A couple hiking in a beautiful green valley.

What we offer

The Department of Psychiatry provides numerous educational opportunities for both academic and professional growth.

Current student resources

We have extensive links to help you in your study or professional practice. Discover information on psychiatry associations and organizations, local health care, residencies, journals and more.

Department of Psychiatry Academic Projects (DPAP) recipients

Congratulations to the recipients of the department’s 2022 DPAP Awards. We wish them all much success in these and future academic endeavours.

Our department supports the DPAP Awards program with funds derived from earnings of our psychiatry faculty members at the University of Manitoba in support of our department’s academic mission.

2022 award recipients

Principal investigator recipients Co-investigators/ collaborator(s) Project title

Dr. Polina Anang

Drs. Cara Katz, Nick Krueger (PGY4), Christen Rachul (PhD)

Urban Indigenous Elders and youth relationship building: a community-based participatory research partnership between Ndinawe and University of Manitoba psychiatry team

Dr. Jennifer Hensel

Drs. Ezra Bridgwater (PGY3), Jennifer Ducharme (PhD), Kristin Reynolds (PhD)

Winnipeg trans youth: perspectives and experiences when accessing gender-affirming care in Manitoba

 

Dr. Matthew Lander

Drs. Cassandra Adduri (PGY6), Sarah Fotti

Is a brief DBT skills based group intervention effective in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety in adolescents?

Dr. Natalie Mota (PhD)

Drs. James Bolton, Harpreet Chahal (PGY3), Jessica Enns, Laurence Katz, Jitender Sareen

Risk and protective factors for suicide attempts and deaths on Day Zero of discharge from psychiatric hospitalization

 

Student working with a test-tube.

Undergraduate Research Awards

Each year, the University of Manitoba provides a multitude of unique learning opportunities through the undergraduate research awards. This program allows undergraduate students to interact with the best minds and research leaders in their fields. This experience opens them up to new possibilities for a research career in either government, academic or industry sectors.

Department research

Our researchers investigate mental health with the use of epidemiologic studies that advance knowledge, improve patient care and facilitate the development of evidence-based policy

The Department of Psychiatry has a multidisciplinary research group comprised of principal investigators with educational backgrounds in psychiatry and psychology. Research interests are varied and range from psychiatric epidemiology to neuroimaging. Common research interests in the department include Indigenous and adolescent suicidality, depression, panic disorder, PTSD, social anxiety, and palliative care and dignity research. Many projects have received financial support through government granting or via private industry.

  • Manitoba Population Mental Health Research Group

    The group brings together investigators across departments who have demonstrated excellence in population mental health research to tackle important issues for Canadians, such as First Nations suicide, military mental health, suicide, adolescent mental health and injuries.

    With complementary expertise from clinical, biomedical and statistical expertise, the group has demonstrated the capacity for conducting high-quality, internationally recognized research work. The group is strongly linked with local and national policy-makers and can inform policy.

    A strong focus of the research group is to develop the next generation of population mental health researchers.

    Cognitive Behaviour Therapy with Mindfulness (CBTm)

Our researchers

Community and partners

The department offers several clinical programs covering a vast spectrum of adult, child and adolescent psychiatric disorders in our community.

These programs through our main teaching institutions in Winnipeg:

Addiction Services – Community Based

The outpatient components of Addiction Services are:

1) The Alcohol Recovery Clinic (ARC) is an urgent outpatient service that provides medical assessment for patients with active alcohol use disorder who are in mild to moderate alcohol withdrawal.

Referrals are typically accepted from the Health Sciences Centre Emergency Department and patients are seen within 24 hours.

This type of urgent assessment may result in admission to the Addictions Unit or referral to other community-based treatment resources.

Since space is limited, physicians outside of the Health Sciences Centre who wish to refer patients to the Addictions Unit need to arrange this by phone with the triage nurse clinician or the on-call doctor for the Addictions Unit.

