Dear colleagues,
With the end of 2023 drawing near, I wish to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to each of you for your countless contributions and hard work, and also celebrate our collective achievements this year as a Department.
The concrete targets outlined in our Strategic Plan for 2020-2025 continue to serve as reliable benchmarks by which we measure our successes, and I am delighted to note that 2023 has been an exceptional year in terms of progress.
We remain committed to expanding our research capacity at UBC-Vancouver and across our distributed sites, with several active recruitments in progress in the areas of Concurrent Disorders and Youth Depression, and within the Northern Medical Program and Fraser Health. Further, there are several new academic positions on the horizon, which we are looking forward to announcing in the New Year. On the educational front, we welcomed the first two residents of our new Interior track in July 2023, and in 2024-2025, anticipate more training positions in our Psychiatry postgraduate programs than ever before.
We also set our sights on completing several large projects, including the launch of the refreshed Department website, the restructure of our Divisions and the appointment of three new Division Heads, the inaugural application cycle of our Stimulus Grant program, and the establishment of a new Resident and Faculty Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) Committee and a new Awards and Recognition Committee.
Additionally, this past summer the Department prepared and submitted a comprehensive Academic Unit Report in advance of the departmental internal review, which was completed by a panel of FoM reviewers in October. I sincerely appreciate every Department member who took the time to participate in the interviews, as your engagement and candid feedback have been crucial to the process. The internal review presented a valuable opportunity for us to track our many milestones over the last several years, reflect upon the state of the Department, and take a closer look at the opportunities and challenges of our current academic environment, so that we may explore renewed priorities and take meaningful steps toward achieving these in the months and years ahead.
This year-end newsletter encapsulates all of our notable highlights from this year, and I hope you will read through it with a sense of pride and accomplishment. In my fifth year as Department Head, I remain indebted to our four Associate Heads who have been indispensable to our leadership team, and of course, all of our outstanding Department members without whom our achievements thus far would not have been possible. With your continued engagement and ongoing support, I look forward to working together as we set our course for the New Year.
Once again, I thank you all and hope you have a safe, happy and well-deserved rest this holiday season!
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Sincerely,
Dr. Lakshmi N. Yatham, MBBS, FRCPC, MRCPsych (UK), MBA (Exec)
Professor and Head, UBC Department of Psychiatry
Director, Institute of Mental Health, UBC
Regional Head and Program Medical Director, VCH/PHC
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).