult Psychiatry

Claire Henderson -  Adult Psychiatry. Also completed PhD in Psychiatry at the University of London.

Julie Kelso - Adult Psychiatry

Joe Weiner - APA Committee on Psychiatric Administrative and Management, May 2004
   

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Public Psychiatry Fellowship Annual Report 2004-2005
Highlight: An extraordinary number of alumni  are currently serving in leadership positions in the New York metropolitan area,
including four Clinical Directors (plus one Director of Psychiatry) at the eight downstate Psychiatric Centers (*) and five alumni in high level positions in city and county agencies (**)

The Public Psychiatry Fellowship continues to attract outstanding Fellows as the premier Fellowship of its type in the country. For the first time ever, the incoming class of 2005-06 will have a majority (7 out of 10 ) Fellows coming from out of state, including Colorado, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Louisiana and Montreal, Canada. 

The Fellowship has invested a lot of attention to development of its alumni network over the past few years.  It is common for psychiatrists working in the public sector to  experience  feelings of isolation, lack of professional affiliation and marginalization within their organizations. The Fellowship has had considerable documented success in helping Fellows and alumni deal with these problems. It does so by providing them with a conceptual orientation and by offering the ongoing support necessary to sustain productive careers in the public sector. In most cases, the Fellows field placement becomes the first year of a public sector job.  Ongoing support is achieved by continued involvement in Fellowship activities after completing the one-year Fellowship, and includes individual presentations to subsequent Fellows, ongoing consultations with the faculty, group meetings and an e-mail network.  The faculty believes this ongoing support to be crucial to the success of the Fellowship.

An unusual development in 2004-05 is that three Fellows had, as field placements,  jobs they were working in before they applied to the fellowship. Two of these completed residency training more than 10 years ago.  Most Fellows have chosen  non-traditional field placements. Three Fellows are working in programs serving the homeless, 2 on ACT teams, 1 for Disaster Psychiatry Outreach  and 1 in a collaborative venture with child psychiatry.  Only 3 are working in hospitals, 2 on inpatient wards and 1 in an outpatient setting.


Role of the Psychiatrist:

The Fellowship continues to investigate the role of the psychiatrist as medical director in public agencies. Dr. Ranz conducted a survey examining Factors Impinging on Public Psychiatrists over the past Five Years. Two papers describing the results of this survey were published  this past year (see below)

Susan Deakins, Brian Bronson, Derek Tate and Julie Maggi  presented a workshop on "Mental Health Systems in Primary Care: A Public Psychiatry Fellowship's Experience" at last Fall’s IPS.


Publications:

Ranz J: Demographic analysis of members of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists.  Community Mental Health Journal 40 (5), 479-486, 2004)

Ranz J: Public psychiatrists’ perception of changes over the past five years. Community Mental Health Journal 40 (5), 487-494, 2004).

McQuistion, HL, Ranz, JR, Gillig, PM. A Survey of American Psychiatric Residency Programs Concerning Education in Homelessness. Academic Psychiatry 28 (2), 116-21, 2004.

Rotter, M, McQuistion, HL, Broner, N, Steinbacher, M. The Impact of the Culture of Incarceration on Reentry for Adults with Mental Illness: A Training and Group Treatment Model. Psychiatric Services 56 (3), 265-267, 2005.

Hwang TY, Kim YJ: Sheltered Workshop Program for the Mentally Ill People. The Bulletin of Yong-In Psychiatric Institute 11: 19-28, 2004

Lee JG: One Year Experience of Public Psychiatry Fellowshio of Columbia University in New York. The Bulletin of Yong-In Psychiatric Institute 11: 81-88, 2004

Ng, A.T. (2005) Culturally Diversity Cultural Diversity in the Integration of Disaster Mental Health and Public Health: A Case Study in Response to Bioterrorism. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health. 7(1):23-31.

Hall, M.J., Ng, A., Ursano, R.J., Holloway, H., Fullerton, C., Casper J. (2004) Psychological Impact of the Animal-Human Bond in DisasterPreparedness and Response.  Journal of Psychiatric Practices. 10(6):368-374.
Ali OM, Milstein G, Marzuk PM, "The Imam's Role in Meeting the Counseling Needs of Musim Communities in the United States" Psychiatric Services, 56:202-205, 2005.

