No Matter Your Passion, There's a Session to Pique It
APA members the world over will gather May 16 to 21 for the annual meeting in San Francisco, the City by the Bay known for its Mediterranean-like temperatures, ubiquity in song, and multicultural offerings.
Exactly what is so attractive about San Francisco that it draws tens of thousands of tourists each year and is one of the country's most popular convention sites?
“What's not to like about San Francisco?” asked Josepha Cheong, M.D., of Gainesville, Fla., chair of APA's Scientific Program Committee for the annual meeting and a former resident of San Francisco for 20 years.
Among the city's many plusses, Cheong noted, are “the weather, the great vistas, the history, the shopping, the vibrant arts and performance culture, and all of the different walking neighborhoods and parks.”
Indeed, there are Golden Gate Park, Union Square, Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, Castro District, Haight-Ashbury, Chinatown, the Italian enclave of North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 39, to name a few.
“Best of all [is] the variety of restaurants and culinary options,” said Cheong.
Yes, the city will offer exciting attractions, but the real star of the show is APA's scientific program.
The theme of this year's meeting is “Shaping Our Future: Science and Service.” It was chosen by APA President Nada Stotland, M.D., M.P.H., who has dedicated her professional life to applying the scientific principles of psychiatry in service to individuals, communities, and the public's health overall.
In keeping with this theme, both science and service will be reflected throughout the meeting's six days through interactive forums, lectures, courses, workshops, and symposia. Most are focused on the latest basic and applied research in psychiatry, while others explore topics that relate to the practice of psychiatry such as practice-management issues, health care economics, health information technology, psychiatry and the law, industry relationships, and ethics.
A featured attraction that's new to the meeting is the “Clinical Knowledge and Skills Series.” It consists of three daylong courses chaired by master educators; the topics are cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and neuropsychiatry (Psychiatric News, February 20).
Meanwhile, psychiatrists preparing to take Part 1 of the ABPN board certification exam might be interested in registering for the May 16 ABPN board review course. That includes PGY-4 residents, who for the first time this year can sit for the test before their training has been completed. James Bourgeois, M.D., co-editor of the APPI Board Prep and Review Guide for Psychiatry, will lead the course. This course will be held Saturday, May 16, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; course registration is required.
Check out the lecture by Dean Ornish, M.D., best-selling author of Eat More, Weigh Less, and other books, and founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif. Ornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, will explore the impact of depression on cardiac health and vice versa.
The same day, past APA President Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D., will chair a symposium on depression and heart disease titled “Matters of the Heart.”
Meanwhile, San Francisco—or at least two aspects of it—will be the topics of two of the seven Presidential Symposia. Addictions specialists Mark Gold, M.D., and David Smith, M.D., will present “Grand-kids of the 1967 Flower Children: Lessons From Haight-Ashbury.” Mel Blaustein, M.D., will lead the session “Suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge.”
Blaustein also will introduce the showing of the documentary film“ The Bridge.” Eric Steel, the film's director, relates the stories of six individuals who during one recent year made use of the bridge to end their lives.
“The public is ambivalent about suicide, but suicide is very impulsive, and because it's impulsive, it's preventable and treatable,” Steel said in a San Francisco Chronicle article that ran shortly before the film's April 30, 2006, West Coast premiere.
Here are other meeting highlights:
The Northern California Psychiatric Society is sponsoring a panel discussion featuring APA leaders who were at the forefront of social change in the period 1970 to 1992. They include Alfred Freedman, M.D., who was APA president when APA's Trustees voted in 1973 to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder from DSM; Carol Nadelson, M.D., APA's first woman president; Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., APA's first openly gay president; and Melvin Sabshin, who was APA's medical director from 1974 to 1997. The session will also include a discussion of Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay supervisor, by his campaign manager and aide, Anne Kronenberg. She will show film clips of the film “Milk.” The session, titled“ Breaking the Barriers,” will be held Monday, May 18, at 2 p.m. in Room 304 on the Esplanade Level of the Moscone Center. | |||||
The American Psychiatric Foundation is holding its annual fundraising gala on Saturday, May 16, at 7 p.m. at the picturesque Ferry Building overlooking San Francisco Bay. In addition to dinner, the evening's program includes a silent auction and the presentation of the Awards for Advancing Minority Mental Health. Event proceeds support the foundation's grants, programs, research funding, and awards that advance public understanding that mental illnesses are real and treatable. The ticket price is $225. Tickets may be purchased online at<www.psychfoundation.org> or by phone at (703) 907-8503. | |||||
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is offering a special track of sessions on alcohol abuse. Topics include basic screening, the comorbid management of heavy drinking with such ills as posttraumatic stress or sleep disorders, and the impact of neuroscience and genetic research on pharmacological treatment. | |||||
The International Medical Graduates Institute for foreign-born psychiatry residents will offer these physicians guidance on the practice of psychiatry in the United States. Special focus is given to the importance of developing language and communication skills and cultural perspective to foster optimum interaction with patients, fellow residents, and residency faculty. ▪ | |||||
