REMINDER: 2023-24 Psychotherapy & Research Supervision Invoice Submission

** Sent on behalf of the UBC Psychiatry Postgraduate Education Team. Please direct related inquiries to psychiatry.education@ubc.ca. **

Dear UBC Postgraduate Psychotherapy and Research Supervisors,

This is a reminder to submit your Psychotherapy and Research Supervision Invoices for the 2023-24 fiscal year (April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024) for PGY1-5 UBC residents and PGY6 subspecialty psychiatry residents. Note that fellow and visiting resident teaching is NOT eligible.

Please see the Eligibility Criteria for CTwPC funding for details. Please only submit the invoice if your supervision time cannot be billed through MSP.

For the PGY3 IPT and CBT Course, please invoice the group supervision portion (2-4pm) only. Please do not input Academic Day Seminars in this invoice, as they are automatically calculated by the Program.

The deadline for all invoice submission is Sunday, March 31, 2024 at 11:59PM. All payments will be processed after fiscal year-end (March 31, 2024).

You can submit your psychotherapy and research supervision time via this Online Submission Form. The form allows for up to 150 entries and a partially completed form will automatically be saved on the same computer you are using once you click the “Next” button on the first page. You can return at a later time to that same computer to complete your invoice form. When you submit your form, you will receive a confirmation by email with a copy of your submission for your records.

If you have any questions, please contact us at psychiatry.education@ubc.ca.

Thank you for your continued mentorship and teaching of our residents.

Kind regards,

Education Office
UBC Department of Psychiatry

We humbly acknowledge, with gratitude, that we live, work, and play as an uninvited guest on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations.

2023 in Review: Don’t Miss the UBC Department of Psychiatry Annual Newsletter!

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!

Read the Newsletter in Web PDF

Read the Newsletter in Issuu

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).

You Are Invited: UBC Psychiatry Annual General Meeting on Thursday February 15 @ 4:30pm

Department Head Dr. Lakshmi Yatham invites you to attend the UBC Department of Psychiatry Annual General Meeting on Thursday February 15, 2024 from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.

The meeting will be held at UBC Life Sciences Centre, 2350 Health Sciences Mall, Room LSC 1003. **For those unable to attend in person, virtual attendance via Zoom is possible (information below).

Zoom Meeting ID: 91366 217076
Passcode: 217076

All members of the Department of Psychiatry are invited to attend, and your engagement at the meeting will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks to Everyone Who Joined Us at the Year-End Festive Celebration!

The UBC Psychiatry Festive Celebration was held on Friday December 15th, with another great turn out. It was wonderful to see so many faculty, staff, students, trainees and residents to gather together for a fun and relaxed evening. Thank you to all who attended!

View all the event’s photos in our UBC Psychiatry Flickr Album!

Departure of Dr. Jordan Cohen as Associate Head, PGE & CPD

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share with you that, due to medical reasons, Dr. Jordan Cohen will be stepping down from his role as Associate Head, Postgraduate Education & Continuing Professional Development, effective December 31, 2023.

Since his appointment in April 2022, Dr. Cohen has served in this role with a great deal of enthusiasm and dedication, demonstrating exemplary leadership to the Department’s Postgraduate Education and CPD portfolios. He has been instrumental in steering a number of important initiatives in our Postgraduate Programs, which included overseeing the full accreditation of our Forensic Subspecialty Program as well as the ongoing development and implementation of CBD curricula across our Postgraduate Programs, and notably, playing a key role in guiding the establishment of a CaRMS-track residency program in Interior Health. Furthermore, as a core member of our Executive, Advisory and various Education committees, Dr. Cohen brought to the table his valuable expertise, and his perspectives and contributions to discussions were always highly respected and appreciated.

Please join me in sending Jordan all of our positive thoughts and well wishes as he navigates through his personal health challenges, and sincerely thanking him for his outstanding leadership and service to the Department.

Sincerely,

UBC Department of Psychiatry Staffing Update | December 2023

Dear Department members,

I wish to share with you some important staffing updates and announcements regarding our UBC Department of Psychiatry Administration Office.

Firstly, we are delighted to welcome Ms. Terena Zhao as our new Administrative Assistant to our six Division Heads. Terena is a recent UBC graduate with previous experience working in a busy medical clinic, and in her new position, she will act as the Division Heads’ primary point of contact. She will be responsible for coordinating meetings, organizing events, and undertaking other administrative tasks as needed to support our Division Heads and their activities. Terena will be situated at Detwiller Pavilion at UBC Hospital and may be reached by email at psychiatry.divisions@ubc.ca.

Additionally, we are excited to share that Ms. Ikuko Azuma has joined our staff as Project Manager on a permanent basis. She initially joined our team as a UBC Hiring Solutions staff member, and has since done an outstanding job in supporting a broad range of projects and initiatives for the Department and Administrative team. Ikuko will continue to be situated at Detwiller Pavilion at UBC Hospital, and she may be reached by email at psychiatry.projects@ubc.ca.

Please join me in warmly welcoming Terena and congratulating Ikuko in their new roles on the UBC Psychiatry Administration Team!

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season,

Vicky Yau
Director, Administration
UBC Department of Psychiatry

Congratulations to Dr. Alexander Levit, Awarded Funding Through the COPE Special Fund Initiative!