Sederer LI,  Kolodny A: Office-Based Buprenorphine Offers a Second Chance. Psychiatric Services, 55: 743, 2004

Le Melle  SM and Entelis C: Heart Transplant in a Young Man With Schizophrenia. Am. J. Psychiatry, 162: 453 - 457.

Weiner JS, Cole SA: Emotional, ACare - A Communication Training Program for Shared Decision-Making along a Life-Limiting Illness. Palliative and Supportive Care 2: 1-11 (2004).

Weiner JS, Cole SA: Three Principles to Improve Physician Training for End-of-Life Care: Overcoming Emotional, Cognitive, and Skills Barriers to Communication with Seriously Ill Patients. Journal of Palliative Medicine 7(6): 817-29 (2004).

Hellerstein DJ. Aripiprazole as an adjunctive treatment in refractory major depression. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry 2004;28:1347-1348

Henderson C, Diez Roux AV, Jacobs DR, Kiefe CI, West D, Williams DR. (2005). Neighborhood characteristics, individual-level socioeconomic factors, and depressive symptoms in young adults: the CARDIA study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59(4):322-328.

Henderson C, Flood C, Leese M, Thornicroft G, Sutherby K, Szmukler G. (2004) Effect of Joint Crisis Plans on Use of Compulsion in Psychiatric Treatment: Single Blind RCT. BMJ, 329: 136-8.

Oquendo M, Dragatsi D. Protective Factors Against Suicidal Behavior in Latinos. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases. 193 (7): 438-443


Alumni Activities:

                    Awards and Association leadership

Pam Weinberg has been appointed a CMS (Centers for Medicaid/Medicare Services) surveyor

Hunter McQuistion became a Fellow in The New York Academy of Medicine in 2004. He received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 2005 (for work in criminal justice and mental health)

Osman Ali is Secretary of AAPA NY/NJ/CT Regional Chapter and Secretary/Co-founder of Muslim Mental Health, Inc.,which will produce the Journal of Muslim Mental Health, in April 2006 published by Taylor & Francis/Routledge.

Bryan McGreal is a member of the AIDS committee-NY district branch of the APA, and member-health care for the homeless provider network.

Jorge Petit is the recipient of the Eli Lilly 2005 Welcome Back Award in the Destigmatization Category.

Mary Barber completed her second term as president of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists and is now Immediate Past President. AGLP is currently in post-production on a documentary film on so-called reparative therapies, which seek to change a person from homosexual to heterosexual. The film project has received two grants from the William A.Kerr Foundation. Mary is co-chair of the film committee. They expect to complete the documentary by January 2006. It will be distributed free to gay advocacy groups and churches, and submitted to film festivals and cable television.. AGLP has also received a challenge grant from the Gill Foundation to help endow the John Fryer, MD Award. The Fryer Award will be an APA award givento any public figure who has made significant contributions to lesbian,gay, bisexual, and transgender mental health. The award will include an honorarium and lecture at the APA Annual Meeting. While still raising contributions toward fully endowing the award, AGLP hopes to present the first Fryer award in 2006.

                   New Program:

Danny Garza has created the Open Door (http://www.timeoutny.com/gay/511/511.gay.open.html), a counseling center for "LGBT folks form all corners of the world" at Elmhurst Hospital.

                   New management positions:

Bryan McGreal is agency medical director of Bowery Residents Committee as of 1/05.

Mary Barber is Clinical and Medical Director at Ulster County Mental Health Department.

Kenneth Mitchell is Area Medical Director, Metro Suburban Area of DMH in Massachusetts.
                       
Jorge Petit has been appointed Associate Commissioner, Bureau of Program Services, The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Bella Schanzer has joined  Jorge Petit, Hunter McQuistion  and Andrew Kolodny, all of whom are now working in high level positions at Division of Mental Hygiene of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygeine.

Joe Weiner has been promoted to Medical Director of the Palliative Care Service at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, an interdisciplinary program of the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry.

Arkady Bilenko is Director of Psychiatry at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY

Intikhab(Inti) Ahmad is Director of Psychiatry at South Beach Psychiatric Center


New Research Funding:

Joe Weiner has two foundation grants: (1) 2004-2006 United Jewish Appeal Foundation, to support an innovative training curriculum and mentorship program for hospital-based attending physicians to develop palliative care expertise, $225;000 over three years. (2) 2003-2005 Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, to support the inauguration of a palliative care program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, $354,000 over 24 months.


