On April 15th we celebrated the University of Rochester Medical Center's annual Psychology Day celebration! Coinciding with the 14th Annual Psychology Day at the United Nations, this day celebrates the work of psychologists and psychologists-in-training internationally. Within URMC and the Department of Psychiatry, a group of our psychologists including Katie Rice, PhD and Wendi Cross, PhD coordinated some “thank you” breakfast treats for our psychologists and psychologists-in-training! In addition, the team streamed the Psychology Day presentations at the United Nations in our conference rooms so folks could stop in and take a break. This year's presentations discussed psychology in a post-pandemic world. 

Pictured above are our team of dedicated psychology educators! 

Thank you to everyone involved with setting up this event! Check out the full photo album of the day's events here. 

May is Mental Health Month

May is Mental Health Month! This annual observance aims to reduce the stigma associated with mental health and mental illness through advocacy and education. Check out Mental Health America's website for resources and action items on how you can support education about mental health this month. Looking for tips on managing stress, coping with the COVID-19 pandemic or information about resources in the community? Visit our COVID-19 Mental Health and Wellness website.  

Skills Lab Collaborates with School of Nursing for Suicide Prevention

Our Education Committee recently collaborated with the University of Rochester School of Nursing for suicide prevention skill training for Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners students. Throughout the fall of 2020 and winter of 2021, twelve students engaged in simulations in the Skills Lab with standardized patients who provided feedback on suicide specific skills. READ MORE>>>

Marriage & Family Therapy Training Program to Hold Annual Intensive
The Marriage and Family Therapy Training Program will be holding the 28th Annual Intensive from June 7 through 11! This one week program blends clinical presentations, small group learning, and skill development training for professionals interested in health care and mental health collaboration when working with patients and families dealing with illness, health concerns and trauma. The deadline to register is May 15. READ MORE>>>

Dr. Kenya Malcolm Highlighted by SPCC as a Champion for Children

In honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, The Society for The Protection and Care of Children honored "Champion for Children" in Rochester who are working to make in difference in the life of children. Kenya Malcolm, PhD was honored for her work in promoting pediatric mental health through collaboration across systems. READ MORE>>>

Celebrate Nurses During National Nurses Week

National Nurses Week runs from May 6 to May 12 this year and honors the hard work and heroism of our nurses. This year more than ever, we thank you for work in keeping our community healthy. We especially want to thank our psychiatric nurses who support mental health and recovery. Have a story to share about an exceptional nurse? Share your nursing story at the University of Rochester School of Nursing website here. 

Join DPACC in the 2021 NAMIWalks!
May 22, 2021 marks this year's NAMIWalks Your Way to benefit NAMI Rochester, and our Department of Psychiatry Advisory Council of Consumers (DPACC) team is once again participating in this annual tradition! You can join this year's event “your own way” by taking socially distanced stroll in their neighborhood, walking a 5k on a treadmill or however you want to celebrate and advocate for mental health. Join or support the DPACC team in this effort here!

Health Literacy and the Informed Consent Process
Mark Nickels, MD, Professor & Director of Transplant Psychiatry will present at Human Research Protection Program Educational Forum on May 13th. His talk, "Health Literacy and the Informed Consent Process," will discuss using plain language and teach-back to enhance subject/ patient health literacy. READ MORE>>>

Caroline Nestro to Present on Stress and Coping
Caroline Nestro, PhD, MS, RN will present "STRESS: Why do some people seem to cope better & how can I become one of those people?" on May 20th at 11 AM. Join this presentation by the Center for Community Health & Prevention to learn more about styles of coping with stress and how your style might be tweaked to help you manage stress more effectively. READ MORE>>>

The Importance of Stress Adaptation for Healthy Aging
Kathi Heffner, PhD will be presenting the Geriatric Medicine Grand Rounds on May 26. She will be presenting on the impact of chronic stressors, including caregiving for a family member with dementia, on accelerated aging as well as protective factors. READ MORE>>>

8th Annual Trainee Poster Day Coming Up in June
On June 2nd, we will once again be holding our Annual Trainee Poster Day! Continuing our virtual format from last year, this annual tradition will include our trainees presenting on their research and answering questions. Stay tuned to the Behavioral Skills Lab website for more details coming soon!

Rochester Behavioral Health Integration 6th Annual Symposium
Our Division of Collaborative Care and Wellness will be holding their Rochester Behavioral Health Integration 6th Annual Symposium this Fall! This year's symposium will discuss Substance Use, Suicide Prevention and Public Health and consist of virtual presentations every Friday between September 17 and October 8th. Up to 10 continuing education credits will be available. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!

Miner Library Holds Exhibition of George Engel Doodles

If you've been to the Miner Library at the University of Rochester Medical Center lately, you might have noticed an exhibition featuring some of the work of George Libman Engel, MD! This exhibition was curated to celebrate the 44th anniversary of Engel's breakthrough paper, The Need for a New Medical Model: A Challenge for Biomedicine, which set the groundwork for the development of the biopsychosocial model by Drs. George Engel and John Romano. The exhibit even includes the original acceptance letter from Science journal for Engel's article. 

Psychiatry in the News

In Sleep, the Body is a Channel to Communicate with the Dreaming Mind
Michelle Carr, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate and researcher in our Sleep and Neurophysiology Research Laboratory, wrote this essay in Aeon Magazine about helping those that experience frequent nightmares and her research into engineering dreams for healing. READ MORE>>>

Kenya Malcolm Highlighted in 585 Magazine
Did you know that, in addition to being a clinical psychologist and director of Early Childhood Initiatives, Dr. Kenya Malcolm also is an avid reader and runs a literature review Instagram, Reviews May Vary? 585 Magazine highlighted her involvement in the "bookstagram" community promoting reading and literacy. READ MORE>>>

Parents Do These Things
"I have watched, with an unsettled feeling in my stomach, as the viral infection spreads across our country, my state, my town in my county. . . We are prepared for catastrophe, the worst-case scenarios. We still hope they never come."

