Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry

Guided the JGH through dramatic growth as Executive Director from 1975 to 1991 t is with great sadness that the Jewish General Hospital notes the passing on September 5 of Archie Deskin, 95, who was instrumental in guiding the hospital into the modern era as Executive Director from 1975 to …

Dr. Laurence Kirmayer, of the Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry, has received major awards from the American Family Therapy Academy and the American Psychiatric Association.

Using keyboard and screen to build trust between psychiatrist and patient? Not an obvious choice. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic helped telepsychiatry take root at the JGH and CIUSSS West-Central Montreal.

At first, telehealth seemed like a distant dream. But when COVID-19 hit, the CIUSSS and the JGH made telehealth a part of daily life.

At 96, Naomi Weiss has been volunteering for over 33 years in a psychosocial group at the JGH’s Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry. She has loved giving of herself, ever since she began volunteering as a teenager at a hospital in Israel.

As the proportion of seniors in our population steadily rises, so will the need for geriatric psychiatry, says Dr. Soham Rej, a CIUSSS psychiatrist. He believes digital technology can help cope with the growing demand, but only if the human element remains intact.

The inauguration of the Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry in 1969 was a pivotal event in the 73-year history of the JGH Department of Psychiatry.

The name says it all: The Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry has excelled for 50 years by seeing the patient not just as an individual, but as someone with complex ties to family and community, against a backdrop of religion, race and ethnicity.

Need information about mental health and related community services? Check out the JGH’s new Resource Centre in the lobby of the Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry. Computer terminals, a library and friendly volunteers will help you find what you need.

Potential exists for mobile apps to play a greater role in mental health care, such as the app that helps to assess the causes of stress in a patient’s day-to-day activities.