Register for Consultation Sessions on Improving Educational Supports for Clinical Faculty

**This message is sent on behalf of Jennifer Golinski, Senior Director, Education Programs, Office of Vice Dean, Education, Faculty of Medicine and Shanda Jordan Gaetz, Managing Director, Faculty of Medicine **

Dear Clinical Faculty Members,

As part of our ongoing efforts to recognize the immense contributions of our clinical faculty members and support them most effectively, the Faculty of Medicine is looking at ways to enhance the teaching experience for clinical faculty members by modifying or increasing our clinical educational support processes and systems.

Building on valuable input we received from clinical faculty members via a survey in October 2024, we’re pleased to invite you to participate in a consultation session that will focus on identifying specific areas where support or enhancements are needed in the Faculty of Medicine’s educational resources, processes, and systems. 

We are offering three virtual sessions, with each focusing on one key aspect of support for clinical faculty: Orientation, Faculty Development, and Administration. You are welcome to attend one or multiple sessions that fit your schedule: 

Session 1, Faculty Development: Monday, June 9, 7:00 – 8:30 am 
Session 2, Orientation: Monday, June 9, 4:30 – 6:00 pm 
Session 3, Administration: Wednesday, June 11, 7:00 – 8:30 am

These sessions will be interactive and discussion-based, providing an opportunity to share your insights and help prioritize key improvements.  

To register by May 30, please click the following link and select the session(s) you are available to attend: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9N1zO2w58Fy84Wq  

If you have any questions regarding the sessions, please contact fom.strategicplan@ubc.ca.  

Thank you for your support. We appreciate your time and valuable perspective and look forward to the discussion.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Golinski (she/her)
Senior Director, Education Programs and Services
Office of the Vice Dean, Education
Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia
UBC Faculty of Medicine – Transforming health for everyone

Shanda Jordan Gaetz| Managing Director
UBC Faculty of Medicine
317-2194 Health Sciences Mall
Transforming Health for everyone.

UBC Department of Psychiatry Staffing Update | May2025

Dear Department members,

We are delighted to welcome Mr. Mauricio Bernardino to the Psychiatry Education Team in the UBC Department of Psychiatry!

Mauricio joined us on May 14, stepping into the role of Senior Program Assistant for the PGE program, for which we initiated a recruitment process following the promotion of Mr. Ahsan Sahibzada to the role of Postgraduate Program Manager. He brings his solid administrative background in education settings through his prior role as a UBC Hiring Solutions staff member.

In his new role, Mauricio will be providing administrative support to residents in PGY1 to PGY5, and will serve as a first point of contact for faculty and staff on processes related to the Postgraduate program. He may be reached by email at mau.bernardino@ubc.ca, however for complex issues, please also include Ahsan (ahsan.sahibzada@ubc.ca) on your email to Mauricio during his first few months of training and onboarding. When on site, Mauricio will be situated in the Psychiatry Education Office on the 11^th floor of the VGH Diamond Health Care Centre.

Please join us in warmly welcoming Mauricio to the team!

Sincerely,

Margaret Koshi
Director, Administration
UBC Department of Psychiatry

The UBC Department of Psychiatry Administration Office respectfully acknowledges the land on which we live, work and play is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh).

Strangway Building and Michael Smith Laboratories POWER SHUTDOWN | Saturday June 14, 2025, 8:00am – 6:00pm

Hello all,

This is your 1-month notice of a regular building power shutdown for regulatory electrical maintenance work.

BUILDING(S):	David Strangway Building Michael Smith Laboratories
SERVICE:	All electricity not on a back-up generator
SHUTDOWN FROM:	8:00 AM Saturday, June 14^th, 2025
SHUTDOWN TO:	6:00 PM Saturday, June 14^th, 2025
REASON:	Maintenance to High Voltage Feeder 12F10

Feeder shutdowns are done every 5 years, and this exercise is designed to provide the campus with reliable power on our end (doesn’t include Hydro’s side). We’re simply doing everything in our “power” to ensure reliable electricity to all buildings.

