Lectures Address Issues Critical to Psychiatrists and Their Patients

An outstanding and diverse group of lecturers at this year’s Institute on Psychiatric Services will address clinical, community, forensic, and other cutting-edge issues confronting psychiatrists at the turn of the millennium.

The lectures alone are well worth the price of admission to the institute, which will be held in Orlando from October 10 to 14.

The 25 scheduled lecturers will cover a broad range of topics from specific clinical approaches to broad public policy considerations. Issues affecting children are prominently featured.

The Scientific Program Committee is pleased that three APA Award–winning lectures will be given at the institute: The George Tarjan Award lecture by Busharat Ahmad, M.D., the Patient Advocacy Award lecture by Professor Latanya Sweeney, Ph.D., and the Alexandra Symonds Award lecture by Ann Ruth Turkel, M.D.

You will have the opportunity to hear from APA leaders wearing their clinical hats. APA President Richard Harding, M.D., will address attendees at the Opening Session. Vice President Marcia Kraft Goin, M.D., Ph.D., will speak on treating patients with borderline personality disorder: struggles, troubles, and triumphs; former President Harold Eist, M.D., on children and violence, clinical aspects; Treasurer Carol Bernstein, M.D., on teaching and doing psychotherapy; Assembly Speaker Nada Stotland, M.D., M.P.A., on better care for women in the public sector; and Speaker-elect Albert Gaw, M.D., on “old wine in new bottles,” a Kleinman’s cultural paradigm for understanding psychotherapy.

Chairs of academic departments are well represented among the lecturers. Sara Huertas-Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Puerto Rico will speak on health systems reforms, mental health care, and the case of Puerto Rico and its relevance for mental health care in the U.S. The chair of my academic department at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, T. Byram Karasu, M.D., will speak about the psychotherapist as a healer.

Jacqueline Feldman, M.D., president of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, will speak on “Green Eggs and Ham”: developing a passion for public psychiatry (my candidate for the most intriguing lecture title). We will also hear from two private practitioners, George L.Warren, M.D., and Walter Griffith Jr., M.D., on becoming a business expert and running your private practice.

We will also have the opportunity to hear from Regina Bussing, M.D., on barriers to treatment for ADHD; Ana E. Campo, M.D., on enhancing medical recruitment into psychiatric centers; Alan D. Felix, M.D., on the critical time for prevention of homelessness: a review of 10 years of clinical research findings; Harriet P. Lefley, Ph.D., on family education in schizophrenia; Kenneth Minkoff, M.D., on developing integrated care systems for co-occurring psychiatric and substance abuse programs; Bonnie Saks, M.D., on biochemical mechanisms of sexual response; Andres Pumariega, M.D., on systems of care for children’s mental health: failures and opportunities; and Wesley E. Sowers, M.D., on forging collaboration—obstacles, opportunities, and innovations.

Margery Sved, M.D., will tell us about the psychiatrist as a foster parent; Harold Telson, M.D., about competence to reside in the community; and Clifton R. Tennison, M.D., on humility in psychiatric leadership (what a refreshing thought!). The final lecture will be given by Thomas G. Gutheil, M.D., on boundary issues in clinical practice. It will be well worth staying to the end of the meeting to hear him.

The lecturers have been scheduled in a way to enable an avid attendee to hear almost all of them. If you have not already registered for the meeting, now is the time to do so (see box). ▪