2) The Complex Addiction & Recovery Medical Assessment (CARMA) Clinic, previously known as the Opioid Assessment Clinic, is a non-urgent consultation service for outpatients with problematic substance use who are interested in addiction medicine assessment and recommendations.

This may include patients struggling with prescription medications, illicit substances, and/or alcohol, where medical review is warranted.

Referrals are accepted from the patient’s primary physician/prescriber for consultation and collaboration.

The CARMA Clinic may make recommendations about prescribing and polypharmacy, but does not take over prescribing of medications.

Referrals can be faxed to 204-787-3996 and should include updated contact information for the patient, a specific clinical question, any relevant history and investigations such as urine drug screen results.

3) The Bridging Opioid Agonist Therapy (BOAT) Clinic was developed to provide short-term follow-up for patients initiated on opioid agonist therapy with buprenorphine/naloxone or methadone, by the Addictions Unit or the Addiction Consult Service while in hospital, thus facilitating discharge.

Once stable, patients are connected with long-term care in the community.

4) The Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Clinic is located at the Crisis Response Centre at 817 Bannatyne Avenue.

This clinic provides walk-in access to an addiction physician or physician assistant and counselor, and can provide assistance with withdrawal management, medication-assisted treatment, and referral to addiction treatment programs.

No booked appointments and no referrals are needed. Further information can be found on the RAAM webpage.

 

Addiction Services – Hospital Based

Title: Addiction Services – Hospital Based

Addictions Unit

The Addictions Unit is an 11-bed hospital unit located at the Health Sciences Centre which offers a short stay (between five to 10 days) until the patient is medically and psychologically stable.

The Addictions Unit is voluntary (patients must agree to admission) and actively suicidal or behaviorally disruptive patients are generally excluded from admission.

The Addictions Unit admits patients with active addiction who require inpatient treatment for complications of drug and alcohol use and withdrawal. The unit also provides treatment for co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions.

Addiction Consult Service

The Addiction Consult Service is an inpatient service based at Health Sciences Centre, and providing satellite service to St. Boniface Hospital.  Through this service, people who are admitted to medical, surgical, or obstetrical wards and who have substance-related concerns can be seen by an addiction physician and/or nurse for diagnosis and treatment planning, including relevant medication recommendations for management of withdrawal, cravings and/or relapse prevention.

Consultation requests should be called in to the Addiction Consult Physician on-call, and faxed to 204-787-3996.  New consults are generally seen within 24 hours Monday-Friday, depending on the urgency and volume received.  Consults received in the evening or weekend will generally be deferred to the next weekday, with interim advice provided to the admitting service over the phone.  Peripheral hospitals can also receive telephone advice for admitted patients by paging the Addiction Consult Physician 7 days per week.

Addiction Services at Health Sciences Centre also plays an active role in teaching/medical education in Manitoba.

Various trainees spend time with the Addictions Unit, with the Addiction Consult Service, and the RAAM clinic, to further their knowledge about addiction and relevant treatment resources.

This includes medical students, psychiatry and family medicine residents, nursing students, and physicians and nurse practitioners from the community who wish to further their addiction knowledge or obtain prescribing privileges for methadone and/or buprenorphine/naloxone.

 

Adult Eating Disorders Program 

The adult eating disorders program of the Health Sciences Centre is a multidisciplinary clinical service providing comprehensive assessment and treatment for individuals with eating disorders.

The program provides these services through a dedicated inpatient component, individual outpatient therapy for individuals in transition from more intensive therapies within the program, cognitive behavioural evening courses, intensive ambulatory treatment (day hospital - nutrition clinic - group therapy), readiness groups and family education and transition/maintenance groups. Consultation services are provided as well.

The therapy uses mainly behavioural and cognitive-behavioural techniques.

Eating disorders team members include: two psychiatrists, four nurse-therapists, a social worker, two dietitians, two psychologists, an occupational therapist and a recreational therapist.

Physician or nurse practitioner referral is required to access services through the eating disorders program.

Ongoing medical involvement by the referring physician is required.

