Issue 19 | November 3, 2020 |
|
A Letter from the Chair
Dear Faculty, Trainees, and Staff:
FY21 is off to a great start with activities on the diversity, mentorship, and collaboration fronts! Did you know that we have 7 Faculty collaborating on 17+ formal projects, we are working with a total of 18 UMCP Faculty, as well as mentoring 9 UMCP students? Great work to all!
We also welcome several new Faculty this fall, Drs. Johnson and Deng. You will read about them later in this issue. I also want to highlight that Dr. Reeve’s Foundation Academy has hit the ground running with all 5 participants learning the intricacies of working effectively and successfully with Foundations and preparing grant submissions for the spring. For those interested, this course will rerun next fall. Equally exciting is the kickoff of our formal Mentorship Program. We have 4 volunteers to get started and are looking forward to individualizing career development plans and supporting their progress! Just a reminder that come FY22, this will be a mandatory program for all new faculty.
Finally, as we enter the fall season and our academic life picks up, I want to remind everyone of the need to maintain vigilance around maintaining safe practices to protect ourselves, our colleagues, and our patients from exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. With the holidays around the corner and desire to gather and celebrate with family and friends indoors, I ask everyone to think carefully on how to plan these events safely and wisely. We all have 200% accountability: We are 100% accountable for ourselves and 100% accountable for the safety of others around us!
I hope to see everyone at our remote November 12th Faculty & Staff meeting!
Sincerely,
Jill RachBeisel, MD
Interim Chair, Department of Psychiatry
|
|
COLLABORATIONS & PUBLICATIONS |
|
To highlight our early Departmental success of bringing clinicians and researchers together in an effective and productive way, we share the following:
Drs. Deanna Kelly, Max Spaderna, Vedrana Hodzic, Fang Liu, and Shuo Chen recently published the article in Psychiatry Research, entitled "Blinded Clinical Ratings of Social Media Data are Correlated with In-Person Clinical Ratings in Participants Diagnosed with Either Depression, Schizophrenia, or Healthy Controls."
Highlights of the publication includes:
- Patients' language on social media may provide valuable clinical information with computational language analysis tools.
-
Clinicians and researchers examined anonymized social media posts to rate depressive, psychotic, and overall symptomatology.
- Severity of symptoms was compared with ground truth severity of psychiatric symptoms.
- Findings show moderate but promising trends.
The article, which can be found here, is a collaborative effort with faculty in both clinical and research Departments with a highlight to the contributions of Drs. Hodzic and Spaderna.
|
|
MARYLAND PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH CENTER (MPRC) Conte Center Seminar Series! |
|
Please save-the-date for our recurring
Conte Center Seminar Series, which generally occurs during the first Wednesday of each month!
Wednesday, November 4, 1-2 pm
Carrie Bearden, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
David Geffen School of Medicine University of California, Los Angeles
“Mining a genomic hotspot for psychosis”
Information to connect:
Host: Robert Schwarcz, PhD
Email: rschwarcz@som.umaryland.edu
Meeting number (access code): 120 772 9735 Meeting password: RUrba6aiN67
Join from a video system or application
You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.
Tap to join from a mobile device (attendees only)
Join by phone
+1-202-860-2110 United States Toll (Washington D.C.)
+1-415-655-0001 US Toll
Join using Microsoft Lync or Microsoft Skype for Business
|
|
THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
DIVERSITY COMMITTEE & INITIATIVES
|
|
The Department of Psychiatry Diversity Committee is welcomes any and all new faculty and staff to join the various sub-committees as follows:
-Social Justice Education & Curriculum
-Department Initiatives & Social Justice Training
-Research
-Faculty Recruitment & Retention
-Staff Recruitment & Retention
The Committee has formed a centralized hub on Microsoft Teams. All are welcome to visit the hub for updates, information, and resources:
Each sub-committee will be adding information and resources related to their progress and ongoing initiatives.
1. Education and Curriculum/Department Initiatives: The first lecturer in our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grand Rounds Series on Nov. 19th is Steven Ragsdale. He will be discussing the history of medical and structural racism in Baltimore. Details will be announced soon.
2. Faculty Recruitment: Finalizing recommendations for improving the hiring process, including providing a list of suggested questions for interviewers.
3. The Staff Recruitment and Retention team: working on our process for cultural responsiveness and equity. Division and units are encouraged to partner with Maryland Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). See Microsoft Teams for suggestions.