Candid words from Tziporah Rosenberg, PhD as she discusses her experience as a family therapist during the COVID-19 pandemic and end-of-life directives. READ MORE>>>

Telva Olivares and Courtney Blackwood Discuss Mental Health Care for People of Color
Telva Olivares, MD, and Courtney Blackwood, MS, RN, NE-BC, discussed mental health care for people of color with WXXI in an article recognizing the one-year anniversary of Daniel Prude's death. "We recognize as an institution that we have to change, and we have to become better as practitioners and understand that structural racism does play a role," Blackwood said.

April Psychiatry Publications 

• Mark Oldham, MD, Wilfred Pigeon, PhD, Benjamin Chapman, PhD,  Michael Yurcheshen, MD, Peter Knight, MD, and Hochang Benjamin Lee, MD published a feasibility research study on how baseline sleep predicts delirium after surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). The research findings include that home type II sleep before SAVR works as a predictor to postoperative delirium and other kinds of postsurgical impacts.
• In this American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry commentary, Kim van Orden, PhD assessed the psychological impacts of loneliness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic  on older adults, as well as provided potential protective factors looking forward. 
• Susan McDaniel, PhD led this study in Patient Education and Counseling looking at empathy and boundary management in challenging conversations between clinicians and patients receiving cancer treatment. Diane Morse, MD was also a coauthor on this paper.

• Sean Mitchell, PhD, Tuğba Görgülü, PhD, Kenneth Conner, PhD, and Marc Swogger, PhD joined Sarah Brown, PhD of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine to conduct cross-sectional analyses of the public health implications of criminal justice involvement, substance use, and suicide behaviors in high-risk individuals.

• This study from Kimberly van Orden, PhD, Yeates Conwell, MD, and Patricia Areán, PhD of the University of Washington examined the effectiveness of Social Engage Psychotherapy in reducing social disconnection and suicide risk in later life. It did not impact belonging or perceived burden but was effective in reducing depressive symptoms and improving quality of life.

• Thomas O'Connor, PhD and Ana Vallejo Sefair, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Intern at URMC, recently were authors in a chapter of Prenatal Stress and Child Development. They discussed models of how prenatal stress may affect child health outcomes. 

• Anton Porsteinsson, MD was a coauthor on a paper in a leading journal on dementia, Alzheimers & Dementia, listing and expanding on new diagnostic criteria for apathy in neurocognitive disorders. 

• Wilfred Pigeon, PhD and Michelle Carr, PhD joined Thomas Mellman, MD of Howard University on a study looking at dream content that was associated with the development of PTSD. 

• Wendi Cross, PhD was a coauthor alongside Delesha Carpenter, PhD, Courtney Roberts MSPH and Jill Lavigne MSPH, PhD on a study examining themes and barriers in online suicide prevention gatekeeper training programs. 
• Joshua Wortzel, MD, Christopher Fragassi, MD, Virginia Ramos, MD, and Thomas O'Connor, PhD, performed an analysis of U.S. pediatric interventional mental health trials from ClinicalTrials.gov for studies spanning between 2007 and 2018.
• Yezhe Lin, MD and Paul Geha, MD published an abstract looking at how brain behavior to fatty foods differed in patients with chronic pain. 
• Adam Simning, MD, PhD, Thomas Caprio, MD, MPH, and Yeates Conwell, MD, along with Yue Li, PhD of the Department of Public Health Sciences, investigated the role sensory loss plays as a barrier in older adults accessing healthcare.
• Ann Marie White, EdD participated in a Center for Disease Control analysis of validated instruments for measuring a patient’s strengths and how with a theory elaboration approach they may be applied to chronic disease management. 
• Wilfred Pigeon, PhD was a coauthor on this study The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine examining the treatment of Major Depression in veterans in different settings. Patients with mild symptoms were most likely to be treated in primary care settings, while those with more severe depression were more likely to be treated in specialty mental health settings.
• Steve Silverstein, PhD was a coauthor on a paper using a computational model to quantify the interaction between mood and reinforcement learning.
• Elizabeth Karras, PhD was a coauthor on a study using interviews to examine veterans’ attitudes toward discussions about firearms storage safety. Most veterans who participated in this study supported discussing firearms safety in a primary care setting.
• Wilfred Pigeon, PhD was a coauthor on a Life Sciences paper on how veterans with Gulf War Illness self-manage their conditions, and what they view as effective and ineffective self-management strategies.

• Steven Silverstein, PhD was a coauthor on this paper in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging using computer modeling to capture schizophrenia-specific reinforcement learning differences.

• Wilfred Pigeon, PhD was a coauthor on this Journal of Affective Disorders publication examining the rates of depression symptom severity, comorbid mental health disorders, and role impairment in veterans getting treatment in the Veteran's Health Administration system. 

• Michelle Carr, PhD was a coauthor on a Frontiers in Psychology paper examining the relationship between discussing dreams and empathy in both the sharer and listener. 

Upcoming Events

• May 12: Creative Arts Therapies for Emotional Wellness
• May 13: Human Research Protection Program Educational Forum
• May 19: What Can The Healthcare Sector Do About Patient's Social Conditions?
• May 20: 'STRESS: Why Do Some People Seem to Cope Better & How Can I Become One of Those People?'
• May 26: The Importance of Stress Adaptation for Healthy Aging
• May 26: Brain Biomarkers of Chronic Pain: Are We There Yet?
• Jun. 2: 8th Annual Trainee Poster Day