Presentations:

Page Burkholder (along with Peter Weiden and Michael Garrett) presented "Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Adults Who Are Diagnosed with Schizophrenia" for the 2005 HHC Best Practices Conference, Office of Behavioral Health


Joe Weiner has been very active, having made the following presentation this past year:

November 2004 Symposium Chair, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, Annual Meeting, "Molecules, Dilemmas, Decisions: Understanding the Terminally Ill Experience of Patients and Loved Ones." Marco Island, Florida.

November 2004 Symposium Presenter, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, Annual Meeting, "Structured, Testable Approaches to Medical Decision-Making Near the End-of-Life." Marco Island, Florida.

November 2004 Co-Host and Lecturer. Educational site visit to the Division of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at Long Island Jewish Medical Center from senior faculty of the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at Groningen University Hospital in The Netherlands. I hosted their activities in conjunction with my Program in the Patient Doctor Relationship and Palliative Care Program. The faculty, which included the Chair of Medicine, observed and participated in 3 hours of communication training for medicine interns, 1 hour of palliative care rounds, and 2 hours of a "train the trainer" seminar in medical decision-making near the end of life. We are discussing how to export my teaching methods to their University Hospital.

September 2004 Grand Rounds, North Shore University Hospital at Southside, "Improving communication with patients near the end of life." Long Island, NY.

May 2004 Grand Rounds, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, "Improving end of life care by addressing the needs of the healthcare provider: overcoming emotional, cognitive, and skills barriers." New York, NY

April 2004 Guest Speaker, Hospice Care Network, Annual Board of Trustees Meeting, "Overcoming the Clinician's Barriers to Hospice Discussions with the Terminally Ill." Long Island, New York.

March 2004 Grand Rounds, Stony Brook Medical School, Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry, "Overcoming Emotional Barriers to Good End of Life Medical Care." Stony Brook, NY

March 2004 Grand Rounds, Cabrini Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, "Psychologically informed communication with the medically ill." New York, NY.

February 2004 Grand Rounds, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, "Overcoming the clinician's emotional, cognitive and skill barriers to effective shared decision making near the end of life." New York, NY.

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Public Psychiatry Fellowship Annual Report 2003-2004

The Public Psychiatry Fellowship continues to attract outstanding Fellows as the premier Fellowship of its type in the country. Applicants in the past few years have come from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Washington DC, Texas, California and Oregon. This year we have Fellows from Canada, England and Korea.

Fellows continue to work in non-traditional settings in increasing numbers. This year’s class consists of  ten fellows. Two Fellows are working in programs serving the homeless, two in primary care settings, one at Fountain House, one at an Addiction Institute, and one at the NYC  Department of Mental Health. Only two are working in hospital-based outpatient settings.

The Fellowship continues to investigate the role of the psychiatrist as medical director in public agencies. After publishing three articles on surveys of Public Psychiatry Fellowship alumni, Dr. Ranz expanded his research through surveys of  the membership of two national organizations, the American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP) and the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators (AAPA). These surveys provided new and valuable information about the role of the psychiatrist as medical director in public agencies, and the results were published in three additional peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Ranz has completed a new survey of  the membership of the AACP examining Factors Impinging on Public Psychiatrists over the past Five Years. and two resulting papers have been accepted for publication this year in Community Mental Health Journal. Last year Dr. Ranz was asked to do a survey of the Medical Director’s Council of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). That survey has been completed and the results are being written up for publication.

Alumni now lead ALL the major local psychiatric associations:

Scott Masters is president of the APA NY District Branch, Andrew Kolodny is chair of the DB's Public Psychiatry Committee

Hugh Cummings is presidents of the APA Westchester District Branch.

