MCGILL UNIVERSITY Department of Psychiatry Newsletter SPRING * FALL * WINTER 2012 invite you to check our website ta, Trent Semeniuk, Hani Iskan- Message from the Chair (www.mcgill.ca/psychiatry) to dar, Enrique Lizondo, Toby learn more. Measham) have the challenging We continue to be a vibrant and task of ensuring that psychiatry productive department on every On the education front, we wel- maintains an important place in front. Picking up the thread from come Naguib Mechawar as the the clerkship so that medical stu- PLEASE NOTE: the last newsletter, our search first Associate Program Director dents are sufficiently prepared to and selection committees have Due to continuing for our Graduate Program. Dr. address mental-health problems been active. We enthusiastically renovations at the Mechawar will work closely with in their practices. A retreat is Ludmer R&T building, welcome Martin Gauthier as Marco Leyton whose leadership being held this fall, and our de- the Department of Chief of Child and Adolescent and commitment have led to the partment will be well represent- Psychiatry’s Admin- Psychiatry at the Montreal Chil- istration Office will immense success of our graduate ed. dren’s Hospital and as University continue to be located program. at the Hugessen Director of the Finally, I want to House until spring Division of Child congratulate Gus- 2013. and Adolescent tavo Turecki and Psychiatry. In Fabrice Jollant for addition, we are the successful pleased to an- launch of the resi- nounce the dent research nomination of track. Several ac- Lila Amirali as tivities took place Clinical Director including a stim- INSIDE THIS at the MCH. The Hugessen House ulating Re- ISSUE: search Half-day We also con- 3666 McTavish Street In postgraduate educa- on May 25th gratulate Mick Bond on his reap- Montreal QC H3A 1Y2 tion, we are preparing with numerous Student 2 pointment as Chief of the De- for the Royal College accredita- presentations by residents, and a Graduates partment of Psychiatry at the tion visit in the spring of 2013. symposium at this year’s CPA Jewish General hospital. By the Karl Looper and hospital site meeting. A special thanks to Ven- next newsletter, I expect that we directors (Nick Casacalendra, kat Bhat, the MPRA resident rep- Special Events 3 will be announcing the new psy- Joanne Joly, Santokh Singh, Lara resentative on the research com- 2012 chiatrists-in-chief at the MUHC Stern, Kia Faridi, and Eugenia mittee, for his outstanding contri- and St. Mary’s and the new scien- Zikos) are on target and have butions to the organization of tific director of the Douglas Re- New Hires, 3 been putting together a strong key events. search Centre. We will also find Directors, and dossier in support of our residen- out who the new director of the Residents cy program. Our department’s contributions Neuro will be. My sense is that to research remain outstanding the leadership transitions have Grants, Awards 4 This July, we have also submitted and we have an impressive num- brought us together as we have and Prizes our application to the Royal Col- ber of grants and awards to re- had to reflect on our priorities lege for a new residency program port. Despite the competition, and the types of leaders we need in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. our department stands out by New Hires, to move forward in these chal- 5 Kudos to Ruth Russell for her being above the benchmarks for Directors, and lenging times. dedication and hard work, and success rates in garnering awards. Promotions for putting together an excellent It is also a challenge to keep up Speaking of leadership, we are dossier. with the number of high impact Other News... 5 very proud to announce that the publications, prizes and recogni- new president of the Canadian Undergraduate education is also tions. We urge members of the Psychiatric Association (CPA) is undergoing a major overhaul as department to keep us informed Suzanne Renaud. Dr. Renaud is an the faculty prepares to introduce of your accomplishments, so we associate professor in our De- the “Transition of Clinical Prac- can share the good news on our partment and on staff at the tice and Clerkship” components website and in the newsletters. Douglas. She has significant lead- of the new curriculum. Gregg ership experience and has served Meterissian and his undergradu- At the RUIS level, we would have in provincial, national and North- ate leadership team (Marc Lapor- hoped to have signed the agree- American organizations. We PAGE 2 Message from the Chair continued… ment with Nunavik by now, but we have encountered To their credit, they have shown exceptional resilience several bureaucratic delays. We are optimistic that the and patience in the face of unacceptable uncertainty. We contract will be signed within the next few weeks, and hope that the new rules and figures will be finalized soon, that we will be able to