Enhance the Effectiveness of Collaborative Care by Applying Psychodynamic Principles

Psychiatrists’ participation in collaborative care with other health care professionals has increasingly become the way of the future. The ability to provide psychiatric expertise in collaborative care settings is significantly enhanced through the application of psychodynamic principles by allowing patients to be understood on a deeper level.

Evaluating patients through a psychodynamic lens in these settings leads to multiple benefits for both patients and physicians. As physicians establish a deeper connection with their patients, the patients experience a stronger attachment to them and feel better understood, which contributes to improved medical outcomes. This inevitably leaves physicians feeling more empowered, which leads to greater job satisfaction and lower levels of burnout.

In a presidential symposium at this year’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco titled “Collaborating With Compassion in Contemporary Medical Spaces: A Psychodynamic Seminar,” experts from the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (AAPDPP) will discuss the importance of incorporating psychodynamic and psychoanalytic concepts in a variety of collaborative care models. They will give three specific examples of collaborative care settings in which psychodynamics can be used to improve the care of patients and the overall experience of the treatment team.

Joanna Chambers, M.D., will discuss how psychodynamic principles are necessary to provide compassionate and patient-centered care while also preventing burnout in health care professionals. Chambers, the immediate past president of AAPDPP, is an associate professor and vice chair for education of clinical psychiatry and an associate professor of clinical OB/GYN at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

J.J. Rasimas, M.D., medical director of consultation-liaison and addiction psychiatry at Queen Elizabeth Hospital/PEI in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, will discuss a case presentation titled “If Mama Ain’t Happy, Nobody’s Happy,” with a focus on ways to incorporate psychodynamically informed concepts in a contemporary medical setting.

Danielle Patterson, M.D., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine, will explore the use of psychodynamic principles in a transgender outpatient clinic. She will provide a case presentation demonstrating the importance of psychodynamic concepts in the conceptualization of gender when collaborating with other medical professionals in this setting.

Jeff Katzman, M.D., professor and vice chair for education of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and an adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, will review the use of psychodynamics in Project ECHO Resilience programs, which support first responders and behavioral health professionals. The ECHO model will be described with an emphasis on the development of listening groups.

All psychiatrists who have an interest in learning more about the integration of psychodynamic concepts in psychiatric practice are encouraged to attend this session. ■