Welcome Continued....
Recent advances in psychiatry, neuroscience and genetics, cognitive science, and behavioral medicine are rapidly translating into real understanding and valuable treatments that promise to substantively improve the lives of people with mental illness. We are learning more each day about the causes and correlates of mental disorders, about psychological development and psychopathology, about the relationship between mental and physical health, about addiction, and about psychological well being more generally. Very importantly, the health professions, scientists, policy makers, and community leaders are coming together to address the true impact of mental illness in our lives. Through such efforts, we are beginning to change the stigma associated with mental illness and related disorders. This is a time in which we can make a difference. It is important that we undertake this challenge. The prevalence and importance of mental illness, addiction, and coexisting conditions are daunting. One in five persons will experience a significant mental illness in their lives. Half of patients who present for clinical care in medical settings will have a coexisting mental and/or addictive disorder. The global, national, and local burden of mental illness is nearly immeasurable in terms of human suffering and economic impact. Despite changing societal perceptions, mental illness continues to be highly stigmatized, poorly recognized, and until recently, scientifically neglected. As a result, mentally ill persons encounter greater barriers to care than other populations, and they are more likely to receive suboptimal care clinically and ethically. More postively, however, it is increasingly documented that mental illness treatment has better outcomes than those developed for many chronic diseases. The next 10 years will continue to deliver dramatic advances, scientifically, clinically, socio-culturally, economically, and ethically.
For these reasons, I believe there is no more important work within the health professions than helping people to have psychologically and physically healthy lives. There is no more important promise than the one we make caring for people who experience and courageously live with mental illness and co-existing conditions. There is no more important endeavor within the health sciences than seeking answers to questions regarding the prevention, causes and correlates, and optimal therapeutic approaches to mental illness and related disorders. There is no more important undertaking than our efforts to help our professional colleagues, our local societal leaders, and our neighbors, families, and friends as we struggle with the impact of mental illness in our communities. Finally, there is no more important commitment than preparing the next generation of clinicians and scientists, scholars and educators who will help improve the lives of people who have and are at-risk for mental illness.
Academic departments of psychiatry play an essential role in leading and working towards these positive developments for our profession and our world. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, we are committed to helping lead the way through contributions across all academic missions.
Our department serves as the home for diverse educational, research, and clinical activities. We have training programs involving medical students, residents, graduate students, post-graduate fellows in child and adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. We offer an innovative combined specialty training program in Family Medicine and Psychiatry, provide a vigorous continuing education program, and are currently developing new initiatives for advanced training programs in addiction psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, and ethics.
Research
Central to our research activities is the Center for AIDS Intervention Research led by Jeff Kelly, PhD, and funded by the NIMH. It is one of only a few such centers in the world. With over 15 active funded research programs at this time, the Center has received more than $60 million in awards since 1994. The mission of the Center is "to conceptualize, develop, conduct, and scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of new intervention strategies to prevent HIV infection in populations vulnerable to the disease." The Center also works on regional, national, and international levels in developing improved strategies to promote health and alleviate adverse mental health consequences of HIV among persons living with the disease and their loved ones and future researchers in this area.
Also based in the department is the Empirical Ethics Group. The EEG is a clinical ethics resource and multidisciplinary health ethics research team. It is unique for its emphasis on evidence-based and conceptual inquiry related to ethics and special populations. Clinical ethics is the branch of of biomedical ethics that seeks to improve health by refining clinical decisions, advancing scholarship and education, pursuing evidence-based study, and shaping policy richly informed by clinical experience, by biomedical and social science, and by the humanities. The EEG has received funding through competitive grant awards from the National Institute on Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the Department of Energy, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, and other sources.
The department continues to participate in several investigator-initiated, NIH, and industry-funded clinical trials. We have set a priority around the further development of clinical trials for adults, older adults, and young people with mental illness. Faculty members are actively involved in research conducted through centers such as the Foley Center on Aging and Development and the Functional Imaging Research Center (FIRC). A robust, neuro-imaging, research group works collaboratively with the FIRC to conduct studies on a wide range of topics including addiction and sensory, language, motor and cognitive behavior in both normal and pathological human subjects.
We welcome your interest in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and encourage you to get in touch with us. We represent an academic community of faculty, trainees, and staff dedicated to improving the lives of people with mental illness -- now and, more importantly, in the future -- through educational, clinical, and professional service, through academic scholarship and science, and through leadership and collaboration. It is our aspiration, and our sincere hope, that the efforts of this community, taken together, will lead to a demonstrable difference regionally, nationally, and globally.
Department Contact Information
Mailing/Correspondence Address:
Medical College of Wisconsin
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
Tosa Center, 3rd Floor
8701 Watertown Plank Road
Milwaukee, WI 53226
Department Location:
Tosa Center
1155 North Mayfair Road
Milwaukee, WI 53226
(414) 955-8990 Office
(414) 955-6299 Fax