Greetings and welcome!  I am very excited to welcome all of you to register for the Fall Meeting to be held in Staunton, Virginia on Sept. 28-29, 2018.  The theme of the meeting is “Fighting Stigma in Mental Healthcare”.  We have a wonderful group of presenters speaking about various topics regarding stigma.  Some of our speakers our current PSV members, but we also have some visiting speakers from outside institutions including Dr. Jeremy Kidd and Dr. Kirsten Wilkins.

Friday, Sept. 28:  Please consider arriving on Friday afternoon, as there will be two workshops that day.  Dr. Jeremy Kidd from Colombia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York, NY will be providing a session for trainees and early career psychiatrists on transgender health.  At the same time that afternoon, Lynne Hughes will lead a session entitled “Finding Balance and Avoiding Burnout”.  We encourage members to attend an afternoon session, followed by a reception with area legislators and exhibitors.

Saturday, Sept. 29:  There will be several speakers on Saturday followed by a panel at the end of the day.  Here is a summary of the lectures to be given.  Please refer to the full meeting guide for more information on these speakers and their qualifications. 

•          Dr. Jeremy Kidd:  “Providing Competent and Affirming Psychiatric Care to Transgender Individuals “
•          Dr. Stephanie Peglow, an addiction specialist from EVMS:  “Stigma in Substance Use Disorders”
•          Dr. R. Larry Merkel, an anthropologist and psychiatrist from UVA:  “Stigma and Global Mental Healthcare”
•          Rhonda Thissen, Executive Director at NAMI Virginia:  “The Impact of Stigma in Society and the Treatment Relationship”
•          Dr. Kirsten Wilkins, a geriatric psychiatrist at Yale:  “Ageism in Mental Healthcare”
•          Dr. John Shemo, Medical Director at Psychiatric Alliance of the Blue Ridge:  “The Mental Health Parity Law:  The Status of Compliance within the Commonwealth of Virginia”

On Saturday there will also be an opportunity to see poster presentations submitted by trainees from the various psychiatry residency programs in Virginia, as well as visit with the exhibitors.   Please consider attending this meeting and joining the conversation on how to decrease stigma in mental healthcare.

Warm regards,

Meredith Lee, DO