
Departmental News

COMMUNICATIONS BULLETIN
Capturing weekly announcements about our members, their latest research findings, upcoming events and other departmental news.
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Annual & Biannual Meetings
GFT Meetings
GFT Meetings for all academic faculty members are held on a biannual basis, on the first Thursday of April and the first Thursday of October.
Advisory Meetings
Advisory Meetings for members of the Advisory Committee are held on a biannual basis, on the first Thursday of May and the first Thursday of November.
Events
The UBC Department of Psychiatry organises multiple educational events, including grand rounds, lectures, and the annual departmental research day. Other educational activities relevant to psychiatry are available through the Faculty of Medicine, the Office of Faculty Development, and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health.
Frames of Mind: A Monthly Mental Health Film Series

A current focus of the Department’s Public Education program is a mental health film series called “Frames of Mind“. Its goal is to promote community education of issues pertaining to mental health and illness. This ongoing series consists of a once-a-month evening screening of a feature length dramatic film or documentary followed by an informal presentation related to the mental health issue depicted in the film. Speakers and panelists range from psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to representatives from mental health community-based and nonprofit organizations, cinema experts and mental health consumers and their family members. A moderated discussion concludes each evening, with full audience participation encouraged.
Other aspects of the series – now in its twenty-first year – include its rotating co-sponsorship by relevant community advocacy organizations and its ongoing evaluation by those who attend. To date, topics ranging from depression to schizophrenia to autism have now been successfully presented to over 20000 attendees. Please see the website.
Screenings are generally held at 7:00pm on the third Wednesday evening of each month at the Pacific Cinematheque Theatre, 1131 Howe Street.
UBC Mood Disorder Rounds
In the first Mood Disorder Rounds of the new year, Dr. Holly Swartz will present “Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy for Bipolar Disorders: Evidence and Strategies”.
Dr. Swartz is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College, medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and completed her psychiatric residency training at New York Hospital / Cornell University School of Medicine. Dr. Swartz’s research focuses on understanding and optimizing treatments for mood disorders. She is well known for her work evaluating Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) as treatments for depression and bipolar disorder. Her research focuses on the role of IPSRT and pharmacotherapy in the management of bipolar II depression and IPT in the management of maternal depression. She is engaged in collaborative projects to develop computational frameworks to model dyadic interpersonal behaviours in relation to psychotherapy process and outcomes and to understand neural correlates of change in chronotherapeutic behavioral interventions. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.
Date(s): Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Format: On Zoom
Contact: To attend and receive the Zoom link, email kaitlin.vandewater@ubc.ca.
Annual Department Research Day
This meeting highlights research achievements of the UBC community both in basic and clinical neuroscience. Emphasis is placed on findings with direct clinical relevance.
SAVE THE DATE: the Annual Departmental Research Day is Thursday June 5, 2025.


Grand Rounds
Grand Rounds and other continuing professional development (CPD) events occur regularly at all the teaching hospitals.