Congratulations to Dr. Quinten Clarke, a UBC Psychiatry Research Track Resident, who has received the 2022 Resident Recognition Award from Providence Health Care (PHC).
This award, sponsored by the PHC Medical Affairs and the Medical Staff Association, is awarded each year to a resident who has rotated through PHC and displayed excellence in the areas of education, leadership and advocacy.
Once again, congratulations to Dr. Clarke on this wonderful recognition!
We would like to congratulate Dr. Dean Elbe, who has received a Practice Innovation Award from the Canadian Healthcare Network! This award is dedicated to Canadian pharmacy professionals who are not only providing exceptional patient care, but also demonstrating creativity and innovation in pharmacy practice.
This year, Dr. Elbe has been recognized for his significant work in developing formalized psychiatry resident and fellow rotations in pharmacotherapy, which he also precepts as a clinical pharmacy specialist in child and adolescent mental health. On rotation with Dr. Elbe for four to six weeks, residents are provided with valuable experience in effectively collaborating with pharmacists to prepare them for an easier transition to prescribing as future attending physicians. As well, since 2016, fifteen child and adolescent psychiatry fellows have completed the rotation, gaining practical knowledge and insight into pharmaceutical care services, patient monitoring, and responding to clinical inquiries and drug information requests.
Dr. Elbe is a clinical faculty member in the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and holds an Associate Membership in the UBC Department of Psychiatry. He has contributed extensively to the our PGME program since 2016, participating in teaching in psychopharmacology-related topics for psychiatry residents rotating through the Child & Adolescent Mental Health programs at BC Children’s Hospital.
Congratulations to Dr. Elbe on this very well-deserved recognition!
Read the full announcement here.
Dear staff, students, residents and colleagues,
As outlined among our priorities in the UBC Psychiatry Strategic Plan, in 2021 we launched the rebuild of our entire departmental website, a project which entailed many months of planning, development and implementation of a new layout and updated content, as well as ongoing consultation between our Executive and administrative teams and our fantastic website designer, Ms. Aida Viziru.
I am delighted to announce that this project has finally been completed, and our new website is now live and available for viewing here: https://psychiatry.ubc.ca/. Our collective goal was to create a website that has a modern look and feel, and offers a user-friendly browsing experience that is not only comprehensive, but also has a logical architecture that is easy to navigate. While the complexity of this project required a great deal of work and a flexible timeline, I believe we have achieved a refreshed and more modern platform that will meet the needs of not only our Department members, but also visitors from the public and wider academic community.
Some highlights of the new website include:
Please note that updates and revisions to the content will continue on an ongoing basis, and as such, I ask that you please take the time to explore the website and provide any suggestions or feedback you may have to Margaret Koshi (margaret.koshi@ubc.ca), who will be managing and maintaining the website from here on.
Finally, I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge and sincerely thank Dr. Sophia Frangou for her outstanding oversight, her hands-on involvement and her dedication of countless hours toward executing this enormous task over the last two years.
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).
We are deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of Clinical Instructor Dr. Paul Waraich on Friday March 3rd, 2023. Dr. Waraich was a dedicated Vancouver-based psychiatrist working in the areas of consultation-liaison, emergency, inpatient and outpatient psychiatry, who also made notable contributions to research and literature in the areas of schizophrenia and mood disorders.
Dr. Waraich was a graduate of the UBC residency program in Psychiatry, as well as the UBC Master’s of Health Sciences program in clinical epidemiology. He was first appointed to the UBC Department of Psychiatry as an academic faculty member in 2001, and during his term was involved in several impactful studies funded by the provincial and federal governments. They included a large multi-centred Health Canada project to develop national consensus on indicators that reflect the quality of care in the primary care mental health system, for which he served as Principal Investigator.
In 2007, Dr. Waraich stepped down from his academic position to focus on his clinical work and his young children, however decided to return to the Department as a clinical faculty member in 2011. Over the years, he actively participated in teaching and supervision of both medical students and residents, and in 2014, was appointed to our educational leadership team as the PGE Site Director at Burnaby Hospital. In this role, he was highly dedicated to each of our residents training at this site, ensuring they were all well supported and meeting their learning goals and objectives. While Dr. Waraich stepped down from this role at Burnaby Hospital in 2016 to transition to private practice, he remained an active and valued member of our UBC Psychiatry community.
The passing of Dr. Waraich is a significant loss to the Department, to his many friends, patients, former students and mentees at UBC, Burnaby Hospital, and SFU where he held an adjunct appointment, and to his numerous colleagues with whom he collaborated all across the country. The UBC Department of Psychiatry wishes to send its sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones of Dr. Waraich during this profoundly difficult time.
If you wish to send a message of remembrance in honour of Dr. Waraich, please do so by visiting his memorial page here.
Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC Department of Psychiatry
Co-Head, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Program
Email: julius.elefante@ubc.ca
Dear Colleagues,
I am deeply saddened to share that Professor Emeritus and former Department Head Dr. Neil J. Yorkston passed away on February 20, 2023 at the age of 94. As an active member of our faculty and Department leadership through the 1980s, Dr. Yorkston was an accomplished scholar and clinician who was highly esteemed by colleagues not only at UBC, but also in Australia, the UK, and beyond. I join his many friends and peers around the world who have received this news with heavy hearts, and suffice to say we will all miss him a great deal.
Dr. Yorkston’s long and exemplary career began in Australia, where he obtained his medical degree at Sydney University in 1952. Following his residency in internal medicine, he completed his training in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at Sydney University before relocating with his young family to a region of Ethiopia (now Eritrea) where he served as a medical missionary and head of the medical department at the Haile Selassie 1 Naval Base from 1958 to 1960. Thereafter, Dr. Yorkston and his family moved to the UK, where he completed his Diploma in Psychiatry and worked at Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospital for a number years. His call to academia came in 1967, when Dr. Yorkston obtained a number of research grants which facilitated his appointment as an Assistant Professor at Temple University. He was later recruited to the University of Minnesota as an Associate Professor, where he published numerous papers in leading journals such as The Lancet and Archives of General Psychiatry, and also authored an influential book titled Psychotherapy Versus Behavior Therapy.
Following his academic appointments and a return to clinical work in the UK for several years, Dr. Yorkston and his family immigrated to Vancouver when he was appointed as a full tenured Professor and Head of the UBC Department of Psychiatry in 1980. His arrival to UBC was warmly welcomed, as he was by this time a renowned researcher in his diverse areas of expertise, which included psychopharmacological studies in schizophrenia and in psychotherapies for patients with neurosis and other personality disorders. During his term as Head, he helped lead the Department on a course toward growth and transformation while navigating through a difficult fiscal climate at UBC; indeed, Dr. Yorkston was among a cadre of early academic leaders who helped build our Department into the modern, world-class centre of learning and research that it is to day.
Dr. Yorkston gradually retired from teaching and research activities in the early 1990s, returning to the UK to practice as a locum psychiatrist for several years before settling into full retirement in North Vancouver. As an Emeritus faculty member he continued to maintain his ties with the Department, most notably in his reliable attendance at our Annual Research Days year after year. He clearly enjoyed attending the talks on up-and-coming themes in research, and it was wonderful to see him engaging with young investigators and staying connected with the academic world in which he had been entrenched for so many decades.
Dr. Yorkston will be remembered not only as a visionary scholar and a gifted clinician, but also as a true gentleman whose warmth, humour and kindness touched many. The news of his passing will surely come with a deep sense of loss to all of his friends, colleagues, and former students here at UBC and around the world, who had the distinct privilege to both learn from and work alongside him over the decades.
If you wish to send a personal message to the family, please do so by visiting his memorial page here. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider making a donation to Overseas Missionary Fellowship (https://omf.org/ ), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (https://www.bloodcancers.ca/), or Peace Arch Hospice Society (https://www.peacearchhospice.org/). A Memorial Service will be held at Shaughnessy Heights United Church in Vancouver at 2pm on Saturday March 25th, 2023, with a reception immediately afterwards in the Church Hall. A link to livestream of the service will also be available on the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIUw3bv6SiU.
On behalf of the UBC Department of Psychiatry, I send my sincerest condolences to Dr. Yorkston’s children and the rest of his family during this most difficult time.
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).
Dear Colleagues,
It is with profound sadness that I share the news that Professor Emeritus Dr. William (Bill) Piper passed away last week at the age of 77. As many of you are aware, Dr. Piper was a very highly respected researcher and colleague in the UBC Department of Psychiatry and across the broader mental health community. He leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of impact and achievement, particularly in the area of psychotherapy, and the loss of Dr. Piper will be felt deeply amongst his many colleagues and friends at UBC and beyond.
Dr. Piper’s distinguished academic career began at McGill in 1973, where he was first appointed as an Assistant Professor following his PhD training at the University of Connecticut and practice in clinical psychology with the US Navy. At McGill, he was promoted to Associate Professor prior to transferring in 1985 to the University of Alberta, where he remained until 1997 when he was appointed in the UBC Department of Psychiatry as a full Professor.
As an extremely dedicated and highly engaged member of our faculty, Dr. Piper was a passionate and vocal champion for psychotherapy, which was still a fledgling field in our Department in the 1990s. His vision and advocacy led to the establishment of the UBC Psychotherapy Program, for which he served as Founding Director for many years. Importantly, it was under his leadership that the Program flourished over the years into a thriving academic unit that supported innovative research, clinical services, as well as an integral component of psychiatry residency training at UBC.
