Celebrating Residents and Fellows 
February 20th marked the start of Resident and Fellow Appreciation Week! Residency is a key component of graduate medical training, offering in-depth exposure to medical practice. Residents serve as the hospital’s “house staff” and are an important part of the healthcare team. Thank you to our residents and fellows for all they do! 

Bridge Art Gallery Announces New Call for Art

Our Bridge Art Gallery is now accepting artwork submissions for their next call for art, Healing Within. These past few years have seen significant national
turmoil and a growing mental health crisis. We ask artists to respond to the theme while considering topics such as healing, community, and togetherness. To submit artwork, complete the online form here or send an email to the Bridge Art Gallery.  READ MORE>>>

Psychosis Research Group Seeking Research Participants

Our Psychosis Research Group at the University of Rochester Medical Center is currently looking for research participants. Reach out via email or by phone at (585) 484-1757 to learn more.

Corey Nichols-Hadeed Featured by the National Academy of Medicine

Psychiatry Associate Corey Nichols- Hadeed, JD was recently featured on the National Academy of Medicine's (NAM) social media pages. She, alongside Kim van Orden, PhD and Kiah Nyame, EdD of the City of Rochester, and Malik Sams of UR Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine, is among those recently named a NAM Catalyst Awardee for the development of an intergenerational mentoring program aimed at addressing youth violence. READ MORE>>>

New Psychiatry Billing Staff
We want to welcome two new members of our Department’s central administration who will be part of our Billing team, Elizabeth “Liz” Crandall and Alexandria “Ally” Leone!

Liz will directly supervise the billing team and be our point person with the Patient Financial Services Office, the United Business Office Revenue Cycle Advisor, and Health Information Management. She has been with the University since 2007 in roles focused on behavioral health billing. For the past 3 years, she has been an Operations Supervisor.

Ally will assist the Billing Manger and serve as the point person for insurance collection and charge entry-related activities.  She has been with the University since 2018 as an Insurance Collections Specialist.

Mark Your Calendars

Free Workshops on Suicide Prevention in Rural Communities
Our UR Medicine Recovery Center of Excellence is partnering with SafeSide Prevention to offer a free, half-day workshop for healthcare providers in rural communities to provide them with a systematic framework for suicide prevention. This interactive training focuses on youth, substance use, and Indigenous communities. Click here to register for one of the sessions.

Redefining Risk: How Stress impacts the Trans Community

We invite you to join us on March 22nd at noon for our March Office of Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) Grand Rounds featuring Cecilia Gentili, Founder of Trans Equity Consulting. Cecilia will be discussing the ways stress affects the transgender community. This activity counts towards the 5 required annual DICE activities. Register to attend online here or attend in person at the Class of '62 Auditorium. 

Check out and register for the rest of our Grand Rounds for the Spring here. 

11th Annual Joseph Ryan Conference Returns In-Person
Our Strong Recovery Program's annual Joseph Ryan Conference is returning in person after four years due to challenges from the pandemic on April 28th. If you are a healthcare provider working in substance use/ addiction treatment, we hope you will join us to learn about how the substance use disorder treatment field has transformed over the years. To register, contact Stacey Ciotti.  READ MORE>>>

30th Annual Intensive on Integrated Care and Medical Family Therapy
Our Institute for the Family's Family Therapy Training Program will be holding its 30th Annual Intensive on Integrated Care and Medical Family Therapy in June. This is a one-week event of interdisciplinary training that blends clinical presentations, small-group learning, and skill development. Registration opens on April 5th! READ MORE>>>

February Psychiatry Publications 

• Marsha Wittink, MD, MBE, and Steve Silverstein, PhD, alongside Aubrey Chan, MD, PhD of the University of Iowa and Susan Padrino, MD of AbsoluteCare, published an editorial on the undervalued potential of medical-psychiatry units to improve care for people with severe mental illnesses, highlighting the work of the National MedPsych Unit consortium. 

• Mark Oldham, MD, alongside Andrew Francis, PhD, MD of Penn State College of Medicine, published an editorial on why catatonia is underdiagnosed and the need to address prevalent misunderstandings over what catatonia looks like.

• A new study by Adam Simning, MD, PhD and Thomas Caprio, MD, alongside Kenneth Lam, MD of the University of California San Francisco finds that rehabilitation providers play a significant role in getting adaptive equipment into the homes of older adults.

• Peter Britton PhD, Elizabeth Karras, PhD, Dev Crasta, PhD, Wilfred Pigeon, PhD authored a paper examining the impact of calling the Veterans Crisis Line in connecting veterans to treatment.

• Peer review provides the cultivation of diverse skills that comes from taking on the perspective of both the author and the reader. Mark Oldham, MD, alongside colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Washington published a guide on peer-reviewing manuscripts and on being responsive to reviewer comments.

• Daniel Graham, PhD of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Steve Silverstein, PhD published a paper discussing art by people with schizophrenia and how schizophrenia affects art making processes.  

• Anthony Pisani, PhD was a coauthor on a paper out of Safe Side Prevention and Hillside evaluating the InPlace® Learning approach to educate youth service workers on suicide prevention.

• Wendi Cross, PhD was a coauthor of a study on designing training modules for community pharmacy staff to recognize suicide warning signs and refer at-risk individuals. 

• Tziporah Rosenberg, PhD was a coauthor on a new study out of the Department of Family Medicine finding that voluntary, interactive skills-development training improved confidence in recognizing, responding, and reporting sexual harassment and gender bias.

• Caroline Silva, PhD, and Kimberly van Orden, PhD authored a study alongside colleagues from the University of South Alabama, Texas State University, and Montefiore Medical Center identifying reliable cut-off scores for the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire to identify social disconnectedness. 
• Anthony Pisani, PhD was a coauthor on this study reviewing  AI/ML-enabled state-of-the-art methods in electronic medical records. 
• Thomas O'Connor, PhD was a coauthor on a paper examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perinatal outcomes in relation to maternal depression and perceived stress.

• Yeates Conwell, MD was a co-author on a study looking at the risk of and factors for emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations related to substance use in older veterans reentering the community after incarceration vs never-incarcerated veterans.

• Thomas O'Connor, PhD was a coauthor on a study examining the association between exposure to maternal childhood maltreatment and common childhood physical and mental health problems, neurodevelopmental disorders, and related comorbidities in offspring.

• Kenneth Conner, PsyD, MPH, and Yeates Conwell, MD were coauthors on a prospective study examining China's largest suicide prevention hotline, to develop and validate a structured, comprehensive, uncomplicated, and non-time-consuming tool for suicidal risk assessment. 

Upcoming Events

• Mar. 8: Opioid Overdose Prevention Training
• Mar. 14: Opioid Overdose Prevention Training
• Mar. 15: A Novel Model for Mental Health Care
• Mar. 21: Applying the SafeSide Framework for Suicide Prevention in Rural Communities Workshop
• Mar. 22: Redefining Risk: How Stress Impacts the Trans Community
• Mar. 23: Opioid Overdose Prevention Training
• Mar. 29: Cardiometabolic Risk and Schizophrenia: Etiology, Monitoring, and Management
• Apr. 5: Charting A Course For The Next Decade Of Research On Traumatic Stress And Addictions
• Apr. 5: 30th Annual Intensive on Integrated Care and Medical Family Therapy Registration Opens
• Apr. 15: Bridge Art Gallery Call for Art Healing Within Deadline
• Apr. 28th: 11th Annual Joseph Ryan Conference