4. The Research Sub-Committee: discussed a recent meeting with Dr. Michelle Jones London, Chief of the Office of Programs to Enhance Neuroscience (OPEN) Diversity at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). They have adopted the 4 pillars of the OPEN strategy. These include: 1) cultivating a diverse "pipeline" of talent (high school to junior faculty); 2) mentorship and networking; 3) faculty retention and career transition support; and 4) policy and resource development.
The Diversity Committee meets monthly on the 4th Thursday of the month but, due to the holidays, our next meeting will be in December (TBD) and all are welcomed.
Meanwhile, please join us for Mr. Ragsdale's talk on November 19th!
Please email Dr. Anique Forrester, MD,
at aforrest@som.umaryland.edu for more information.
|
|
ANTI-RACIST BOOK CLUB
The resident-run Anti-Racist Book Club continues to expand, with members of the medical student organization White Coats for Black Lives joining us on our next meeting, as well as colleagues from the Department of Social Work. We will be discussing the interplay of race and complex trauma in All of God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou on December 13th at 7 PM. All are welcome!
Please contact Ann Marie at ann.gustafson@som.umaryland.edu for more information and to join!
|
|
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION RESOURCE LIST
The Department has been continually updating our Diversity and Social Justice Education Resource List.
|
|
PSYCHIATRY UPDATES
The Department of Psychiatry would like to update you on our Grand Rounds, awards, publications, presentations, & more!
|
|
The Department of Psychiatry is looking forward to this month's Grand Rounds:
November 5, from 12:00-1:30 pm
Dr. Mark Kvarta will present on "Translating multidimensional stress: unraveling environmental vs. genetic effects on depression from bench to bedside."
Meeting link:
Meeting number:120 372 2689; Password: iaJjRwPj243
|
|
November 19, from 12:00-1:30:
Steven Ragsdale will present on "History of Medical Racism in Baltimore."
Meeting link:
Meeting number: 120 434 7712; Password: iaJjRwPj243
|
|
INTEGRATED CARE INITIATIVE (ICI) |
|
The Division of Consultation Liaison is currently expanding with its Integrated Care Initiative (ICI)!
Dr. Madeline Marks is the first member of the Shock Trauma ICI team in place.
She is currently reviewing clinical records and organizing a needs assessment to assess the project's scope and priorities more thoroughly.
Together, Dr. Marks and a consulting psychiatrist will develop a collaborative, proactive intervention system to improve behavioral management. The goal is to improve the Shock Trauma staffs' effectiveness in identifying and addressing behavioral problems before they develop into crises. She has already had notable success in assisting staff to modify the behaviors of an agitated, medication-resistant TBI patient, thereby making it possible to discharge him to a rehabilitation center.
|
|
Sonia Bansal, PhD, was recently awarded a 2020 Young Investigators award by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
The Young Investigators awards note those pursuing neurobiological and psychiatric research and is inclusive of basic, translational, and clinical researchers. The Foundation focuses on methods of treatments, cures, and preventative measures to promote overall mental wellbeing and productivity.
Dr. Bansal's project will focus on the development of information regarding the contributions of disruptions in corollary discharge to psychosis symptoms, a neural mechanism. Dr. Bansal will use a behavioral assessment in combination with evaluations of positive psychotic symptom and electrophysiology across two sensory modalities in hopes of verifying that corollary discharge disruptions are associated with quantified abnormalities in agency-related symptoms.
Congratulations Dr. Bansal for this hard-earned award!
|
|
School Health Services National Quality Initiative - Collaborative Innovation and Improvement Networks 2020 Leadership Launch
The National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH), in partnership with the School-Based Health Alliance (the Alliance), kicked off the third year of the National Quality Initiative on School Health Services.
The NCSMH and the Alliance hosted state leaders in health, behavioral health, and education from twelve states (Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina). These states will participate in a 12-month intensive learning collaborative, called a Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network, to improve health in school-based health centers and comprehensive school mental health systems.
|
|
School Mental Health Virtual Learning Series
The National Center for School Mental Health is pleased to offer the School Mental Health Virtual Learning Series – a webinar series with a focus on advancing high quality, sustainable school mental health from a multi-tiered system of support, trauma sensitive, and culturally responsive and equitable lens.