As a researcher, Dr. Piper was internationally renowned for his outstanding contributions to psychotherapy, specifically in understanding the interplay between patient characteristics and therapy outcome, and was among the world’s foremost investigators in this area. He produced a long list of publications, many of which were published in highly ranked journals such as Archives of General Psychiatry, and also co-authored several books and numerous book chapters. His many achievements were duly recognized in the form of prestigious awards and honours, including the Distinguished Research Career Award from the Society for Psychotherapy Research, as well as inductions as a Fellow to the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Group Psychotherapy Association, and as a Distinguished Fellow to the American Group Psychotherapy Association.
Prior to his formal retirement in 2011, Dr. Piper was a constant fixture and a welcome presence in the offices and halls of UBC Hospital, and later, at the David Strangway Building. His UBC colleagues will fondly remember Dr. Piper for his kindness, graciousness and collegiality, and the generous mentorship he provided to many junior colleagues, students and trainees. The loss of Dr. Piper will also surely resonate across his wider circle of friends and peers with whom he had built productive and lasting relationships. Needless to say, Dr. Piper will be deeply missed by us all.
As the Department wishes to honour Dr. Piper’s memory and celebrate his many important contributions to the UBC Psychotherapy Program, including his leadership in founding the Program, the existing UBC Psychiatry Postgraduate Psychotherapy Award will be renamed and henceforth entitled the Dr. William E. Piper Memorial Award in Psychotherapy. This award will continue to recognize, on an annual basis, residents who have demonstrated strong interest and outstanding development in the area of psychotherapy.
On behalf of the UBC Department of Psychiatry, I send my sincerest condolences to his wife, Martha, and the rest of the Piper family during this most difficult time.
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).
*** Sent on behalf of Dr. Clare Beasley and the Psychiatry Summer Immersion Program ***
Dear Faculty,
After two successful years, the Department of Psychiatry 4th annual Psychiatry Summer Immersion Program will take place Monday June 5 – Tuesday June 6, 2023. The 2-day program provides an opportunity for 1st Year undergraduate medical students to explore the field of psychiatry as a potential career option through engagement with psychiatrists and psychiatry residents. Each day consists of half-day interactive talks, and half-day clinical shadowing (observership) placements.
Talks
The purpose of the talks is for students to hear the about the broad range of subspecialties and career options within psychiatry. As a speaker, you will share your career path and provide insights into your subspecialty. Talks take place in the morning and are 35 minutes long with an additional 5 minutes for Q&A.
Shadowing
The purpose of shadowing is for students to meet and observe psychiatrists at work in a broad range of subspecialties and settings. Shadowing sessions take place in the afternoon and should last 2 to 3 hours.
Locations
| Site | Talks location | Shadowing |
| Vancouver | Diamond Health Care Centre | within Metro Vancouver |
| Victoria* | Royal Jubilee Hospital | in Victoria |
| Kelowna* | n/a* | n/a* |
| Prince George* | University Hospital of Northern BC | in Prince George |
*Insufficient student numbers to run the program at Kelowna this year. While it is anticipated that the program will be run in Prince George and Victoria, this is dependent on final student numbers.
Remuneration
Talks – $91.80/hour (pro-rated)
Shadowing Supervision – $91.80/session with 1 student; $112.21/session with 2 students
Sign Up
You can sign up to be a speaker and/or a shadowing supervisor here 2023 PSIP Faculty Sign Up.
If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Clare Beasley (clare.beasley@ubc.ca) or Amit Natt (amit.natt@ubc.ca).
Best regards,
Clare Beasley
** Sent on behalf of Dr. Charles Ho, Competence By Design (CBD) Faculty Lead, Postgraduate Psychiatry Program **
Dear Faculty,
Please join us for an online webinar titled “CBD Psychiatry Workshop for PGY4 Supervisors – PGY4’s in the Core Stage”. The webinar’s goal is to help you prepare for and describe what you need to know for the Core Stage of training in CBD for the incoming PGY4 cohort.
This webinar is for all faculty, but particularly for those who will be supervising the incoming PGY4 residents.
CBD Psychiatry Workshop for PGY4 Supervisors – PGY4’s in Core Stage
Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Zoom (Details to come)
Workshop Theme: This workshop focuses on the PGY4 Foundation stage of residency training. Discussion will include:
Please register through the link by Friday, April 28th:
PGY4 CBD Workshop Sign Up Link
Sincerely,
Dr. Charles Ho, FRCPC
Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Competence By Design (CBD) Faculty Lead, Psychiatry Postgraduate Education Program
Chair and Member of the Scientific Planning Committee
UBC Department of Psychiatry
The UBC Department of Psychiatry, located at the Vancouver UBC Campus, 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).