Warren Ng is president of the NY Council of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Tony Ng is Area II Representative to the American Association of Community Psychiatrists

Richard Gersh is president, and Andrew Kolodny president-elect of the NY Chapter of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators

Publications:

Law S,  Hutton M, and Chan D: Clinical, Social, and Service Use Characteristics of Fuzhounese Undocumented Immigrant Patients;  Psychiatr Serv 54:1034-1037,  2003
    
Levin T, Weiner JS, Saravay SM, and Deakins S: Two-Year Evaluation of the Logic Model for Developing a Psycho-Oncology Service; Psychiatric Services 55: 427-433, 2004

Yu-Chin R:   Teaching administration and management within psychiatric residency training. Academic Psychiatry 26(4): 245-252, 2002

Weiden P, Burkholder P: Treating persistent psychosis with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Current Psychiatry, Vol. 2, No. 3, p 65-71, 2003

Petit, J: The Seven Beliefs - A Step-by-Step Guide to Help Latinas Recognize and Overcome Depression (April 2003)

Petit J: The Handbook of Emergency Psychiatry (September 2003)

Petit J: Las SieteCreencias, the Spanish version  of The Seven Beliefs, (March 2004).
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Grunebaum MF, Oquendo MA, Burke AK, Ellis SP, Echavarria G, Brodsky BS, Malone KM, Mann JJ. Clinical impact of a 2-week psychotropic medication washout in unipolar depressed inpatients. J Affective Disorders 2003; 75:291-296

Grunebaum MF, Galfalvy HC, Oquendo MA, Burke AK, Mann JJ: Melancholia and the probability and lethality of suicide attempts. Brit.J.Psychiat. 2004 Jun; 184(6); in press.

Hellerstein DJ, Biedermann G. Physician concerns with Schedule II central nervous system stimulants. Primary Psychiatry 2003;10(2):47-52

Hellerstein DJ, Batchelder S, Miozzo R, Kreditor D, Hyler S, Gangure D, Clark J. Citalopram in the treatment of dysthymic disorder. International Clinical Psychopharmacology 2004;19:143-148

Hellerstein DJ, Aviram R, Kotov K, Stanley BH. Beyond "Handholding": Supportive Therapy for Patients with Borderline
Personality Disorder and Self-Injurious Behavior. Psychiatric Times 2004, in press

Aviram RB, Hellerstein DJ, Gerson J, Stanley B. Adapting supportive psychotherapy for individuals with borderline personality disorder who self-injure or attempt suicide. Journal of Psychiatric Practice 2004;10: 145-155

Hellerstein D: Touching, in Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious: Reflecting American Culture Through Literature and Art, ed. Mark Robert Waldman, Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 2003

Laugharne R, Henderson C. (2004) Patient held records in mental health. Psychiatric Bulletin, 28: 51-52.

Henderson C, Liu X, Diez Roux AV, Link BG, Hasin D (2004). The effects of US state income inequality and alcohol policies on symptoms of depression and alcohol dependence, Social Science and Medicine, 58(3): 565-575.

Frost-Gaskin M, O'Kelly R, Henderson C, Pacitti R (2003). A Welfare Benefits Outreach Project to Users of Community Mental Health Services, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 49(4): 251-263.

Henderson C, Howard L, Wilkinson G. (2003) Acknowledgement of psychiatric research funding. British Journal of Psychiatry, 183(10): 273-275.

McQuistion, HL, Felix, A, Susser, ES.  Serving Homeless People with Mental Illness.  In Psychiatry, 2nd Ed. (Tasman, A, Lieberman, J, Kay, J, eds), John Wiley & Sons, London, 2003.

Nuttbrock, L, McQuistion, HL, Rosenblum. Broadening Perspectives on Mobile Medical Outreach to Homeless People.  J Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 14(1):5-16, 2003

McQuistion, HL, Finnerty, M, Hirschowitz, J, Susser, ES.  Challenges for Psychiatry in Serving Homeless People with Psychiatric Disorders.  Psychiatric Services, 54 (5), 669-76, 2003

McQuistion, HL.  Trauma and Tragedy in New York City (letter).  Psychiatric Services 55 (3), 318-319, 2004

Ng, AT,  McQuistion, HL.  Outreach to the Homeless:  Craft, Science, and Future Implications.  J Psychiatric Practice, 10 (2) 95-105, 2004.

Sickinger C: Chapter on the experience as a post 9/11 vounteer in "Disaster Psychiatry, by Disaster Psychiatry Outreach, published by  Analytic Press (May. 2004).

Sederer LI, Kolodny AJ. Detecting and treating depression in adults. City Health Information. 2004; 23(1): 1-8.

Wainberg ML, Kolodny AJ, Siever LJ. Personality Disorders.  In: Preskorn SH, Feighner JP, Stanga CY & Ross R, eds., Antidepressants: Past, Present and Future. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 2004, 489-515.