NOTE: Please keep this date in mind when planning/booking events, exams, and classes around this date and time. My suggestion would be to simply block off this period of time as “busy”. As there will be no regular power, the building will be essentially shutdown during this time frame. Because there are so many buildings impacted, these shutdowns are not cancelled last minute due to classes, events, etc. The shutdown will go on!

What to expect?

Regular power within your building will be off. Generator power will be active during this time if your building has a generator.

How this will affect you?

If your equipment is on generator power there will be a short power outage (10 – 20 seconds as the generator gets up to speed) then all gets transferred over. The same will happen when the power is restored at the end of this exercise.
If your equipment is not on generator power, please plan to power it down in advance of the shutdown.

Concerns?

If you have power sensitive equipment including computers, it’s highly recommended that the equipment be manually shutdown and unplugged during this maintenance.
If you have a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) this is a great opportunity to test out your equipment, if you don’t have one this is a great opportunity to look into and possibly purchase one (UPS won’t be supplied for the duration of this shutdown)
This is a great excuse to clean out general food storage fridges and freezers. What often happens is that occupants will return to their fridge/freezer and notice a mysterious puddle of water at the base of the unit and call in a maintenance request to have the issue looked into, only to find it was the result of the ice buildup in the freezer that has melted.

Please reach out to me with any concerns.

Thanks,

Jeffrey Smith
Facilities Manager
VP Finance & Operations (VPFO) Portfolio | Facilities | Customer Services and Informatics
The University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus
2329 West Mall | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z4 Canada
Phone 604 822 3425
jeff.smith@ubc.ca
https://facilities.ubc.ca/

Undergraduate Teaching Opportunity – Sign Up to Lead Year 3 Academic Half Day Sessions

Last year’s launch of our new, provincial Year 3 Academic Half Days was a huge success – thank you to all who supported these sessions and provided feedback! We are currently recruiting faculty and residents to help lead these small group teaching sessions for the upcoming academic year. The sessions are held online via Zoom, and are 1 hour in length. Tutor guides are provided to help facilitate and support the tutor in leading the sessions.

Details:
Time Commitment: 1-1.5 hours (including preparation time)
Dates: Tuesday afternoons, 2:30-3:30 and 3:45-4:45
Remuneration: Following the clinical faculty compensation terms, including an extra 30 minutes of preparation time for every new topic. Processed directly through TTPS – no invoicing.
Topics: Anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, trauma, psychotic disorders, sleep, somatization, and substance use disorders.

To Sign Up: email Eva Angelopoulos, Senior Education Programs Manager, at eva.angelopoulos@ubc.ca for full sign up details and any questions.

Best,

Eva Angelopoulos (She, Her, Hers)
Senior Education Programs Manager
Faculty of Medicine | Department of Psychiatry

I respectfully acknowledge, with gratitude, that the land on which I live, work and play is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-waututh)

Interventional Brain Medicine: An Emerging Field in Psychiatry

May 27, 2025
1:00pm – 2:00pm PDT

Summary

Led by Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez, this session will provide an overview of Interventional Brain Medicine: the emerging field using neurotechnologies to treat psychiatric and neurological conditions. Dr. Vila-Rodriguez will discuss clinical advances in neuromodulation techniques, including transcranial magnetic stimulation, magnetic seizure therapy, and focused ultrasound. His work emphasizes clinically applicable research designed to be translated promptly, efficiently, and safely into real-world practice.

Speaker

Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FAPA

Director, Non-invasive Neurostimulation Therapies (NINET) Laboratory
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuroscience and Translational Psychiatry
Co-head, Interventional Brain Medicine Program
Associate Member, School of Biomedical Engineering

As a Clinician-Scientist, I have a strong interest in conducting translational research that bridges our understanding on the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders with the clinical applications of this knowledge. My clinical practice is actively focused in those most severely afflicted by such conditions, and my research interests are directed at finding novel therapeutic interventions as part of the emerging field of Interventional Brain Medicine. This paradigm shift strategy is already helping mitigating the suffering of those with severe and refractory forms of psychosis, depression, and other neuropsychiatric conditions. I strongly believe that understanding the mechanism of action of Interventional Brain Medicine technologies is a critical step towards translating research knowledge to clinical practice. More important, translating that knowledge to clinical practice will have a direct, immediate, and positive impact on the life’s of those who struggle and suffer the most devastating forms of mental illness and their families.

