Patricia, she is maybe 40. She is mentally ill. Her mother was shot while cooking in her kitchen with a rifle someone was fooling with, and the weapon went off. Patricia was there to see her mother’s head just about blown off. She was 16 then. I d…
Category: Psychiatry
Wisdom for child fellows and fellow children
This is the text of the keynote graduation speech given to the child and adolescent psychiatry residents at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on June 18, 2020. Let me begin by confessing that I am not a child psychiatrist. I am an adult psychia…
A socially distant graduation message
Four years ago, after a blissful fourth year of medical school filled with carefully chosen psychiatry electives and plenty of hikes in the mountains, I began my psychiatry residency program. I started on sixteen straight weeks of medicine, and I was t…
Technological change and mental health: How will the workforce of the future cope with the fourth industrial revolution?
Work is a necessary part of life. More than simply a means to a paycheck, work gives individuals a sense of dignity and accomplishment. Feeling as though one is participating in meaningful work, whether it is contributing to a massive project or an ind…
A social worker remembers a tortured soul
By profession, Donna Dillon is a photographer. She wouldn’t like to be described as a “professional” anything, but the quality of her photos make her deserving of the term. But disarray and inertia characterize Donna now, by her own …
COVID and mental health awareness in health care
I wake up in a cold sweat. It’s 4 a.m. “Are you awake?” The text goes to one of my colleagues and best friends. I call him brother. He responds as calmly and kindly as he always does. “Sure, what’s wrong?” I don̵…
What about the mental health of clinical trial participants?
“Why is my disease less important than COVID?” Donna asked me toward the end of our phone call. Two years ago, after celebrating her 65th birthday, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia—an aggressive type of blood cancer—which turned out to be …
We need improved mental health care for physicians
In 2014, an emergency medicine resident opened a personal email and was shocked to see it briefly mention the death of another resident physician from a different training program. Unofficial group chats ensued amongst her co-residents, discussing the …
The widowhood effect and COVID-19: What seniors need to know
The coronavirus has taken a major toll on virtually all aspects of our lives, especially for those of us who live in urban areas. As many others have rightfully pointed out, the dangers of the disease extend well beyond the physical complications cause…
Providing clinician support in times of calm and chaos
Before the world was crippled by the spread of COVID-19, physician burnout was already taking an alarming toll on our health care system. Physicians were working more hours, more days, in high-pressure circumstances with excessive charting requirements…
