2021 President's lectures
2021 lectures
Webinar: Psychopathology the Foundational Discipline of Psychiatry
Date: 18 November 2021
Synopsis
Psychopathology is the precise description, categorisation and definition of abnormal experiences as recounted by the patient and observed in behaviour. It relies on the method of phenomenology by focusing on experienced phenomena to establish their universal character. The aim is to listen attentively, to accurately observe and to understand the psychological event or phenomenon by empathy so that the clinician can, as far as possible, know what the patient's experience must feel like.
In this talk Professor Oyebode distinguishes between psychopathology and nosology. He focuses on delusions with a view to illustrating a novel approach to thinking about delusions and suggests that there is a need to privilege psychopathology in psychiatric training. He concludes by summarising the value of psychopathology for psychiatry.
Speaker biography
Professor Femi Oyebode was born in Lagos Nigeria. He studied medicine at the University of Ibadan Nigeria, graduating with distinction in 1977. He arrived in the UK in 1979 and trained as a psychiatrist in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. He has been Consultant Psychiatrist in Birmingham since 1986 and Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham since 1999. He was Head of Department of Psychiatry from 2003-2009.
He is Associate Editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry and on the Editorial Boards of BJPsych Bulletin and BJPsych Advances. He was Chief Examiner of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 2002 to 2005. He is author of Sims’ Symptoms in the Mind (4-6th editions) which has been translated into Arabic, Estonian, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Spanish. His other books include Madness and the Theatre and Psychopathology of Rare and Unusual Syndromes. He also edited Mindreadings: Literature and Psychiatry.
He is also a poet and literary critic. His volumes of poetry include Naked to your softness and other dreams, Master of the Leopard Hunt and Adagio for Oblong Mirrors. He contributed critical essays to the Oxford Companion to 20th century Poetry and Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry. He received the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 and the highest award of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Honorary FRCPsych, in 2019.
Webinar: The LGBTQ Journey in Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association
Date: 20 May 2021
Synopsis
APA CEO and Medical Director Dr Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., FRCP-E, FRCPsych, shares his story and perspectives as both a gay psychiatrist and international medical graduate, reviews current policy developments affecting LGBTQ people in the United States and internationally, discusses discrimination and homophobia, and addresses efforts within the APA on LGBTQ issues.
This was followed by a live Q&A session hosted by Dr Adrian James, President, The Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Speaker biography
Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., FRCP-E, FRCPsych, is the Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Prior to assuming this role in October 2013, Dr Levin led the District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH). There, Dr Levin was responsible for the health of the nation’s capital, including primary care for infants to the seniors on Medicaid and Medicare, DC-funded health care, HIV/AIDS, addictions, health professional licensing and regulation, policy and planning. He was also responsible for health emergency preparedness, planning and coordinating alongside dozens of federal and local agencies to ensure the public’s health during major events such as President Obama’s second inauguration. Moreover, he promoted the development of a citywide health information exchange that connects health care providers, shares critical information to promote patient care, tracks outcomes, prepares for disasters and provides for public health surveillance.
Dr Levin also served on the D.C. Health Exchange Board and chaired the Essential Health Benefits Package Subcommittee, where he successfully led the effort to ensure that residents of the District of Columbia had access to a full range of substance abuse and mental health services. He also co-chaired the committee that oversaw the integration of substance abuse and mental health services into the new Department of Behavioral Health.
In 2012, Dr Levin served briefly as Senior Deputy Director of DOH’s Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration. During his tenure, Dr Levin promoted substance abuse prevention efforts in all eight wards of the city through the work of the Prevention and Access to Recovery teams, including implementation of over $20 million in federal grants for services, assessed and referred an increasing number of individuals into treatment services, and connected more clients to recovery support services.
Dr Levin has long been involved in organized medicine and psychiatry. He served as Vice President for Science, Medicine, and Public Health at the American Medical Association. There, he oversaw programs related to evolving health delivery systems, such as in the areas of prevention and health care disparities. He also led efforts to improve the interface between clinical medicine and public health.
Among other positions Dr Levin has held includes serving as a special expert appointee in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he led the initiative to integrate primary care, substance abuse, mental health, and HIV/AIDS response. While serving as President for Access Consulting International Inc., he worked with federal, state, and local governments and private companies to provide health policy, program, and research and evaluation services.
He is a former President and CEO of Medical Education for South African Blacks, an anti-apartheid education trust that provided scholarships to South African black students in health care. He helped award more than 11,000 scholarships to students studying to become physicians, nurses, substance abuse counselors and other health care professionals.
