Women Psychiatrists Get Great Networking Opportunity

Psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, and medical students—most of whom were women—gathered at the elegant Four Seasons Hotel Chicago for their annual greet-meet-and-learn gathering last November.

Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, and quiche were featured in the first course. The next course, far weightier, was presented by psychiatrist Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, M.C., and titled “Female Warriors in Combat Today.”

Ritchie, a psychiatry consultant to the U.S. Army surgeon general and key-noter at the Illinois Psychiatric Society's (IPS) Women's Brunch, talked about the unique challenges facing American women on active duty today. She reminded her audience that like men in the military, women also are dying or being wounded—physically and psychologically—on or near the ever-moving frontlines of today's battlefields.

Ritchie had recently returned from the combat theater in Faluja, Iraq, where she had spent a good portion of October. Even before appearing at the brunch, Ritchie, a busy doctor and in-demand public speaker, had addressed the mental health needs of soldiers—men and women—at the annual Mental Illness Awareness Week symposium sponsored by APA and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (Psychiatric News, November 2, 2007).

Ritchie later told Psychiatric News that there were two messages she hoped she conveyed during the Women's Brunch. “The first one was [the nature of] being a women soldier in combat today, and the second was being a female army psychiatrist taking care of soldiers.... I also tried to make it relevant to Chicago and Illinois by asking the attendees: 'How are you helping the Illinois soldiers returning [from combat]?'”

The colonel accomplished her mission.

“Attendees stated [in an evaluation survey that] her presentation increased their sensitivity to issues related to women in combat,” said Joan Anzia, M.D., residency training director and an associate professor of psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “For the first time, we must provide [mental health] care for large numbers of female soldiers who have served in combat roles.”

The Women's Brunch is now in its sixth year. The inaugural gathering was conceived and organized by Anzia and Surinder Nand, M.D. At that time Anzia was associate training director at the University of Illinois at Chicago and working at the city's Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital; Nand was chief of psychiatry at the VA.

The two women thought it would be a terrific idea to hold a yearly event at which women residents and medical students could get together share experiences—personal and professional—with other Illinois-based women psychiatrists—be they from private practice, public psychiatry, or academic psychiatry.

“We wondered who we would have as speaker. Marcia Goin was APA president that year, so we figured we'd ask her; the worst that could happen is that she would say no.” But Goin said yes immediately, said Anzia,“ and we asked her to speak about her own career trajectory.”

The organizers purposely chose a Sunday, thinking that young women with families would be able to attend more easily. Then Anzia worked the phone. She called all the women psychiatrists she knew in Illinois. “Well over 100 attended... .It was an amazing afternoon, and it was clear that women psychiatrists had plenty to talk about together,” she said.

Since then, the women have come back each year in similar numbers, along with district branch officers, a few interested male IPS officers and members, and of course the guest speakers. The latter group has been top heavy with APA officers, including APA President Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D. She has attended several brunches and also spoke at this brunch. Other fans of the brunch, who also have served as its featured speakers, include, for example, APA President-Elect Nada Stotland, M.D., and past APA President Michelle Riba, M.D.

Anzia summed up the need for and ongoing attraction of the brunch as a time for women psychiatrists in Illinois.

“It's the one place,” she observed, “where women trainees and junior psychiatrists can talk to each other and older women about combining family and career—the burning question for many young psychiatrists. Finally, it's a wonderful recruiting event for our field. The medical students love to come.” ▪