Page 4 - 2017-2018 Department of Psychiatry Annual Report

Message from the Head. A year in review.

It is a great pleasure to look back on this very successful committees have been struck. Faculty Development is
and eventful year in the life of the Department of at the heart of the new approach and there has been
Psychiatry. At the front of this document are the raw much activity on that front. We will be hiring an evaluation
figures which tell the story of our productivity. The specialist in medical education in the near future. Our
number of patients served in the diverse programs we education leaders continue to work with the Royal
provide is indeed impressive. Our educational activities College of Physicians and Surgeons to prepare for this
are outstanding, as we gear up for the changes that seismic shift. Meanwhile our success in matching highly
Competency by Design will bring. With $2.58M in new qualified candidates in the CaRMS match continues. We
grants and $16.3M in ongoing funding, our research is will welcome our new trainees in early July. And on that
obviously thriving. We can be proud of the effort our faculty note I wish every success and happiness to an excellent
has expended in our core clinical and academic activities. graduating class of 2018.

We have had some new arrivals and some departures Subspecialty training in our two active programs has been
during this year. Joining us were Drs. Sanjana Shridharan, ramping up and we will soon see our trained subspecialists
Jeff Buttle, Miroslava Kolajova, Anand Natarajan, Johnson joining their colleagues in the field. We continue to support
Agbodo, Zhila Fazeli, Candice Crocker, Ingrid Waldron, both programs through our practice plan, and have been
and Yifeng Wei. Dr. Amr Aty left to return to his native advocating with government to shift that burden to the
Egypt in December, and Dr. Doug Maynes formally retired province, which benefits from attracting these specialists.
during the year.
We are nearing the completion of the first full year of our
Clinical programs are preparing for some disruption in graduate training program in Research in Psychiatry. Our
Dartmouth after the Purdy building was deemed unsafe first class have had a highly successful year and have
to house 24/7 programs by the fire marshal. Accordingly, been very visible in the department. The recruitment went
the Mayflower unit will relocate to Coral Hall temporarily, very well for the second incoming class, with two of the
and the inpatient addictions unit will be housed at Simpson candidates winning Killam scholarships.
Landing. During the year, Eastern and Northern zones
have continued to suffer with lack of psychiatric resources. Dr. Patrick McGrath has taken on the task of setting up a
Through the Bayers Road clinic we have been offering PhD program to complement the Master’s. He has been
telehealth services to those areas as a means of support. highly effective with this process and we are confident
We are also joining a committee to aid recruitment in those the final hurdles will be cleared in the near future. The
zones. success of this application was greatly helped by how
well the setting up of the Master’s program unfolded. Our
Dr. Phil Tibbo has spearheaded an initiative to make thanks are due to Sherry Stewart and Kim Good who
specialty services more accessible to rural parts of the have co-led the program, and to the many faculty who
province. He and the team have developed a program teach and supervise the students. A special thanks to Jen
offering support and consultation to all zones, coordinated Brown, whose work has led to smooth sailing in this new
from the NS Early Psychosis Program. endeavour.

Provincial Services Planning, ongoing since 2015, All in all this has been a very good year for our
wrapped up late in the year with the publication of its work department.
in a document called Milestones on our Journey. Many
members of the department contributed to the work, and
continue to work with colleagues throughout the province
to carry out the recommendations of the report.

Once again we have had awards and honours showered
on our department this year. You find details on page 20
onwards. Congratulations to all who have been honoured.

As we prepare to move into a new era of postgraduate DR. MICHAEL TEEHAN, MD, FRCPC
training, preparations have been gearing up. In both the Head, Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University
main program and in our subspecialty programs evaluation Chief, Department of Psychiatry,Central Zone, Nova
Scotia Health Authority

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