CULTURE, COMMUNITY, AND HEALTH STUDIES
Code
CCHS-CE-01
Title
Assertive Community
Treatment Team
Contact Info
Inquiries: Molyn Leszcz; mleszcz@mtsinai.on.ca
Samuel Law; slaw@mtsinai.on.ca
Lisa Andermann; landermann@mtsinai.on.ca
Wendy Chow; wchow@mtsinai.on.ca
Supervisor: Dr. Molyn Leszcz, Dr. Samuel Law,
Dr. Lisa Andermann, Wendy Chow MSW
Place: Mt Sinai Hospital,
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: Several
CCHS-CE-02
Community Mental Health
and Addictions Program
Inquiries: Dr. Dennis Kussin
416-603-5490; dennis.kussin@uhn.on.ca
Supervisors: Drs. Dennis Kussin, Ken Fung, Jose
Silveira
Place: Toronto Western Hospital,
University Health Network
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: Several
CCHS-CE-03
Community Mental Health
Programs for the Ethno
cultural Populations
CCHS-CE-04
Complementary and
Alternative Medicine in
Mental Health
CCHS-CE-05
Psychosocial Adaptation of
Immigrants and Mental
Health
Inquiries: Ted Lo
(416) 297-4807 ted_lo@camh.net
Supervisor: Dr. Ted Lo, Dr. Lisa Andermann
Place: CCHS/CAMH Clarke Site, Mt Sinai Hospital,
Hong Fook Mental Health Service, Across
Boundaries Ethno racial Mental Health Centre
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: 1
Inquiries: Ted Lo, 416-297-4807, ted_lo@camh.net
Supervisor: Dr. Ted Lo and Dr. Samuel Noh
Place: CCHS/CAMH Clarke Site
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: 1
Inquiries: Patricia Donoghue, CCHS
Administrative Assistant, 416-535-8501 x7608
Supervisor(s): Drs. Samuel Noh, Violet Kaspar,
Laura Simich, Haile Fenta, Hayley Hamilton
Description
We are delighted to offer elective and selective positions at the Mount Sinai
Hospital’s Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Team. These positions are ideal
for Residents who have either an interest in cross-cultural psychiatry, or an
interest in Chronic Care, or both. The ACT team is a unique and pioneering service
that serves the often marginalized, hard-to-reach, severe and persistently
mentally ill clients who are mostly unilingual, recent immigrants, and generally
unfamiliar with mainstream mental health services. The supervisors at the ACT
team have a focus on an innovative, culturally competent, compassionate
approach to serving this unique population, drawing from their rich backgrounds
in clinical cross-cultural psychiatry practices, as well as clinical and qualitative
research.
The community mental health and addictions program at the Toronto Western
Hospital provides a unique opportunity for residents interested in working with a
diversity of ethnicities and languages in the heart of one of Toronto’s most
diverse neighborhoods. As well as services in English, the program includes Asian
Mental Health serving the Cantonese and Mandarin speaking Ontarians,
Portuguese Mental Health and Addictions Services serving Portuguese-speaking
persons from Brazil, Portugal, Azores, Angola and Mozambique. The remainder of
community mental health provides services to Spanish and Italian speaking
Ontarians. Opportunity also exists to see patients in the community through
various community health clinics which serve diverse populations spanning
numerous languages and ethnicities along with issues of poverty, discrimination
and other forms of marginalization. We provide addiction services to the
Portuguese community. Therapeutic interventions include psychosocial
rehabilitation, mindfulness meditation, CBT, art therapy, GP consultations,
pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, as well as a variety of group therapies.
Residents will have the opportunity to select one or more populations and can
select from a variety of supervisors and services.
The resident will have the opportunity to experience front-line work in the ethno
cultural communities. He/she will be involved in assessment, treatment,
consultation, and education in the context of a wide range of services to the
ethno cultural populations in Toronto.
This elective provides an overview of the applications of CAM (complementary
and alternative medicine) in mental health, observation at in an acupuncture
program at Across Boundaries Ethno racial Mental Health Centre, and
participation in a research project to explore the use of natural health products
among patients with psychotic disorders.
An opportunity to participate in ongoing research projects and in developing
manuscripts for publications focusing on stress, coping, and mental health of
immigrant refugees and their children. Residents will be guided and assisted in
formulating a research focus and questions, data analysis, and developing
CCHS-CE-06
Somatization and
Alexithymia in Chinese and
Koreans
CCHS-CE-07
Cultural Psychiatry in a
community teaching
hospital
CCHS-CE-08
Spirituality/Religion in
Mental Health
Place: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: 2
Inquiries: Patricia Donoghue, CCHS
Administrative Assistant 416-535-8501 x 7608
Supervisor(s): Dr. Samuel Noh, Dr. Michael Bagby
Place: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: 1
Inquiries: Dr. Alan Fung, (416) 632-8701
Supervisor(s): Dr. Alan Fung
Place: North York General Hospital
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: 1
Inquiries: Dr. Alan Fung, (416) 632-8701
Supervisor(s): Dr. Alan Fung
Place: North York General Hospital
Time: Negotiable
No. of Residents: 1
manuscripts. Residents may also participate in a weekly research seminar,
occasional group discussions on research design, grant proposal development,
and journal club discussion.