More IMH PROGRESS Webinars

Dong Seok Lee

Applications Now Open! | FLEX Advisor in the Vancouver Fraser Medical Program

**Sent On Behalf Of Drs. Alice Mui And Heather Yule, Medd 419 Course Co-Directors**

Flexible Enhanced Learning (FLEX) consists of a longitudinal series of courses (MEDD 419/429/449) in Years 1, 2 and 4 of the UBC MD curriculum of the undergraduate medical program. FLEX provides students with dedicated curricular time to explore individual scholarly interests and enhanced learning opportunities in the broad context of medical training.

You are invited to apply to be a FLEX Advisor (working with an assigned small group of 8-9 medical students) in the Vancouver Fraser Medical Program for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Detailed descriptions of the FLEX Advisor positions are found in the TABLE below.

Course (Year)	Location of teaching	Notes
MEDD 419 (FLEX Year 1)	Month of Sept 2025 – In person preferred at Life Sciences Centre (UBC Point Grey Campus) Oct 2025 to Jun 2026 – all online work	Those new to FLEX and small group teaching are encouraged to apply to be a FLEX Advisor in MEDD 419 where they can learn how students evolve from weekly sessions in Foundations of Scholarship (Sept to Feb) to developing project plans (Mar to early Apr) to engaging in their chosen activities (end of Apr to early Jun). You don’t need to be an expert in all types of research/topics taught in Foundations of Scholarship – the course supports teaching faculty by providing answer keys for advisors in weekly guides
MEDD 429 (FLEX Year 2)	Sept 2025 to May 2026 – All online work	Very few encounters between Advisors and Students – students define what they intend to work on and then engage in that work
MEDD 449 (FLEX Year 4)	Sept 2025 to Feb 2026 – All online work	Very few encounters between Advisors and Students – students define what they intend to work on and then engage in that work

If interested please complete the RECRUITMENT FORM.

With the expansion of the UBC Medical School, we need more faculty than ever to get involved in undergraduate teaching; so, If you have teaching colleagues who may also be interested in being a FLEX Advisor, you are welcome to forward this invite and attachments to them.

NOTE: If you wish to be an Activity Supervisor (a different role than a FLEX Advisor) and are looking to advertise your project to interested FLEX students, you can submit your project here at any time: FLEX Activity Proposal Form

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We hope to see your application!

Niki Giannopoulos
FLEX Manager

Please RSVP by May 16 | PGE Psychiatry Grad Gala | Friday, June 6

** Sent on behalf of the UBC Psychiatry Postgraduate Education Team **

Dear Residents and Faculty,

We invite you to join the Class of 2025 Psychiatry graduates in celebration on Friday, June 6, 2025! Please see the details below and RSVP using the link provided by Friday, May 16, 2025.

RSVP Link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_efdYliiFMGPdl8G

Event Details
Date: Friday, June 6, 2025
Time: 5:30pm
Venue: Sage Restaurant, UBC
Address: 6331 Crescent Rd, Vancouver, BC

To complete the RSVP form, you will be asked to include your guest numbers, as well as select entrées of choice and inform us of any dietary restrictions.

Once you complete the RSVP form, you will be redirected to the ticketing page. Please select the correct number of tickets to reflect your party, even if some are complimentary. This will ensure we have accurate event numbers for our venue.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

Raquel Portillo Henriquez
Senior Program Assistant, PGE
UBC Department of Psychiatry

FRAMES OF MIND Mental Health Film Series | “Memoir of a Snail”, Wednesday May 21 | The Cinematheque | Co-sponsored by the UBC Psychiatry Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Division

A monthly film series promoting professional and community education on issues pertaining to mental health and illness. Presented by The Cinematheque and the Institute of Mental Health, UBC Department of Psychiatry. Screenings are generally held on the third Wednesday of each month at The Cinematheque, 1131 Howe St, Vancouver, BC.

