The UT Southwestern Department of Psychiatry is pursuing team-based care across all its hospitals and treatment venues. It is increasingly imparting a broad and multidisciplinary basis to care delivered in the Department. Currently, we are emphasizing the role of Clinical Therapists, composed of Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) and Licensed Professional Counselors (LPCs) in our practice.

For any of the patients we treat, in an inpatient or outpatient setting, the fit between the patient’s behavioral needs and the orientation and skills of the therapist can be optimized with team-based care. Workforce expansion across all disciplines in Psychiatry is an undisputed need across the field of behavioral health. And now the Clinical Therapists are filling critical roles for individuals with behavioral health needs and expanding the existing workforce here in our Department and in our clinical settings. We hope with this expansion to create training opportunities in addition to work opportunities, so that workforce expansion across our city and our state will become a reality.

We wish Sandra King, MSSW, LCSW, Individual and Family Psychotherapist for the Early Psychosis Clinical and Research Program, very well in her retirement!

This month we are highlighting the relocation of Children's programs from Bass to Mockingbird Tower (1341 W. Mockingbird Ln, Dallas). The tentative move date is June/July 2022.

258 unassigned surface parking spaces will be available for employees and patients at no charge.

The Children’s Specialty Center Shuttle Route will cancel its stop at Bass/Chase and replace it with a stop at Mockingbird Tower.

Board-Certified Specialists: U.S. News & World Report voting is in progress, and with your vote we have an opportunity to position UT Southwestern Medical Center as a top-ranked institution for psychiatric care.

To cast your vote, you must have an active profile in Doximity before the voting period ends. Detailed instructions on how to claim your profile can be found here.

Once your profile is active, you can access the “Best Hospitals” survey by logging on to Doximity.com or to the Doximity app and entering “UT Southwestern” in the appropriate field. Please note that as a board-certified specialist, your vote will be cast automatically for the category corresponding to your specialty.

The Psychiatry Department's Team, Team Confabulous, set a record by raising $2,990 last year!

Help teach medical students in the simulation lab on select Tuesdays during clerkship didactics (2:00-4:30pm May 3 and June 14).

Tasks:

UT Southwestern Merit Award Winners consistently demonstrate the PACT Customer Service Standards and go beyond the scope of their typical work duties to deliver or support the delivery of the highest quality of care for our patients. This year’s honors include a certificate and $500.

Congratulations to the Psychiatry Department Merit Awardees!

The honor of Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Society Membership is granted only to residents and fellows who demonstrate excellence in scholarship, high professionalism, leadership, and gifted teaching. Throughout the year as students go through clerkships, the entire class can nominate any resident or fellow they believe exemplifies these traits and should receive this honor. Additionally, resident program chairs can nominate any trainee who they believe should receive this honor. After nominations were compiled, the AOA Class of 2022 voted on the members. Numerous nominations are received, and to be selected as an inductee is truly an honor that illustrates worthiness of the distinction.

Join Monty Evans, Ph.D., and Martin Deschner, Ph.D., via Zoom to develop a successful mindfulness practice via understanding the role of how attention, awareness, and memory interact to achieve stable attention (mindfulness) in the daily practice of meditation training to address problems of focal attention, effortful control, and difficulty concentrating.

An Experiential Workshop to Practice Responding to Patients’ Cultural Experiences or Microaggressions will take place on Friday, March 18, 12-1:30pm via Zoom.

Cultural conversations with patients require thoughtfulness. Because these topics may be subtle or unexpected, it is important to have repeated practice to increase one’s ability to respond in the moment of clinical encounter. Using simulated patient videos, attendees will practice responding to patients with cultural experiences or microaggressions toward others.

Objectives:

1. To practice inquiring and responding to patients’ cultural experiences

2. To practice responding to patient microaggressions

3. To self-reflect on physical and emotional reactions in the moment

Please join even if you can only stay from 12-1pm, as that time will involve practice and small group discussions. The last 30 minutes will be for discussion and debrief for those still in attendance.

Note: The content is new compared to the last multicultural workshop in Fall 2021.

After a successful Fall group, the PsychCRI Team is pleased to offer another Writing Accountability Group in the department! We will start a new 10-week WAG on April 5. Meeting times are either Tues 4-5pm or Thurs 12-1pm.

"Medical Decision Making, Ethics, and Behavioral Economics"

Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Ph.D.

Cullen Professor of Medical Ethics

Associate Director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy

Baylor College of Medicine

While there is no registration fee, participants must register to attend. The Zoom event ID and link to join the webinar will be emailed upon registration.

"Forensic Psychiatry Issues in Children and Adolescents:

An Overview for General Practitioners"

Enduring courses – take anytime, anywhere:

For more recorded learnings, visit childrenslearn.com.