St. Joseph's Healthcare Integrates Mental & Medical Healthcare by Hosting 26th Annual McMaster Psychiatry Research Day
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton Integrates Mental and Medical Healthcare By Hosting 26th Annual McMaster Psychiatry Research Day
Tuesday, April 22nd 2014 – Hamilton, ON – On Wednesday April 23rd 2014, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton will be the location of the 26th Annual Psychiatry Research Day, an event led and organized by its academic partner, McMaster University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. The event will take place at the new facility, the Margaret and Charles Juravinski Centre for Integrated Healthcare, located at the West 5th Campus of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.
The theme of the conference is “Psychiatry and Medicine: Towards Integration.” The conference will feature prominent St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton researcher and McMaster University faculty member, Dr. Deborah Cook, who will be speaking about the role of psychiatry in the Intensive Care Unit. The event also welcomes keynote speaker and neuroplasticity expert Dr. Norman Doidge, world-renowned psychiatry researcher and author of the New York Times bestselling book, “The Brain That Changes Itself.”
“McMaster University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences is one of the hospital’s key academic partners and the work presented at this event will have significance not only for researchers and academics but also for our patients,” explains Dr. Margaret McKinnon, researcher at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and Associate Co-Chair, Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. “Indeed, when asked directly, our patients have told us that they view research as a vital part of the holistic approach to care offered at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. The conference theme of integrated mental and medical healthcare truly reflects the vision of the new West 5th Campus facility.”
“This integration also reflects one of the key strategic directions for our Department,” adds Dr. Nick Kates, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University.
This occasion marks the first time that an academic conference has been held at the new West 5th facility, as well as being the first time that McMaster’s Psychiatry Research Day has been held at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. The new, state-of-the-art facility at the West 5th Campus was designed to re-imagine care and work to eradicate the stigma that is often associated with mental illness by bringing mental health and addiction research to the forefront. The new facility will act as a hub for academic collaboration, like this conference, as well as a space that welcomes the community.
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Media Contact:
Megan Bieksa
Senior Specialist, Media & Strategic Issues
Public Affairs Department
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
T: 905-522-1155 ext. 33037
W: mbieksa@stjoes.ca
More Information:
About Dr. Norman Doidge
Dr. Doidge has lectured at the United Nations, the White House, and major universities including conferences sponsored by Harvard, MIT, and Yale. His research and writing have explored the concept of neuroplasticity – the idea that our brains can physically change according to our thoughts, behaviours and experiences – have received international acclaim and led to the development of television programs on CBC and TVO.
About McMaster University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
McMaster University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, whose offices are located within St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s new West 5th Campus facility, has a long-standing tradition of innovation and collaboration and a commitment to the pursuit of excellence in research, education and clinical care, reflected in the conference theme. Integrating mental and physical health is one of the department’s four key strategic directions, along with reducing disparities, innovation in education, as well as community, access and transitions.
About Research at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton is an academic health sciences centre fully affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. Our researchers aim to better understand prevalent medical and mental health issues today's society in order to develop advanced therapies and treatments that will improve the quality of life for patients in our community and around the world. In pursuit of this goal, research in the areas of clinical science, mental health, nephrology, respirology (Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health) and virology attract over $25 million annually in grants and research support funding. For more information about research at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, please visit www.stjoes.ca/research.
About St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is a regional leader in patient-centred care providing acute care, research, teaching, community and international outreach programs throughout our network. Since being founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1890, our hospitals span three specialized campuses in the Greater Hamilton Area (Charlton Campus, West 5th Campus and King Street Campus), with St. Joseph’s Villa Dundas providing long-term care and St. Joseph’s Home Care providing personalized home care traversing the reach of our region. For more information about St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, please visit www.stjoes.ca.