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Clergy Mental Health Collaborative Holds Panel on Suicide Prevention
On May 1st, the Clergy Mental Health Collaborative held a virtual panel focusing on suicide prevention in the Black, Hispanic and wider community. The panel featured local speakers including April Aycock, EdD, Director of the Monroe County Office of Mental Health, Eric Caine, MD, Minister Earl Greene, MA of the Children’s Institute, Rudy Rivera, Executive Director of the Fr. Laurence Tracy Advocacy Center, and Melanie Funchess, President of Ubuntu Village Works, LLC. If you missed the event, you can see the recording above!
Psychiatry Holds Trainee Annual Poster Day
This year's Trainee Poster Day was held on June 2nd! Our trainees presented their research and answered questions from the audience in a new virtual format. Thank you to everyone who presented and attended as well as to our moderators- Kenya Malcom, PhD, Jenn Richman, MD, and EJ Santos, MD- as well as our Behavioral Skills Lab crew for making this event a major success! If you missed the event, you can still read the posters and watch the recorded presentations here.
Maria Romana Selected for 2021 Witmer Awards
We are excited to share that Maria Romana, Senior NP and Program Director of our Strong Ties Community Support Clinic, has been selected to receive one of three 2021 Witmer Awards for Distinguished Service. This award celebrates individuals whose efforts enhance the quality of work life and make a significant difference for colleagues or constituents.
Speaking on her accomplishments, Hochang Ben Lee, MD, John Romano Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, says, "Maria has been described as someone whose mission-oriented and clinically astute leadership is emblematic of outstanding and sustained contributions to the University. . . Those who are familiar with Maria are well aware of her collaborative, thoughtful and engaged leadership. Over the past several years, Strong Ties has grown and diversified to meet the needs of the diverse population it serves at a time when the mental health needs of our community is a center-point for improving the community’s overall health and wellness."
Please join us in congratulating Maria on this award!
Watch Documentary on the Me2/Orchestra During the Reel Minds Festival
UR Medicine Mental Health and Wellness will be among the cosponsors for a virtual screening and talkback panel of Orchestrating Change for this year's Reel Minds Film Festival on June 22nd at 7PM! Orchestrating Change is a documentary following the Me2/Orchestra, the only classical music organization in the world created by and for people with mental illness and those who support them. Stay after the screening for a special conversation with Me2 conductor, Ronald Braunstein, Me2 Executive Director, Caroline Whiddon, film producer and directors, Margie Friedman and Barbara Multer-Wellin, and moderated by our very own Hochang Benjamin (Ben) Lee, MD. To register, email Ruth Cowing. READ MORE>>>
TRANSFORM Holds Webinar on Early Life Adversity's Effect on Brain
Join the TRANSFORM Research Center for a virtual panel on June 24th from noon to 1 PM. Max Herzberg, PhD, post-doctoral research scholar in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Elizabeth Handley, PhD, Director of Research at Mt. Hope Family Center, will be speaking on the impact of institutional orphanage care and child maltreatment on brain development and the development of substance use and disorder. To register for the live event, click here. To register to receive the event recording, click here.
Celebrating Nurses Week 2021
Marsha Wittink, MD, MBE, director of our Inpatient Medicine in Psychiatry (IMIP) unit, shared this photo in honor of Nurses Week in May. Thank you to our nurses for all they do to take care of our community!
Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Doctors?
Michael Hasselberg, MS, PhD will be speaking at Georgen Institute of Data's upcoming Data Science Summer 2021 Colloquium Series on July 7th at noon. He will be discussing how the future of healthcare will be transformed by big data and artificial intelligence as well as how the story of IBM Watson Health serves as a cautionary tale in the process of building a smart health system. READ MORE>>>
Steve Coffey Joins Psychiatry as Director of Charge
Reconciliation
We would like to welcome Steve Coffey, MSM into his new role in the Department of Psychiatry as Director of Charge Reconciliation. In this role, Steve will focus on proactive avoidance or denials, management of billing workflows and work cues, reporting, auditing and monitoring our billing practices and metrics. and other initiatives. He is also our primary point of contact with the Patient Financial Services (hospital billing), the United Business Office (URMFG and Professional billing) and Financial Counseling. He joined our team in April from his previous role as Revenue Operations Financial Analyst in the Department of Dermatology. Please join us in welcoming Steve to his new position!
Why Do Some People Seem to Cope Better?
If you missed Caroline Nestro, PhD, MS's Got Health? talk with the Center for Community Health & Prevention and the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County on flexible and positive coping strategies for stress, the recording of the presentation is now available on the Center's Facebook page!
From the Inside Out: Making Sense of Schizophrenia
The senses — which serve as our brain’s window to the outside world — may play a key role in schizophrenia. Researchers in our Department of Psychiatry and the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience are looking at how our eyes and ears interact with the brain to better understand schizophrenia. READ MORE>>>
Pandemic was a Sleep Thief; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Help
The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected sleeping habits, with roughly 40% of the global population had trouble sleeping in 2020 according to a meta-analysis in the Journal of Clinical Sleep and Medicine. Wilfred Pigeon, PhD spoke with WXXI on using cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques to help people experiencing trouble sleeping. READ MORE>>>
Congratulations to Stephanie Schmidt!
Please join us in celebrating Stephanie Schmidt, Administrative Assistant to our Division of Collaborative Care and Wellness, on graduating with her Masters in Health Administration (MHA) from George Washington University!
Speaking on her accomplishments, George Nasra, MD, MBA, Chief of the Division of Collaborative Care and Wellness says, "Stephanie has been an essential member of the administrative team in the Division of Collaborative Care & Wellness. Her love of learning and dedication to her career development is to be commended."
There is Still Time to Support the DPACC NAMIWalks Team!
Thank you to everyone who supported our Department of Psychiatry Advisory Council of Consumers (DPACC) team at this year's NAMIWalks Your Way either by walking, donating or just celebrating mental health! There still is time to donate to support NAMI Rochester in their effort to provide mental health programs to our community. Donate to the DPACC NAMIWalks team here!
May Psychiatry Publications
- Steven Silverstein, PhD and Judy Thompson, PhD published a paper in npj Schizophrenia on face detection responses on the Mooney Faces Test in people at clinical high risk for psychosis.
- Donna Kreher, PhD, Benjamin Chapman, PhD, MPH, and Christopher Seplaki, PhD were coauthors on an article in The Journal of Pain discussing the relationship between dysmenorrhea, its associated impacts and the development of chronic pelvic pain.
- Steve Lamberti, MD and Robert Weisman, DO have a new publication focused on essential elements for a successful forensic assertive community treatment for people with serious mental disorders who are involved with the criminal justice system.
- Peter Wyman, PhD was a coauthor on this paper led by Albert Valido of UNC School of Education on eight protective factors that reduce the risk of negative consequences such as anxiety and depression among sexual and gender minority youth experiencing homophobic name-calling and sexual violence.
- Thomas O'Connor, PhD was a coauthor in a paper looking at how certain biological changes postpartum can persist after pregnancy and increase long-term cardiometabolic disease risk.
- The rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are much higher in patients with chronic mental illness compared to the general population. Steven Lamberti, MD, Telva Olivares, MD, and Kevin Brazill, DO were coauthors on an article in the Journal of the Endocrine Society that examined best markers for identifying early type 2 diabetes in individuals taking second-generation antipsychotics.
- Yeates Conwell, MD was part of DEPRESsion Screening Data (DEPRESSD) Collaboration which recently published a meta-analysis investigating cutoff reporting patterns for the Patient Health Questionnaire‐9 and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.
- Suzanne Haber, PhD was a coauthor on a paper in NeuroImage on modelling brain white matter in gyral blades.
- Steve Silverstein, PhD was a coauthor on a paper in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience proposing a Imbalanced Plasticity Hypothesis for schizophrenia-related psychosis.
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