Congratulations to PGY4 resident Dr. Alexander Levit, whose educational project proposal was selected for funding by the Coordinators of Psychiatric Education (COPE) Special Education Fund. This fund is meant to encourage a broad range of educational activities, led by residents, that are related to postgraduate psychiatry training in Canada.

His project, titled “Interactive simulation training in complex presentations of undiagnosed bipolar disorder,” aims to supplement resident’s training in diagnosing bipolar disorder in the context of high complexity presentations (e.g. with multiple comorbidities). It is anticipated that honing resident’s abilities to recognize and diagnose bipolar disorder in more complex presentations will empower residents to provide more confident and higher quality patient care, and also help to mitigate delays in the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder. Learning materials and a facilitator’s manual generated for this educational activity will be made available to resident programs country-wide.

Congratulations once again to Dr. Levit on this exciting news!

UBC Psychiatry IT: Memos & Updates | December 2023

Happy Birthday to Allan Kwan!

Allan has been a great part of the IT department and has made my transition very easy. I look forward to working with him in the New Year to continue supporting the Department.

It will also mark the last day for Prabhjot Singh, our temp IT support. It’s been great to know and work along side him the past few months. I hope for great things for him and his career in the future.

If you any IT emergencies over the holiday break, please email psychiatry.it@ubc.ca for support.

Wishing everyone happy holidays and see you in the New Year!

*Attention* It’s time for the mid-month update and reboot cycle, so please be sure to save all your work and restart your computer at end of day today. All file share servers will also be updated and rebooted.

Keep Up to Date with Monthly Phishing Workshops

First, the Information Security Management team will be hosting a monthly 30-minute Phishing Workshop series that will offer a unique opportunity to review real phishing campaigns that have targeted our university community since the previous session. Each workshop will be available online via Zoom every second Wednesday of the month from 11:00am to 11:30am, starting January 10. These sessions are open to all faculty, staff and students. Registration is required.

What to Expect:

Real Scenarios: Explore recent phishing attempts and tactics used by cybercriminals
Educational Insights: Learn to identify phishing red flags and protect against attacks
Interactive Learning: Engage with real phishing messages for practical experience
Empowerment: Gain knowledge to safeguard personal and university data
Community Defense: Contribute to fortifying our university’s cybersecurity resilience

Your active participation during these workshops will help strengthen our collective resilience against cyber threats.

For registration details, visit the Monthly Phishing Workshops page:

hxxps://privacymatters.ubc.ca/monthly-phishing-workshops

Monthly Server Maintenance

Psychiatry IT will be patching and completing updates on Servers PSYT1776, PSYT1486 and PSYT1861 between Friday December 1 (8pm) to Sat December 2 (10am). Please be sure to save any open documents and log off/restart your computer at the end of your day.

What is MFA?

MFA is short for Mult-Factor Authentication, also known as 2FA or 2-Factor Authentication. It is an added level of security for online accounts. It requires users to provide aa additional form of authentication, like a code sent to their phone, along with their username and password. It helps prevent unauthorized access and protects sensitive information. Popular MFA methods are SMS text, phone call, and authentication apps.

Always enable MFA on accounts that contains or provides access to any personal data. MFA is on by default for UBC CWL access.

Popular Apps used for MFA: Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Duo Mobile.

Some useful links below for more info on MFA:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/what-is-multifactor-authentication-e5e39437-121c-be60-d123-eda06bddf661

https://duo.com/product/multi-factor-authentication-mfa/what-is-mfa

Sincerely,

Simon Chong

Congratulations to Dr. Kamyar Keramatian and Dr. Janet Mah, Awarded Funding Through the Convening & Collaborating (C2) Program!

Congratulations to Clinical Assistant Professor Dr. Kamyar Keramatian (Project: Early identification of bipolar disorder in adolescents and young adults: Establishing a collaborative research agenda) and Clinical Assistant Professor Dr. Janet Mah (Project: Rising Up: Collaborating with Chinese Families and Communities to Promote Mental Health Literacy), who have each been awarded funding for their respective research projects through the Michael Smith Health Research BC 2023 Convening & Collaborating (C²) program. They are among a total of 8 recipients in the UBC Faculty of Medicine who’s projects have been funding through this program in 2023.

The C2 program supports health researchers and research users to engage in meaningful collaboration to co-create relevant and impactful research for people such as patients, health practitioners and policymakers.

Congratulations again to Dr. Keramatian and Dr. Mah on this fantastic news!

Read the Faculty of Medicine announcement here.

IN MEMORIAM: Dr. Robert Hewko, Clinical Professor

The Department is deeply saddened to share the news that Dr. Robert Hewko passed away last week. As a Clinical Professor and member of the Department for over three decades, Dr. Hewko was also a well-known and respected clinician who served as the Clinical Manager of the Consultation Liaison Psychiatry Service at VGH for many years.

Dr. Hewko will be remembered by his countless colleagues, former students and mentees as being not only a leader in CL Psychiatry, but also an excellent and devoted teacher, as evidenced by the multiple UBC Psychiatry teaching awards he received year after year. Notably, in 2012 he was the Department’s nominee in for the FoM Clinical Faculty Career Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award. He was also very active in his professional community, serving in a long list of hospital committees and presenting at numerous hospital grand rounds each year.

We will share on this page any updates in regards to a Celebration of Life for Dr. Hewko, should we receive them. In the meantime, please keep Dr. Hewko’s family and friends in your thoughts during this most difficult time.