In addition to clinical service, education and research are important mandates of the adult eating disorders program.

The program provides psychiatric training experience for residents, medical students as well as other health-related disciplines.

Ambulatory Care Service

The ambulatory care service based at St Boniface Hospital is housed on the fourth floor of the McEwen building.

The services foremost aim is to help patients, recently discharged from the inpatient ward, reintegrate into the community.

With this in mind there is an interdisciplinary team composed of social work, nursing, occupational therapy and psychiatrist working with patients.

Generally, patients discharged from the inpatient ward requiring follow up are assigned a primary clinician who meets with them as soon as possible post discharge.

The patient and the clinician then meet with the psychiatrist to complete the intake process.

Over the ensuing months, the patient is closely followed and monitored to ensure stabilization.

Community resources are activated as required, so that the patients care is transferred to the family physician and the appropriate community caregiver.

The duration of this process is variable, with the usual maximum duration of six months.

In addition to the above, the ambulatory care service accepts referrals from the emergency psychiatrists at St Boniface Hospital, other medical specialists at the hospital and family doctors.

These referrals are triaged and patients deemed urgent are seen as quickly as possible, while patients deemed non-urgent are informed of this, and urged to continue follow up with their family physician until they can be seen.

Generally, these patients are seen in consultation and not followed.

Members of the interdisciplinary team are actively involved in delivery of cognitive behavioural therapy with mindfulness classes, cognitive behaviour therapy groups for depression, anxiety and co-occurring disorders, and dialectical behaviour therapy groups.

Residents regularly participate in co-facilitating these groups.

One resident is usually assigned to the service for six months as part of the PGY-2 year for general adult outpatients.

The ambulatory care service also participates in the chronic care and elective choices for the residency program.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

The Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry provides the majority of its clinical and academic teaching for psychiatry residents in their core and elective rotations at two primary clinical sites; the Health Sciences Centre (HSC) and the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre (MATC).

The section, comprised of a diverse faculty, supports the use of a biopsychosocial approach to child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.

Working within multi-disciplinary teams, our faculty provides diagnosis and treatment of individual children, adolescents, their families and associated systems.

The provision of clinical mental health services within these sites, as well as throughout Winnipeg, falls within the administrative purview of Shared Health Manitoba.

Child and adolescent mental health services have two pathways as clinical points of entry:

  1. a centralized intake service for outpatient referrals, which triages and coordinates patient referrals to both sites and monitors waiting lists.
  2. an acute care entry pathway through the emergency department at Children’s Hospital that refers to inpatient and crisis services directly

As well as being exposed to a diverse clinical population, residents and medical students have the opportunity to participate in various formal section academic activities.

During the PGY3 year, a formalized academic seminar series in child and adolescent psychiatry is provided to all psychiatry residents.

During a resident’s child and adolescent residency clinical rotations, other formal academic activities are scheduled including, section rounds, and child and adolescent residents’ journal club.

While in their PGY3 year, (and in subsequent years at the resident’s request), a resident is expected to treat a child or adolescent with a psychotherapeutic modality under intensive supervision provided by an attending child and adolescent psychiatrist.

The two-year child and adolescent psychiatry subspecialty residency training program has been accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Research opportunities in a variety of areas are available in child and adolescent psychiatry. Programs include:

  • Acute Assessment Service - HSC
  • ADHD Clinic - MATC
  • Anxiety Disorder Service - HSC
  • Community Child and Adolescent Treatment Service - MATC
  • Consult Liaison Service – HSC
  • Consultation to Provincial Child and Adolescent Community Mental Health Programs - MATC
  • Early Childhood Clinic - MATC
  • Eating Disorders - HSC
  • Emergency/Rural and Remote Emergency Telehealth - HSC and MATC
  • Gender Dysphoria Assessment and Action for Youth - MATC
  • Inpatient Service - HSC
  • Intensive Child and Adolescent Treatment Service - HSC
  • Intensive Community Reintegration Service (Day Hospital) - MATC
  • Intensive Treatment Service (Inpatient) - MATC
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders Service - MATC
  • Outpatient Mental Health Services - HSC
  • Rapid Assessment Clinic - HSC
  • Rural and Northern Telehealth Service - MATC
  • Youth Forensics Service - MATC

Community Psychiatry Program

The Community Psychiatry Program provides an opportunity for psychiatric residents to experience their training within a community setting.