Previous webinars include Trauma-Responsive School Implementation Assessment; Youth Perspectives on COVID-19, Racism, and Returning to School; The School Health Assessment and Performance Evaluation (SHAPE) System; What Schools Can Do to Address COVID-19, Racism, and Social Justice; Integrating Social-Emotional Learning into the Classroom; and Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth.
Upcoming webinars include Promoting Educator Well-being, Addressing Racial Stress and Trauma, and Trauma-Responsive Care for Younger Students.
|
|
On October 8, Annabelle (Mimi) Belcher, PhD, presented an online NIDA Clinical Grand Rounds.
Her presentation was titled, "Harnessing Open-Label Placebo Effects to Improve Methadone Treatment Outcomes for Opioid Use Disorder."
Thank you Dr. Belcher for representing your research on behalf of the Department!
|
|
School of Social Work Presentation
Drs. Tiffany Beason and Sharon Hoover were panelists for the national virtual conversation hosted by the University of Maryland School of Social Work Institute for Innovation and Implementation - "Managing Now for a Better Tomorrow- Conversation on School Mental Health: Supporting Students, Families, and Educators as School Restarts During COVID-19."
|
|
National Conference of State Legislators
Dr. Sharon Hoover presented to the National Conference of State Legislatures on October 21st on "Helping Students Access School Mental Health Services."
Dr. Hoover will present to state legislators from across the U.S. with an overview of core components of a comprehensive school mental health system and examples of state legislative actions related to school mental health in 2020.
|
|
NAACP Maryland State Conference Presentation
Dr. Tiffany Beason was a panelist at the NAACP Maryland State Conference, "Beyond Back to School Virtual Forum: Empowering Families for Student Success and Wellness in a COVID-19 Era."
She was a panelist for the topic, "Nurturing Body, Mind, and Spirit," addressing the questions:
How can parents/families promote wellness and positive coping for youth during COVID-19?, and
What are some signs that my child is struggling to cope, and what are some family friendly coping resources and apps?
|
|
The BHIPP team is excited to have two posters accepted at the upcoming American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) 2020 Annual meeting, which was held virtually this year from October 12-24. BHIPP would like to share their citations and titles as follows:
Ferro, R.A., Bettencourt, A.F., Williams, J.L., Khan, K.N., Platt, R.E., Sweeney, S., & Coble, K., (2020). Pediatric Primary Care Provider Comfort with Mental Health Practices: A Needs Assessment of Regions with Shortages of Treatment Access.
Bettencourt, A.F., Coble, K., Jadhav, S., Reinblatt, S., Riddle, M., Simmons, T., & Williams, J.L. (2020). Characteristics of patients served by a statewide child psychiatry access program.
Thank you for your tireless work in helping to make healthcare accessible and to help educate our providers!
|
|
SPOTLIGHT ON INCOMING FACULTY
Kahlil Johnson, MD
|
|
I am a board certified General and Forensic Psychiatrist and a Clinical Assistant Professor with the Department of Psychiatry.
Originally from Chicago, I moved to the DMV for college and never left. I trained in Psychiatry at the George Washington University Hospital, and in Forensic Psychiatry at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.
I am currently working part-time at the Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) at the University of Maryland Medical Center. When I am not at the PES, I am working at my private forensic psychiatry practice, where I provide expertise on correctional mental healthcare and other matters.
|
|
XIAOLIN (CHARLIE) DENG, BM |
|
My name is Xiaolin (Charlie) Deng.
Prior to becoming a psychiatrist, I worked at the National Institute on Drug Abuse/NIH for ten years. Afterwards, I completed my psychiatry residency at the University of South Dakota.
Upon graduating, I decided to stay in South Dakota to work in a busy and rewarding psychiatric practice. However, it is certainly wonderful to be back on the East Coast. I am so glad to be part of the Department of Psychiatry at University of Maryland.
|
|
COVID COLLABORATIONS & RESOURCES |
|
Drs. Aaron Greenblatt, Annabelle Belcher, Devang Gandhi, and Eric Weintraub, along with Dr. Jessica Magidson, recently published "Overdue for an Overhaul: How Opioid Programs Can Learn from COVID-19" in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
The article can be found here, and highlights the call to advance telemedicine technology and Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPS).
The publication was further highlighted in Mayo Clinic Proceedings with a highlight to Dr. Aaron Greenblatt speaking on methadone treatment in a featured supplemental video.
Thank you all for this impactful work during these unprecedented times, and we look forward to your continued initiatives.
|
|
Walter Weintraub, MD, was recently quoted in Fortune on "VIP Syndrome" -- a term he coined to express the varying forms of treatment often given to patients in the public eye or heightened stature. Some times, through demands or the pressure to quickly treat patients, "VIPs" may receive non-traditional care, which may then lead to complications.
Speculation has surrounded the ongoing condition of President Donald Trump, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and has received an experimental antibody cocktail, antiviral drug, and steroid.
Does "VIP Syndrome" come into play? Click here for the full article.
|
|
University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Health and Recovery Practice (HARP)
The University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Health and Recovery Practice (HARP) was recently featured by the School of Medicine, noting the work of our University of Maryland Drug Treatment Center and addiction disorder experts, including Drs. Eric Weintraub and Aaron Greenblatt.
HARP recently adapted and expanded services during COVID to include comprehensive care and rehabilitation for patients, along with telemedicine treatment for those with opioid dependence. HARP and its expansion was made possible through Laurie Lundy, pictured above. HARP also offers same-day access to primary care services, as well as acute care services to patients being discharged from the hospital.
|
|
Gloria Reeves, MD, was recently interviewed for the article, "Mobilizing the Troops: University of Maryland Research Teams Respond to COVID19 Pandemic."
Dr. Reeves was featured for her work with Co-PI Dr. Aniket Bera on their grant that involves the study of Artificial Intelligence strategies to help child behavioral health providers improve caregiver engagement, particularly in rural Maryland communities.
Drs. Reeves and Bera will collect data, including speech patterns and facial expressions, to help better engage patients. For the full read, click here.
|
|
Student Mental Health During COVID-19: How to Prepare as Schools Reopen
Dr. Nancy Lever was one of the featured presenters for a national webinar, "Student Mental Health During COVID-19: How to Prepare as Schools Reopen" on September 4, 2020.
The webinar was geared toward emergency managers, public health professionals (state and local health departments), and school administrators who are working together to create school reopening and response plans.
The webinar was sponsored by the Mid-America MHTTC in collaboration with the MHTTC Network Coordinating Office, National Center for School Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH).
|
|
American Academy of Pediatrics “COVID-19 Response: Mental Health in Schools” Award
Dr. Jill Bohnenkamp (PI) (above, right) and colleagues (Co-Is- Drs. Sharon Hoover, Nancy Lever and Cindy Schaeffer [above, left]) within the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (DCAP) received funding for a new project, “COVID-19 Response: Mental Health in Schools” from the American Academy of Pediatrics as a subaward of their newly funded grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The project aims to expand the Training, Education, Assistance, Mentoring, and Support (TEAMS) model, a CDC-funded successful learning collaborative model, which supports school districts to overcome barriers by engaging in a systematic, planned process to improve health services. Participating school districts teams will be guided through a process to engage stakeholders and foster partnerships to support improvements in comprehensive school mental health services. The DCAP will also conduct the evaluation of the project.
|
|
Prince George's School Mental Health Initiative |
|
The Maryland Community Health Resources Commission recently featured the Department of Psychiatry School Mental Health Program and telemedicine services in its newsletter.
The article, "Prince George's School Mental Health Initiative Receives a CHRC COVID-19 Emergency Relief Grant to Expand Telemental Health Services to Students in Prince George's County," discusses the purchase and distribution of emergency provisions while schools are shut down.
The Prince George's School Mental Health Initiative (PGSMHI) will now be able to purchase Chromebooks, proper Internet access, and headphones for students to access their telemental health services and therapy sessions.
Within the article, Director of the PGSMHI, Dr. Dana Cunningham stated, "We are so excited to receive this funding from the MCHRC. This award will allow us to decrease the digital divide and eliminate many of the barriers that have precluded some families from being able to access mental health care. As we navigate this national pandemic, we want to ensure that we are able to remain connected to the families that we serve and continue to provide them with the services that they need."
|
|
Thanks to all for your contributions, and please email Lisa Cleary at lcleary@som.umaryland.edu with submissions. Our suggested categories include:
|
|
- Clinical trials and studies
- Community service
- Education
- Events, lectures, panels, & workshops
- Faculty appointments
|
|
- Grants and contracts, and collaborative opportunities
- Honors and awards
- IT news
- Media press
- Publications
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