In 1982, Dr Levin received his M.B.B.Ch. (M.D.) from the University Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and completed his residency in psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center. In 1994, he received his master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians – Edinburgh, and Clinical Professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C.Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., FRCP-E, FRCPsych, is the Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Prior to assuming this role in October 2013, Dr Levin led the District of Columbia Department of Health (DOH). There, Dr Levin was responsible for the health of the nation’s capital, including primary care for infants to the seniors on Medicaid and Medicare, DC-funded health care, HIV/AIDS, addictions, health professional licensing and regulation, policy and planning. He was also responsible for health emergency preparedness, planning and coordinating alongside dozens of federal and local agencies to ensure the public’s health during major events such as President Obama’s second inauguration. Moreover, he promoted the development of a citywide health information exchange that connects health care providers, shares critical information to promote patient care, tracks outcomes, prepares for disasters and provides for public health surveillance.
Dr Levin also served on the D.C. Health Exchange Board and chaired the Essential Health Benefits Package Subcommittee, where he successfully led the effort to ensure that residents of the District of Columbia had access to a full range of substance abuse and mental health services. He also co-chaired the committee that oversaw the integration of substance abuse and mental health services into the new Department of Behavioral Health.
In 2012, Dr Levin served briefly as Senior Deputy Director of DOH’s Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration. During his tenure, Dr Levin promoted substance abuse prevention efforts in all eight wards of the city through the work of the Prevention and Access to Recovery teams, including implementation of over $20 million in federal grants for services, assessed and referred an increasing number of individuals into treatment services, and connected more clients to recovery support services.
Dr Levin has long been involved in organized medicine and psychiatry. He served as Vice President for Science, Medicine, and Public Health at the American Medical Association. There, he oversaw programs related to evolving health delivery systems, such as in the areas of prevention and health care disparities. He also led efforts to improve the interface between clinical medicine and public health.
Among other positions Dr Levin has held includes serving as a special expert appointee in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he led the initiative to integrate primary care, substance abuse, mental health, and HIV/AIDS response. While serving as President for Access Consulting International Inc., he worked with federal, state, and local governments and private companies to provide health policy, program, and research and evaluation services.
He is a former President and CEO of Medical Education for South African Blacks, an anti-apartheid education trust that provided scholarships to South African black students in health care. He helped award more than 11,000 scholarships to students studying to become physicians, nurses, substance abuse counselors and other health care professionals.
In 1982, Dr Levin received his M.B.B.Ch. (M.D.) from the University Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and completed his residency in psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center. In 1994, he received his master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians – Edinburgh, and Clinical Professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C.
Webinar: In Place of Fear
Date: 4 February 2021
Synopsis
Illness and ill-being frighten us, as we know all too well in the midst of this pandemic. Fear can produce much-needed action – but it can also preoccupy, distract, undermine thinking, and seriously damage engagement and cooperation. It can breed resentment, exhaustion and despair.
The ways we manage anxiety and fear, whether as patients, clinicians or managers, whether as individuals, families, organisations or societies, are vital to health and wellbeing – even survival.
Our health and social care services could contain our fears much better. Instead, deliberately or otherwise, intimidation and threat too often infect relationships. We will try to understand this through exploring the dynamics of individuals, groups and systems - and then think about how to create a climate in which people and practice can thrive.
This was followed by a live Q&A session hosted by Dr Adrian James, President, The Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Speaker biographies
John Ballatt, Penny Campling and Chris Maloney are the authors of ‘Intelligent Kindness: Rehabilitating the Welfare State’, published by the College and Cambridge University Press (CUP) in February 2020.
You can find further details, or buy a copy, on the CUP website. RCPsych members get 30% off - head to your member dashboard on the website to get the code. Or, use the discount code IK2021, to get 20% off. This code is valid until 31/12/2021.
John worked as a practitioner, trainer, manager and executive director in the voluntary sector, local government and the NHS. He now writes, lectures and offers consultancy and support at all levels in the system.
Penny worked many years in the NHS as a Consultant Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist and Clinical Director. She has a particular interest in the power of groups to nurture and heal. She is an independent psychotherapist, writer and blogger, currently supporting frontline ICU staff during the pandemic.
Chris was a Consultant Medical Psychotherapist, and then a GP Partner in Hackney, East London. He also had an independent psychiatric and medical practice with people seeking asylum, and is co-editing a book on Seeking Asylum and Mental Health for the College and CUP.