Kolodny AJ, McVeigh T, Galea S. A Neighborhood Analysis of Opiate Overdose Mortality in New York City and Potential Interventions: A Discussion Document, August 2003 (on file with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene).

Raby WN, Coomaraswamy S. (2004), Gabapentin reduces cocaine use among addicts from a community clinic sample., J. Clin. Psychiatry 65: 84-86.

Lee, JG., Lee, YS., Choi YS., Chang, HS., Yu, MY.(2003): The changes of the attitudes toward the mentally ill of the mental health professional trainees before and after the training course. Journal of Korean Association for Social Psychiatry 8 : 81-87.

Suh H, Bronson B, Martin R. Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome with Low-Dose Olanzapine, American Journal of Psychiatry, 2003; 160:796.

Panzer PG, Bloom SL:  Sanctuary Principles and Practice in Clinical Settings. Psychiatric Quarterly 2003;74(2):115-117.

Madsen L, Blitz LV, McCorkle D, Panzer PG:  Sanctuary in a domestic violence shelter: A team approach to healing. Psychiatric  Quarterly 2003;74(2):155-171.

Alumni Activities:

    Awards and Association leadership

Scott Masters is president, Molly Finnerty assembly representative, and Kevin Baill a member of the executive council of the APA NY District Branch.

Warren Ng is president of the NY Council of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Mary Barber received the 2004 Mental Health Program Award, given by Mental Health Association in Ulster County, Inc, for the Ulster County Mental Health Dept Assisted Outpatient Treatment Program.. Mary  is in her second 2-year term as  president of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists (AGLP).

Hunter McQuisition was elected Representative-at-Large, American Association of Community Psychiatrists. He is also Chair, APA Committee on Poverty, Homelessness, and Psychiatric Disorders

Richard Gersh is president of the New York Chapter of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators.

Andrew Kolodny (a current Fellow)  is a member of the Executive Council and  Chair of the Public Psychiatry Committee of the APA NYC District Branch (2004-07), president-elect of the New York Chapter of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators and a Fellow in the APIRE/Janssen Public Policy Leadership Program. Dr. Kolodny is the SIXTH Public Psychiatry Fellowship alumnus to be appointed to the prestigious Janssen Fellowship in it’s five years of operation.

 Tony Ng is chair of the American Psychiatric Association Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters.

Mara Fiorentino is president of the Argentine-American Medical Society.

Danny Garza received the 2004 Behavioral Health Staff Award from the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation Office of Medical and Professional Affairs. He is also Chair of  the Clinical Committee for Disaster Psychiatry Outreach.


    New management positions:

    
Rosanne Gaylor was appointed clinical director of South Beach Psychiatric Center.

Sarah Flanders is Medical Director of the Behavioral Health Units at the Mercy North Shore Campus and Vice Chairman of Psychiatry at Mercy Hospital.

Adriane Birt was appointed co-director of the Department of Psychiatry’s new Center for Minority Faculty Development.

Ken Wilson is director of psychiatry at St. Claire’s Hospital

Raj Parekh is Medical Director of the newly created San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team

Brian Bronson is Director of Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry, New York Campus of the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System

Matt McCarthy is medical director of Project Renewal’s Fort Washngton Men’s Shelter Program

    New Research Funding:

David Hellerstein received three new grants (2003-4): 1) Double-blind placebo-controlled study of escitalopram in the treatment of dysthymic disorder. Principal investigator, David Hellerstein, MD.  Sponsored by Forest Pharmaceuticals, 2003-present 2) Aripiprazole as an adjunctive treatment for refractory unipolar depression. Principal investigator, David Hellerstein, MD. Sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb, 2004-present 3)  Double-blind treatment of outpatients with dysthymic disorder with Wellbutrin XL. Principal investigator, David Hellerstein, MD.  Sponsored by Glaxo Wellcome, 2004-present

Michael Grunebaum received a two year NARSAD Young Investigator grant, to conduct a randomized controlled trial comparing an SSRI vs. bupropion to  look at effects on neuropsych measures of impulsivity and suicidal ideation in major depression.

Linda Chokroverty received a  grant from the American Academy of Pediatrics Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) program to educate and reconnect local pediatricians with families of patients in a children’s day treatment program.