Thursday, August 7, 2008

NPR Program: When Law Enforcement Meets Mental Illness

Hello colleagues!
I thought many of you would be interested in listening to Monday morning's NPR show, topic of which was police apprehension of people who break the law and have psychiatric diagnosis, as well as treatment of psychiatric illness in prisons. They had a treatment advocate, police chief of Highland Heights, and the president of NAMI Ohio on for a great discussion about the gaping holes in the healthcare system and problems it creates for patients with mental illness and society at large.
Synopsis and link below...you should be able to click the play button and hear the show straight from your computer!
Meg
Sound of ideas, Monday August 4th
When Law Enforcement Meets Mental Illness

Police rarely use deadly force. In fact, just one in 5,000 contacts with civilians involves deadly force. But when deadly force is used, it makes headlines, and it's not uncommon that the victim turns out to have a mental illness. This raises a whole host of questions, starting with how should law enforcement and correctional officers be trained to work with the mentally ill? On our program, we'll talk about that and about how our society got to a place where police have become mental health first responders. We hope you'll join the conversation Monday morning at 9 on 90.3.

http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/soi/13009/

Sunday, April 13, 2008

MIT FYI's: Who is Alice Sturgis?

The OPPA Spring/Annual Meeting had a change of procedures as it enacted Alice Sturgis' Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure.

The big question on my mind was, "Who is Alice Sturgis... and what is her procedure?!"

Wikipedia is a decent place to start

But a more basic explanation is at California State University.

It'll be useful for those MIT's wanting to be more involved in meetings than just seconding motions!

Annual Meeting & Scientific Program

Saturday, April 12th was the 2008 Spring/Annual Meeting for the OPPA: Mood Disorders: Where Technology Meets Tradition.

The meeting was help at the Hilton Cleveland East (Beachwood.) It was a well attending event with members from all over Ohio. It was exciting to see such a great resident turnout!

Here is a list of the great presentations we had this year:
"Neuroimaging and Psychiatry: Basic Principles and Possibilities" & "Neuroimaging and Neurocognitive Studies of Bipolar Disorder" by Jair C. Soares, MD

"Treatment Refractory Depression" by Stephen F. Pariser, MD

"Treatment Resistant Bipolar Disorder" by Prashant Gajwani, MD

"PET Imaging to Assess Acute and Chronic Effects of Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Treatment Resistant Depression" by Charles R. Conway, MD

"The Use of Deep Brain Stimulation in Psychiatric Disorders" by George E. Tesar, MD

"ECT for Treatment Resistant Mood Disorders" by Susan Kimmel, MD

Joseph Locala, MD opened the days events, kept things running smoothly, saved the day with his Powerpoint troubleshooting, and led the evening meeting. He gave an excellent speech accepting his presidency of the OPPA which will formally take effect at the next APA meeting.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Patrick Kennedy at Case Western

A little bit of a late notice guys and I am sorry about that.

However, if you are in cleveland and available tomorrow, UH-Case Medical Center is having a great grand rounds with Patrick Kennedy....(are you up to date with your psych politics?)

This is among some awesome grand rounds coming up in the yearly march/april grand rounds extravaganza before the OPPA meeting in Beechwood on April 12th.

Sooooo....if you are a resident in the area (cleveland, akron, toledo) check out some of this stuff as there are some amazing speakers. The grand rounds are being held at the wolstein building to accommodate everyone. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Less secretive than Area 51 (and more fun!)

The Area IV Annual Meeting in Chicago took place over the March 1-2 weekend. OPPA made a good showing, represented by 4 members: MIT Committee chair Rob Sekhon, as well as Kelly Blankenship, Solomon Zaraa, and Marianne Jhee attended.

Dr. Jeff Akaka, Speaker of the American Psychiatric Association's Assembly, also attended the meeting. He was able to give residents and fellows some very valuable insight into how politics and psychiatry can impact each other.

The meeting addressed not only administrative issues, but also prominent issues that concern today's psychiatrists. MITs were able to discuss various issues such as the health parity bill with with more experienced members and also with one of Congressman Bobby Rush's staff.

And of course, it was a great experience just to be able to discuss residency, psychiatry, and life in general, with fellow MITs and more experienced members throughout the region.

Last, but not least of all, the OPPA MIT was honored with Sorum awards for both individual (congrats to Dr. Kelly Blankenship!) and for District Branch MIT committee! Looks like other APA members have taken notice of some of the projects (like the this blog!!) we have underway. Way to go OPPA!
Hey Guys!

