2023 14th Annual NUBE Conference

Academic medicine has long promised to bring cutting edge science and teaching practices to the care of patients. However, emergency and crisis psychiatry has not always benefitted from this promise. Meanwhile, emergency psychiatry programs have grown to include a broad workforce—of physicians, nurses, social workers, and other mental health professionals—with different skillsets and come to represent health systems with law enforcement agencies and patient advocates who have important but varied priorities in addressing patients in crisis.. What then is the future of academic emergency psychiatry? This session features a diverse panel of academic physicians who will discuss the challenges and opportunities for traditional academic medicine in this specialty—and pose a promising future in which academic medicine engages diverse communities and professional partners to improve patient care, scholarship, and health education. Panel discussion will be led by an active moderator, who will also incorporate live feedback from the audience in guiding discussion.To start, each panelist will briefly discuss a specific facet of academic emergency psychiatry. Dr. Wilson will discuss the state of research in emergency psychiatry; the direction of behavioral health services within emergency medicine; and opportunities to build learning health systems in which scientific knowledge informs iterative, outcomes-driven improvements in clinical care. Drs. Simpson and Camfield will discuss the challenges of physician and provider training in this field; academic emergency psychiatrists in the future will play key roles in complex care coordination, integrated care, and the career development of non-physician providers. Finally, Dr. Lee will discuss faculty and program development in this field including challenges of professional growth and clinical operations to support academic mission. Thereafter, the Chair will lead a conversation on these issues with guidance from audience members.Crisis behavioral health involves not only by counselors, social workers, and psychologists but also law enforcement, paramedics, social service providers, and families. How will academic medicine include these other fields in training and research? How will physicians train in this specialty, and what will they do? How can we advance the field while remaining grounded in the underserved and diverse patients we serve? The relationship among traditional medicine, community mental health providers, and our patients is often characterized by clashes of cultures and priorities. This panel imagines how emergency psychiatry can bring together the best practices of all fields to create a new future of evidence-based, compassionate, patient-centered care.Our patients in crisis deserve no less.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss how academic medicine can contribute to addressing ongoing behavioral health challenges faced by healthcare systems and communities through collaborating in crisis care.
2. Describe opportunities and barriers to developing traditional academic careers in emergency psychiatry.
3. Understand diverse perspectives on how academic physicians can collaborate with government agencies and community-based service organizations to improve the current mental health crisis facing our communities.