OMA Section on Primary Care Mental Health Section Annual General Meeting

You are invited to attend our OMA Section’s AGM on Thursday May 23, 2019.

7:00 PM SHARP: Business meeting (light dinner provided)

 8:15 to 9:00: Evidence Supporting The Need for Medical Psychotherapy: Dr. Doug Weir

 9:00 to 9:30: Cost Effectiveness of Psychotherapy: Seeing the Bigger Perspective: Dr. Sam Gerstein

 RSVP: pcmhsection@gmail.com

Topic: Evidence Supporting The Need for Medical Psychotherapy

 Speaker: Dr. Doug Weir has long been active in the Ontario Medical Association. Dr. Weir has held a number of OMA position. He was President of the OMA 2012-2013. He was active in the Canadian Medical Association, he was a Delegate to CMA Council 2005–2016, served on the Audit Committee 2009–2013 and the Health Care Transformation Working Group 2014–2015.

He graduated from the University of Calgary medical school in 1977 and completed residency in general psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1981. He completed two years of training at the Hospital for Sick Children in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 1982, he received his specialist RCPSC certificate in psychiatry and his specialist certificate in child and adolescent psychiatry in 2014. He completed training at the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis in 1990.

He was honoured with the Jane Chamberlin award from the Association of General Hospital Psychiatric Services. He received the President’s Commendation from the Canadian Psychiatric Association in 2009. In June 2012, he completed the OMA Physician Leadership Development Program. In the spring of 2014 he was one of the founders of the Ontario Working Group on Mental Health and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. In October 2016 he joined the Board of the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society as Vice-President. He has been practising psychiatry in Toronto for over 35 years. Currently, Dr. Weir maintains a busy solo practice in psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Toronto.

Objectives:

1. At the end of this session, participants will be familiar with the October 2018 Ontario Ministry of Health arbitration proposal to limit psychotherapy.
2. At the end of this session, participants will be able to describe the evidence supporting Physician-Delivered Psychotherapies.
3. At the end of this session, participants will be able to identify the risks associated with limiting the number of psychotherapy sessions, or dose of treatment, without basing it on patient need or evidence poses

Topic: Cost Effectiveness of Psychotherapy: Seeing the Bigger Perspective

 Speaker: Dr. Sam Gerstein graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1982, spent the next two decades in Emergency Medicine and then became chief of his department at Humber Memorial Hospital in Toronto. In the last few years at the hospital he began researching the link between the mind and the body, specifically as it relates to stress. He found that there is no illness or injury that stress doesn't affect and that work stress is the biggest contributors to people’s stress in life – more so than financial and family issues.

 He then spent the next few years giving talks in the community about recognizing and managing high work stress. He was inspired by the World Health Organization’s definition of health – "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This led him to research people who were in “healthy” work positions and wrote a book entitled, Live Your Dreams: Doctors Orders, highlighting some of his findings. With further training, he transitioned his practice to full time psychotherapy, which is definitely his “healthy work practice”.

 Objectives:

1. Speak about the serious impact of untreated mental illness, not only on mental and physical health, but also on society in general
2. Inform our colleagues that there is abundant evidence of effectiveness for psychotherapy delivered by MDs practicing psychotherapy.
3. That we must advocate for ourselves of the importance of not losing this valuable resource, by educating our patients, other MD specialties, the OMA and government representatives, of our findings.