Memoir of a Snail

Australia 2024
Director: Adam Elliot
Wednesday May 21, 2025 @ 7:00pm
The Cinematheque (1131 Howe St)

Film Description

“A weirdly affecting tragicomedy … Memoir of a Snail feels heartfelt and personal, like an exhortation to the downtrodden drawn from hard-won life experience.” – Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times

Recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Adam Elliot’s tragicomedy recounts the misfortunes of a misfit named Grace who becomes obsessed with snails. After she is separated from her twin brother Gilbert, traumatic events and failed relationships compound and lead to a myriad of mental health conditions including hoarding, kleptomania, and depression. To cope, a melancholic Grace becomes an ardent collector of romance novels and guinea pigs. Eventually her loneliness is alleviated by an unlikely but sweet friendship with an eccentric elderly woman named Pinky, whose lust for life offers Grace a glimmer of inspiration and hope. A stop-motion feat worthy of the big screen, Elliot’s poignant tale features over 200 handmade claymation puppets, rivalling a Tim Burton production. The medium is particularly suited to exploring the imperfections of the human condition, including its most agonizing and beautiful quandaries.

This screening is co-sponsored by the UBC Psychiatry Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. FREE TICKET: The first 10 members of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry who email Terena Zhao at psychiatry.divisions@ubc.ca to RSVP will obtain a free ticket!

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“Memoir of a Snail’s family-entertainment approachability belies a strange intensity … There are some candid hints, through the obviously personal narrative touches, that in this film some very real adult pain and anger is being hidden in plain sight—or, actually, not at all hidden.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Post-screening Discussion:

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Wolfgang Linden, a Professor Emeritus in Clinical and Health Psychology at UBC.

Dr. Wolfgang Linden has written over 170 peer-reviewed articles and book chapter and seven books, including an undergraduate textbook in Clinical Psychology that first appeared in 2011, a second edition in 2018, and a third edition in preparation. He previously served as president of the British Columbia Psychological Association, and also the Canadian Psychological Association. For four decades now, he volunteered as an advocate for improved mental health care in British Columbia and Canada. His current focus for advocacy is the reduction of adverse childhood events

The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, the Series Director of Frames of Mind and a Clinical Professor in the UBC Department of Psychiatry.

Want to be a regular at Frames of Mind screenings on the third Wednesday of every month? Subscribe to the email list and be the first in line for tickets!

Congratulations to Dr. Irfan Khanbhai, Recipient of 2025 PGME Program Director Award!

The Department congratulates PGE Program Director and Interim Associate Head Dr. Irfan Khanbhai on receiving the 2025 PGME Program Director Award!

Each year, the Faculty of Medicine Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) program recognizes faculty and staff for their outstanding contributions to residency education. This award highlights Dr. Khanbhai’s exceptional leadership, dedication to program development, and unwavering support for both residents and the broader educational mission of the Department and the FoM PGME Program. This award was presented to Dr. Khanbhai at the 2025 PGME Spring Workshop

We are also pleased to share that several other clinical faculty and staff from our department have been nominated for various PGME Award categories, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to residency education. The nominees include:

Program / Site Director Nominees:
Dr. Alison Gregson
Dr. Michelle Waller

Faculty Nominees:
Dr. Bradley Williamson
Dr. David Kealy
Dr. Ejike Udumaga
Dr. Jaeyun Yoo
Dr. Jeffrey Douziech
Dr. Kylie Riou
Dr. Leah Rosetti
Dr. Lingsa Jia
Dr. Mansoor Anwar
Dr. Michelle van den Engh Cook

Program Administrator Nominees:
Ahsan Sahibzada
Linda Chang
Olivia Michaels

Please join us in celebrating this well-deserved recognition of Dr. Khanbhai’s, as well as the significant contributions of all our department’s nominees to postgraduate medical education at UBC.