proceed with the recruitment of so that we can get back to the task of helping our resi- the first McGill psychiatrist dedicated to the Nunavik dents plan their careers within a transparent and predict- project. We are also pursuing our goal to create a Great able framework. North Mental Health Program that will provide compre- hensive mental health services to the Cree and Inuit pop- This fall, there have been significant changes in the admin- ulations within a clinical-research framework. We hope istrative structure that supports our department. The to capitalize on our Department’s strength in transcultur- Faculty of Medicine has launched an administrative excel- al and social psychiatry, to develop, implement and evalu- lence project and our department is the first to take part. ate innovative and culturally-informed mental health care The project is designed to increase efficiency by central- to these vulnerable and culturally-distinct populations. izing financial and human resources (academic and non- academic) processing. Psychiatry has been paired up with The issue of psychiatric recruitment also remains unset- Neurology/Neurosurgery as a centre to implement this tled. In the spring, I participated in three meetings of the new model. Each centre will consist of a team of experts work group struck by the ministry to address psychiatric to perform and execute the work in finance and human manpower in Quebec. Karine Igartua, Suzanne Renaud resources. and Richard Montoro, all members of our department, were also present at the meetings as representatives of I am, therefore, very pleased to announce the recruit- the AMPQ. At the last meeting, the ministry announced ment of Anna-Maria Henderson as the Administrative its intention to decrease the number of psychiatrists Centre Director, Mélanie Pépin as Finance Manager and practicing in institutions in Montreal by 44 by 2015 and Manon Trudeau as Human Resources Administrator. We by 107 by 2020. We, therefore, expect to go from the also welcome Kazué Narita as our new Administrative current number of 434 psychiatrists to 327 by 2020. The Coordinator to the Associate Chair of Research. I ex- decrease will be achieved by adjusting the number of tend a special thank you to Christine Dolden who pro- psychiatrists allowed per institution (PEM). The ministry vided invaluable administrative and moral support over also confirmed the elimination of the closed envelopes, the past year. and a transfer of the control over recruitment to each institution. Finally, as I will be reaching the end of my first mandate in the fall of 2013, we have been asked by the Faculty of Although the Chair will still play a role in vetting recruits Medicine to conduct a self-study of the department over based on academic requirements, henceforth, the hospi- the next six months. This is an opportunity for us to re- tal chiefs will have the mandate of recruiting new psychia- view our progress and reflect on our priorities for the trists and replacing attrition. The situation at McGill will future. We look forward to soliciting your input in the depend on how many positions we will lose (or, less like- process. ly, gain) when the new PEMs are announced. The figures are due to be released in the next few weeks and hospi- As always, it remains a privilege and a pleasure to be part tal directors of professional services will be expected to of our department, and I am very appreciative of your validate the new PEMs. support and collegiality. In light of the above, last year’s graduates and the current Mimi Israël cohort of R5s have had to face particularly trying times. Chair, Department of Psychiatry Student Graduates Congratulations to the graduating students of 2011-2012! Dr. Bandar Al-Aqeel Dr. Marisa Derman Dr. Silvia Irina Lepadatu Dr. Ammar Al-Banna Dr. Simon Ducharme Dr. Arash Nakhost Dr. Paulina Bajsarowicz Dr. Rachel Kronic Dr. Tuong-Vi Nguyen Dr. Michel St-Hilaire PAGE 3 Special Events in 2012... Student Research Day Québec Inuit Mental Health Retreat On June 4, the 2012 edition of our annual Student Research Day The first Quebec Inuit Mental Health Retreat was held in Mon- was held with great success. In front of a large and inquisitive treal on April 13, 2012 at the McGill New Residence Hall. It was audience, 23 excellent talks were given. Seven prizes were made possible by the unrestricted grant of Prends Soin de Toi and awarded. partnership with the Office of Senator Charlie Watt, Makivik Douglas Mental Health University Institute Prizes Corporation, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, Qualaxia, WHO FRSQ Prize for the best talk given by a graduate student Montreal Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental located at Douglas Hospital: Benoit Labonte (PhD-6) Health, RUIS McGill Telehealth, and the Network for Aboriginal Men- "Genome-wide epigenetic regulation by early-life trau- tal Health Research.