I think many of you know me, but, for those of you that don't I'm Molly McVoy in Cleveland. I'm a resident at Case and chair of the APA's Committee on Resident's and Fellows. (CORF) I left a longer explanation of what CORF is on the area IV blog, which I'm guessing you all are a part of as well. Right now, CORF is getting ready for the APA meeting in DC- there will be a resident day on Tuesday with workshops and focus groups all geared for residents specifically. CORF's workshop, also geared towards residents, will be Monday morning at 9 am - Dr. Lazarus, from the American Medical Association, will be our main speaker for that. (Locations for all of these TBA).

Also, as part of being chair of CORF, I'm off to the APA's board of trustees meeting this weekend. Let me know what you're hearing from residents, what residents want from the APA, etc. I'm happy to pass the needs of Ohio and area IV onto the leaders of the APA. Thanks!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Cleveland Psychiatric Society Meeting

Hey Guys,

The CPS meeting is tomorrow (March 5th) and the Speaker is Dr. Dunn from Metro. I think it starts around 6:30 and the venue is Vivo (excellent food although I have never been there for anything other than pre-game for the Cavs).

So if you are a psychiatrist, psych resident, or a med student interested in psychiatry and you are in the city of Cleveland please come by and enjoy good food and some camaraderie.

You do have to RSVP and I don't know how much space there is left but the person to contact is jeanette(at)nls(dot)net. For even more info contact Sara and she will hook you up.

See you there!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Are You Down with OPP...A

Alright guys,

its getting down to the wire...
We only have a couple of applications for the March 1-2 visit to Chicago. That means that if you apply you have a pretty good chance but you have to get our applications in. Either directly to me at roobal(dot)sekhon(at)uhhospitals(dot)org or to the oppa through the links on the left.

This is a great time to meet people who are in the area and are great mentors, have a lot of influence as well as have a lot to teach. I loved my first meeting which led me to be a lot more invested in the OPPA.

Get involved guys!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Good Morning - thanks to Rob Sekhon for putting this together, its great to have a spot for Ohio MIT's. For national resident info, this site is the "unofficial" resident website - in other words, it took the APA so long to revamp their website, we made our own! www.apamit.com. We're working on getting it linked to the APA website. Maybe you can add it as a link, Rob?

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Perfect Attendence

Thought the last time you'd be awarded for perfect attendence was in grade school?

Well, the APA 100% Club is a program that does just that! A Psychiatry Residency Training program that has 100% APA participation of its residents gets to join the Club. Per the APA website:

"These programs receive publicity through articles in Psychiatric News, posters created specifically for their program and a gift certificate for APPI books and products. All 100% club programs will receive a FREE online subscription to the clinical review and self-assessment journal FOCUS."

If you've wanted to be involved, there's never a better time like the present. And if you're a member-in-training, the Get-a-Member campaign and 100% Club incentive are pretty nice perks.

Got Membership?

There's more than just presidential hopefuls campaigning out there!

Hear about the 2008 APA Member Get-a-Member Campaign?
Any APA member in good standing who refers a potential new member is eligible for special quarterly drawings... prizes include $100 American Express gift cards!

If your referral is approved and enrolled by 12/31/08... you become eligible for the grand prize drawing! You could get Complimentary Registration for the 2009 APA Meeting or a year of free APA membership!

Eligible referrals:
Residents (MITs), fully trained psychiatrists, and former members who have been inactive for at least one year.

International psychiatrists and medical students are not eligible.

Online application is on the APA website.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Funding available for Area 4 and APA meeting!

Last month in Columbus, the OPPA Council approved additional funding for OPPA MITs who want to become more involved in OPPA and APA.

A $500 fund is available for travel to the Area 4 meeting in Chicago the weekend of 3/1/08.
An additional $1000 fund has been allocated for the APA meeting in Washington DC this May!

These are some great opportunities. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Rob Sekhon either through OPPA or you can email the blog: ohiopsych(at)gmail(dot)com for more information.

Stay tuned for more details!

Weclome!

The OPPA MIT Committee is very excited to start up this blog. We hope it will serve as a source of information as well as a forum to facilitate communication among MITs and other members of OPPA.

Please feel welcome to comment on the blog! If you would like to be able to post articles on the blog, just email us at ohiopsych(at)gmail(dot)com (sorry for the lack of links: We're trying to avoid the spam-bots!)

Rob Sekhon, OPPA Member-in-Training Chair
Marianne Jhee, OPPA MIT blogger