Community Clinical Electives

These community opportunities include experiences in child psychiatry, forensics, psycho-geriatrics and northern and rural Manitoba clinics and are available to all PGY2, PGY3 and PGY5 residents throughout their academic year.

Residents are expected to make eight visits per year to widen their knowledge of community psychiatry.

The community experience is meant to challenge the resident to think outside the medical 'box' and approach problems from a systems perspective while dealing with complex mental health challenges.

As per RCPSC expectations, PGY4 residents rotate through Shared Care on a half-day basis from September to June.

Their collaborative clinical interventions within primary health care expose them to the exciting opportunities to working within the community.

Residents are challenged to look at new potential opportunities arising within the community program, some of which may not be listed here, such as Klinic.

Core rotations – EPPIS and PACT are available (see below)

Family Medicine Residents at the Northern Connections Medical Clinic are exposed to Shared Care as part of their regular first year mental health training requirements.


Program overview

The Community Psychiatry Program is situated within the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s jurisdiction and is comprised of a number of specialized programs that provide mental health services to clients within primary care and a variety of mental health settings. The following programs provide core and/or elective opportunities for residents:


Community Living Psychiatric Service

The Community Living Psychiatric Service clinic is responsible for dual diagnosed clients who have an intellectual challenge and a mental health disorder. The program is situated at ACCESS Fort Garry/ACCESS Norwest - the program has three part-time psychiatrists and a team of four nurses.


Co-occurring Disorders Initiative

The Co-occurring Disorders Initiative team is comprised of several psychiatrists and three or four clinicians with expertise in the area of addiction services including mental health and addictions. The psychiatrists have expertise in the management and treatment substance disorders. Treatments include the use of suboxone and methadone. The team offers dialectical behavioural therapy to individuals through class and group therapy opportunities. The program provides residents a special educational opportunity to learn about co-occurring disorders and dialectical behavioural therapy.


Crisis services

Since 2013, the Crisis Response Centre has been open to provide walk-in services for clients wanting to speak to a mental health professional.

Our crisis walk-in centre is available 24/7/365.

The mobile crisis service (tel:204-940-1781) provides phone and direct crisis assistance around the clock.

We also have a brief counselling/treatment service available for helping a client through their crisis and assisting them to move beyond it.

The crisis teams also have access to the Urgent Follow-up Intensive Treatment Team. The team provides group classes/therapy and Psychiatric Urgent Referral Clinic psychiatric consultations when a non-emergent assessment is needed.

The crisis stabilization unit (204-940-3633) has 16 beds provides short stays for clients to manage their crisis issues over a four to seven-day period.


Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Service (EPPIS)

The Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Service (EPPIS) addresses the clinical challenges of clients who suffer a first episode of psychosis. The program works to get clients into treatment as early as possible and work with them towards health recovery over a two-year period. The program has allied health, psychology, and psychiatry staff who work together as a team to provide the needed services within the community.


Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT)

Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) has four mental health teams aimed at providing a recovery-orientated treatment, supportive, rehabilitative and crisis service.

This includes:

  • PACT – Hargrave
  • PACT – Leila
  • PACT – Winnipeg West
  • PACT – Logan

This is an multidisciplinary team that follows the PACT model developed at the University of Wisconsin. They provide care for nearly 400 participants who have severe and persistent mental illness diagnoses and are requiring intensive involvement by a specialized team with particular experience in co-occurring disorders, specialized treatments such as clozapine and rehabilitation and recovery-orientated practice.


Mental Health Teams

Mental Health Teams is a redesign project to align community health workers and other professionals using a team approach to oversee regional mental health care needs.

