Being on a board, often means being bored. Talking about budgets and money management and grant proposals can get dry and tedious. And so, I ask myself repeatedly, why I have stayed on this board, the Psychiatry Clinical Faculty at UCLA for over 15 years. You can read my editor’s note below to see the answer to that question, as I find our overall purpose both meaningful and essential to the next generation.
As Editor of this newsletter, I am so pleased to see how we, as psychiatry clinical faculty, have continued to pass the baton to our students to say that psychotherapy still matters, and it still matters that it is done by psychiatrists. Our board works tirelessly, now under the leadership of Dr. Sones, to give the adult residents from UCLA, from Harbor, and from Olive View/Sepulveda, along with the child fellows in these programs, the support they need to grow professionally into psychiatrists who are skilled with listening, thoughtfulness and deep caring of patients who need our help. We do this by offering them psychotherapy for a very reduced fee. We do this by offering as much supervision as they choose to partake, and we do this by giving them didactics which center around the doctor/patient relationship. We do this by having meetings and social gatherings throughout the year to remind them that they are part of a larger psychiatric community, and now we added on by offering mentorship to young trainees who want career guidance. This newsletter is a way of saying thank you for all you do and to remind you that your efforts are not just valuable, but essential, to our mission to promote the training and development of well-rounded psychiatrists. During the year, we soldier on, but as we review our work in this publication, we have a chance to reflect on our value as an organization. Indeed, we need to soldier on. The trainees need us. Thank you again for all you do.
Shirah Vollmer MD 