An opportunity to participate in a new research projects that involves researchers
at the CAMH and University of Toronto, Concordia University, Montreal, Yonsei
University in Korea and Changsha, China. Residents will have an opportunity to
participate and learn how an international multidisciplinary research project
evolves.
A six-month or one-year elective designed to provide residents the opportunity to
further their knowledge and skills in the cultural dimension of psychiatric care,
and the utilization of the cultural formulation in the DSM system. While the
emphasis is on the provision of outpatient psychiatric consultation and follow-up
to Chinese-speaking (Cantonese and/or Mandarin) patients at North York General
Hospital (NYGH), residents with interests in providing psychiatric care to other
cultural groups are also welcome. An integrated bio-psycho-socio-culturalspiritual management approach is utilized, with the cultural dimension
emphasized. The catchment area of NYGH represents one of the world's most
multicultural, with a large number of immigrants from different continents. With
education being a major strength at NYGH, the resident is also encouraged to
participate in educational endeavours related to the cultural provision of mental
health - both within NYGH and to the general public. For the interested resident,
this may also involve collaborations with the NYGH Public Relations Office and/or
the mass media. Research opportunities are also available, and award-winning
research has emerged from resident-led cultural psychiatry initiatives based at
NYGH. Ongoing research collaborations with other academic institutions and
hospitals in Canada and China may also provide the interested resident unique
opportunities to explore a clinician-researcher career in cultural psychiatry.
A six-month or one-year elective designed to provide the interested resident
further understanding and skills of this important but often overlooked
dimension of mental health care. The emphasis is NOT on the promotion of
religious faiths in patients. Rather, the resident will develop proficiency in
providing spiritually-/religiously- sensitive psychiatric care. It should be
emphasized that the scope of this elective is not limited to any particular
organized religious faith, and residents are encouraged to keep an open mind to
the diverse range of spirituality/religious practices in the modern Canadian
society.
In addition to supervision by the staff psychiatrist, the resident will also have the
opportunity to work with the hospital chaplain, in addition to other allied mental
health professionals. A unique feature of the elective is that the resident is
encouraged to actively contribute to the emerging initiative of
'Spirituality/Religion in Psychiatry' at the University of Toronto Department of
Psychiatry. With education being a major strength at NYGH, the resident is also
encouraged to participate in educational endeavours related to
spirituality/religion in mental health - both within NYGH and in the community
(e.g. mental health promotion endeavours in various spiritual/religious groups).
CCHS-CE-09
Community Hospital
General Psychiatry
Inquiries: Drs. Karen Shin or Stephen Barsky,
416-495-2400 x5376; kashin@tsh.to
Place: The Scarborough Hospital
Time: Flexible
No. of Residents: Flexible
Inpatient Psychiatry
The Scarborough Hospital has a 50-bed psychiatric inpatient facility located at its
Birchmount Campus. Inpatient services are divided between two separate units –
one for geriatric inpatients and the other for acute adult inpatients – and include a
6-bed Psychiatric Intensive Observation Unit. Psychiatrists work collaboratively in
an interdisciplinary team with members from nursing, social worker, occupational
therapy, pharmacy, concurrent disorders, and UofT family medicine residents. The
patient population is diverse, and residents will have the opportunity to assess and
treat patients suffering from a full range of Axis I disorders, including unipolar and
bipolar mood disorders, psychosis, dementia and addictions. Residents can follow
patient care from admission through discharge, and advance skills in assessment,
diagnosis, treatment planning, and interdisciplinary team leadership. Daily
supervision and patient-focused teaching are emphasized during the elective.
Community Psychiatry
The Scarborough Hospital provides an exciting range of services at its Outpatient
Mental Health Clinic. Psychiatrists work collaboratively with interdisciplinary team
members, including nurses, social workers, mental health therapists and
psychologists. Opportunities for residents include patient consultation and followup management, participating in psychotherapy groups, mobile crisis and
community visits. Various clinics are available for residents to experience during the
elective and are outlined below:
a) Geriatric Psychiatry – office-based assessment consultations and
follow-up, nursing home visits with a community outreach team,
specialized multidisciplinary geriatric clinic assessment
b) General Psychiatry – office-based consultations and follow-up
management, group therapy opportunities, depot clinic, clozapine
clinic
c) Assertive Community Treatment Team – team-based approach to
management of patients with severe psychotic disorders, community
visits, team meetings, team leadership opportunities
d) Shared Care – collaboration with family practice teams, liaising with
community physicians and inter-professional education
e) Mobile Crisis – community visits with team members to assess urgent
cases in the community, liaising with the emergency department for
emergent care if necessary