July 23, 2012 Update

From the Desk of Nick Kates, Acting Chair
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences
July 23, 2012
I’d like to begin this update by expressing our condolences to Karen Saperson, Jeremy Goldberg and
their family following the death of Karen’s father, Cecil, last week. In his memory, the Department has
made a donation to the Hamilton Out of the Cold Program.
Strategic Planning
The Department Executive has been refining our strategic directions document, and developing some
initial ideas for its implementation.
A revised version of the document will be circulated next month, following which I will be organizing a
series of weekly lunchtime meetings in various locations across the city that will be open to anyone who
wants to attend, to discuss the directions and plan and get your input on how to move it forward.
The Executive is also working on a first draft of an operational plan for the coming year, which will
identify the major organizational tasks for the next 12 months, the actions we plan to take to complete
them, and how we will measure our progress. This will also be circulated next month.
Planning Groups
A quick reminder that if you're interested in joining one of the three planning groups for: a) The
academic culture of the Department and how we use Rounds, b) Continuing Education and, c)
Developing new funding streams please let me know. These will all be short term initiatives.
Redesigning the Department’s Office Space
We will be re-designing our space in J-Block to make it feel more like the home of an Academic
Department. With the move to the new building just 500 days away, we will not be making any
structural changes, but will be looking at how we can make the space more welcoming,
and create displays that reflect our past as well as our present.
We would like to display memorabilia, pictures, or documents that reflect our evolution and
accomplishments. If you have any such items, including any books you may have published, and
wouldn’t mind either lending them to us, or allowing us to copy them and return them to you, can you
get them to Wendy Mattingly. And if you have other ideas for how we could use this space, please let
me know.
Congratulations to
Rebecca Anglin and Phil Russo on the safe arrival of Sophia at the beginning of the month.
Chuck Cunningham (PI), Michael Boyle, Kenneth Deal, Lehana Thabana and Tracy Vaillancourt on
being awarded a 3 year CIHR grant for $460,530 in the recent round of funding announcements, for

their proposal “Avoiding the Backlash: Identifying Features of Bullying Prevention Programs that
Increase or Decrease Unintended Negative Responses (Reactance) in Grade 5, 6, 7, and 8 Students and
Educators.”
Jon Davine recipient of the Outstanding Preceptor in Psychiatry Award from the McMaster medical
school graduating class of 2012.
Team Unbreakable, the running group for youth established by the Mood Disorders Program at SJH,
which has both a clinical and research component. Comprising youth, community volunteers (from the
Runners Den) and staff and students from the Program, the group trained together twice a week, with
one of the sessions including a guest presentation before the run. The 12 week training program
finished with the whole group participating in the 32nd Tim Hortons “Peach Bud” 5km race on Tuesday
June 26th, 2012, which everyone successfully completed. The Spectator had a very nice write-up of the
group at: http://www.thespec.com/living/healthfitness/article/750874--depression-and-anxietypatients-exercise-their-demons
Welcome to
Ryan Van Lieshout will be joining the department as an Assistant Professor on completion of his clinical
scholarship year on September 1 st , with most of his clinical and research time being spent in the Mood
and Women’s Health Concerns Programs.
Kathy MacDonald who will be returning to Hamilton and our Department in September, initially working
at Six Nations, where she has been for many years, and the Hamilton FHT.
And to our new PGY 2’s who have just completed their BCT year and are beginning their first 6 month
rotations in our clinical services. They are Elaine Chow, John David Henneberry-Fudge, Erin Hanley,
Gihan Perera, Jennifer Ruzhynsky, Michael Shaytzag, Azadeh Kazemi Zangeneh – all based in Hamilton –
and Natasha Snelgrove and Carolyn Stark in Waterloo.
Chair’s Blog
Beginning in August, I will be starting a 2-weekly interactive blog on our website which I hope to use,
amongst other things, to promote discussion about our planning and strategic directions. I will let you
know when the first blog is posted. The regular email update will continue to come out monthly.
Nick Kates, Acting Chair
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences