There will be five full-day educational sessions and one forum offered at APA’s 2000 Institute on Psychiatric Services. These will be conducted by experts in diverse areas, giving participants state-of-the-art information and an opportunity to discuss these topics extensively with the experts.

All sessions will be held at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel.

The first session, titled "Davanloo’s Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy in Clinical Practice," chaired by James Q. Schubmehl, M.D., of the University of Rochester, will be held Thursday, October 26.

The second full-day session, "New Challenges for State Hospital Psychiatrists," cochaired by Beatrice M. Kovasznay, M.D., M.P.H., director for clinical services in the New York State Office of Mental Health, and Yadollah M. Jabbarpour, M.D., of Catawba State Hospital, is cosponsored by the APA Caucus of State Hospital Psychiatrists. This session will be held Friday, October 27.

The third session, also on Friday, is "Treatment and Care in the Third Decade of AIDS" and is cosponsored by the APA AIDS Education Project and the Center for Mental Health Services. The session will be cochaired by Marshal Forstein, M.D., medical director of HIV/Mental Health and Addiction Services in the department of psychiatry at Fenway Community Health Center in Boston and an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Harvard University; and J. Stephen McDaniels, M.D., of the department of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta.

The fourth session, "The Practical Application of Psychodynamic Techniques on the Frontlines," will be chaired by Norman A. Clemens, M.D., chair of the APA Commission on Psychotherapy by Psychiatrists and a clinical professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. This session, which is of special interest to residents and members of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society, will take place on Saturday, October 28.

The last session, titled "Clinical Approaches to Working With Homeless Mentally Ill Individuals: Challenges and Rewards," is a special full-day session on Sunday, October 29, for trainees only. Chaired by Stephen M. Goldfinger, M.D., vice chair of the department of psychiatry at SUNY New York Downstate Medical Center, the session is cosponsored by the Center for Mental Health Services and APA’s Committee on Poverty, Homelessness, and Psychiatric Disorders.

The special one-and-half-hour forum, "Celebrating the APA/Bristol-Myers Squibb Fellowship: Promoting Leadership in Public Psychiatry for 20 Years," will be chaired by Donna T. Chen, M.D., M.P.H., a research scientist at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center. The forum is scheduled for Thursday, October 26, at 10 a.m.

Three of this year’s full-day sessions provide an exciting opportunity for education in diverse areas, such as the issues in treating homeless mentally ill, patients with AIDS, and challenges in practicing psychiatry in state psychiatric hospitals. These topics are very important to the regular attendees of the Institute on Psychiatric Services. The other two sessions focus on practical issues in psychodynamic psychotherapy and on intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy and reflect the theme of APA President Daniel Borenstein, M.D.,"Psychodynamic Psychotherapy." Although some regular attendees may feel that these topics are less interesting and important in the current era of community and hospital psychiatry, these sessions reflect psychiatry’s effort to bring psychotherapy "back" to the everyday practice of psychiatry. Both these sessions will provide an opportunity to discuss the role and practicality of various psychotherapy techniques in the most difficult clinical situations and settings.

Finally, the forum will provide an opportunity to reflect on the role of the APA/Bristol-Myers Squibb Fellowship in creating and promoting leadership in public psychiatry. 

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Dr. Balon is a member of the Institute's Scientific Program Committee.