The Mental Health and Gender Wellness program held its team retreat in December. Thank you to the team for all you do in supporting mental health needs related to pregnancy, parenthood, OBGYN health, and more! Not pictured are Jenny Anthony, NP, and Emily Nalbone, PMHNP.

Celebrating the Holidays and Teamwork on 2-9200

Our 2-9200 Adult Inpatient team recently held their annual Spirit Week celebrating the holidays. Highlighting the teamwork and collaboration between physicians and nurses, the unit held a bit of a fashion swap with nurse manager Eleanor Wambach dressing up as medical director Kyle Rodenbach, MD, and assistant nurse manager Tessa Engel dressing as attending physician Syed Mustafa, MD. 

Spreading Holiday Cheer with Santa's Reindeer

Photo by Golisano Children's Hospital

Shortsville Reindeer Farm stopped by on Christmas Eve to spread holiday cheer to patients and families at Golisano Children's Hospital and our UR Medicine Mental Health and Wellness wing! READ MORE>>>

Good Night Lights Wrap Up for 2024

Photo by Golisano Children's Hospital

Thank you to everyone who participated in our 2nd Annual Department of Psychiatry Food Drive! Below is only a small portion of all the donations received which will be distributed to food cupboards to support those getting services at our outpatient clinics and those recently discharged from inpatient programs.

Here with You: Supporting People with Substance Use and Suicide Concerns

In the latest episode of Never the Same, a new podcast series by Tony Pisani, PhD exploring the evolution of suicide prevention, Dr. Pisani chats with Kenneth Conner, PsyD, MPH, Morica Hutchison, PhD, and mental health advocates Jack Stem and Kimberly Hribar on responding to difficult conversations about suicide and substance use.

Safa Rabah-Muhammad Shares Advice with New Bachelor's-Prepared Nurses

Sara Rabah-Muhammad, registered nurse in Psychiatry, was the RN-to-BS class speaker for the University of Rochester School of Nursing's December pinning ceremony celebrating graduating nursing students.

Ask the Doc: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder

Medications for opioid use disorder are evidence-based and effective. However, many individuals lack convenient access to treatment. Join the UR Medicine Recovery Center of Excellence's virtual session on January 7th with addiction medicine providers to learn more and ask your questions. READ MORE>>>

Celebrating our Med/Psych Units

January 2nd through January 8th marks the first annual Med/Psych Week in celebration of our G-9200 and 1-9200 Med-Psych programs! You may notice some of the Med/Psych teams wearing green in celebration on January 7th. We invite you to take some time to thank a team member that week for all they do to address the medical needs of our patients.

Thinking about a career that directly helps our community? A new update on the University of Rochester job portal makes finding a position that fits you easier than ever! Above are just a few of the open positions now. Click here to learn more about joining our team!

Save the Date for our 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week of Celebration

Save the date for our 2025 Department of Psychiatry‘s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration! Join us for this series of events around the week of January 20^th in commemoration of the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Stay tuned to the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, Culture, and Equity (DICE) website for more details in January! 

• Chloe Lee, MD, MPH, Sungsu Lee, MD, PhD, and Grace Ro, MD recently published an editorial in PsychiatryOnline discussing mental health among the Asian American Pacific Islander community, interactions with law enforcement, and possible steps to getting the first response right.
• A new publication by Anne-Marie Hathaway, DO explored biases that can hinder psychiatric services to incarcerated individuals and how training programs can help address this stigma in correctional psychiatry.
• Anthony Pisani, PhD, Peter Wyman, PhD, Ian Cero, PhD, Caroline Kelberman, MA, and Karen Schmeelk-Cone, PhD published a pilot of Text4Strength—a program of automated text messages focused on coping strategies- to support school-based suicide prevention programs.
• Daniel Maeng, PhD published a study alongside Rebecca Hoffman, MD, 
• Virginia Sun, PhD, Robert Sticca, MD, and Robert Krouse, MD, MS on patterns of acute care utilization among cancer survivors who received ostomies in three large hospital systems.
• Lauren DeCaporale-Ryan, PhD, Holly Wheldon, PhD, and Susan McDaniel, PhD, alongside colleagues from the Department of Surgery, recently published a study evaluating how the clinical learning environment influences surgical residents' approach to surgeon-patient interactions. 
• Lawrence Peterson, PhD published a study testing the efficacy of a single-session intervention to reduce work-related distress among public defender trial attorneys.
• Christopher Seplaki, PhD, and Yeates Conwell, MD were coauthors on a paper exploring the association between cancer-related fatigue/ impaired physical function and mental health among cancer survivors one year after the end of treatment.
• Wendi Cross, PhD, Jennifer Funderburk, PhD, and Wilfred Pigeon, PhD were among the authors of a study out of the VA Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention measuring therapist fidelity during a pilot intervention for veterans with insomnia. 
• Psychometrically sound and culturally sensitive measures are needed to develop interventions for the growing public health challenge of loneliness. Yeates Conwell, MD, was a co-author of a study testing the Short-Form UCLA Loneliness Scale among older Chinese adults.
• Wilfred Pigeon, PhD was a coauthor of a longitudinal study finding that anhedonia linked sleep problems with greater next-day suicidal thoughts in youth.
• Thomas O'Connor, PhD was a coauthor of a paper examining the effects of prenatal exposure to phthalates, common plasticizers in plastic-containing items, and phthalate replacements on the chorionic plate. 
• Paul Geha, MD was a coauthor on a new study finding four unique, biologically based pain profiles largely associated with clinical variables and treatments of modifiable, chronic diseases. 
• Thomas O'Connor, PhD was a coauthor of an analysis of how various definitions of rural and urban populations impact the presentation of findings and their interpretation in the Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort.

• Jan. 7: Ask the Doc: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
• Jan. 14: Opioid Overdose Prevention Training
• Jan. 14: Health Bites: Situational Awareness
• Jan. 15: An Equity Perspective on the Health Challenges Facing People with Intellectual Disabilities and the Response of the Research and Clinical Community
• Jan. 22: Martin Luther King Jr. DICE Rounds
• Jan. 23: Opioid Overdose Prevention Training
• Jan. 29: Psychiatry Grand Rounds