Teams include specialized staff such as Community Mental Health Workers, a therapist, transition specialist, and a child and adolescent worker.

The psychiatrist plays a role by supporting community mental health workers within their specific region in the city, by providing consultative and educational support to primary care/agencies and by assessing clients who are not assigned to a specific mental health program.

This initiative was first introduced in the west of Winnipeg located at the ACCESS Winnipeg West. It has expanded to ACCESS Fort Garry), ACCESS Norwest and ACCESS Downtown/Point Douglas.

Two of these sites also have access to Child Psychiatry.


Health Outreach and Community Support

The Health Outreach and Community Support team is a consultation service that aims to improve access for focus populations’ including those who are homeless to have access to primary care and behavioural health services while at the same time decreasing the use of emergency services.

Health Outreach and Community Support supports partner agencies in their efforts to meet the health needs of their clients and encourages partnerships between community agencies, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and applicable government programs in daily operations and through the Health Outreach and Community Support community network.


Shared Care Mental Health

Shared Care provides a collaborative approach to managing and treating mental health clients within primary care and is based in 25 clinics, including private fee-for-service clinics and Access Centres within the City of Winnipeg.

Fourteen Shared Care psychiatrists, one psychologist and over 20 counsellors are co-located within family physicians/nurse practitioners’ offices delivering mental health services (consultation/therapy) to meet the mental health challenges within primary care.

Working side by side with primary care providers creates a unique relational opportunity that enhances mental health delivery as described by Dr. Pamela Wener’s research of our program.

The range of diagnostic challenges is vast and affords the opportunity to work to improve patient outcomes and support primary care providers at the front line of mental health care provision.

The Shared Care program is now beginning to offer geriatric and child psychiatry consultations as well.

Consultation-Liaison Program

The Department of Psychiatry has two consult-liaison psychiatry services, located at St. Boniface Hospital and Health Sciences Centre.

These services provide psychiatric consultation and follow-up care to inpatients hospitalized at each of the two hospitals on the medical and surgical wards, intensive care units, geriatric-rehabilitation, obstetrics/gynecology unit, dialysis units and palliative care.

Our services provide a unique and fulfilling learning experience for a variety of medical learners. With a high volume of consultations, we are able to provide a robust experience to a team of learners with superb supervision by a highly qualified and experienced team of psychiatrists. They are teaching services for senior and junior psychiatry residents as a part-time or a full-time rotation. They also serve as training sites for medical students as core clerkship and elective rotations.

We extend this education opportunity to the residents specializing in other areas of medicine (family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, geriatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, etc.) on an elective basis.

These services are also involved in the MLP-IMG training program and residents from this program are regularly a part of this rotation.

Emergency Psychiatry Service 

The adult mental health emergency and crisis services psychiatry program operates at the Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital, Victoria General Hospital, and Crisis Response Centre.

This service offers psychiatric assessments to individuals and works collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams that include psychiatric emergency nurses, physician assistants, crisis clinicians, and peer support workers. The team interacts with other health care programs, community agencies, police and primary care.

The program sites are also the location for psychiatric assessments that are required for patients who are in emergency departments at the community hospitals (Concordia, Grace and Seven Oaks General Hospitals).

The service offers a rich learning environment for many mental health care providers. Trainees develop expertise in interviewing skills, crisis intervention and management. Medical students, residents, physician assistant students, clinical assistants and international medical graduates are all potential members of the team, working under the direction and supervision of a psychiatrist experienced in emergency psychiatry. Residents are involved in the emergency psychiatry program on a rotational basis during the day, as well as overnight. Residents can also pursue elective training in the program.

The emergency psychiatry program addresses a wide range of clinical presentations that includes major mental illness, suicidal presentations, addictions, complex cases involving mental and physical illness comorbidity, and social issues.

The program is linked with a network of acute care and post-crisis services, allowing providers and trainees the opportunity to engage in diverse types of service delivery. Care options include urgent psychiatric assessment and follow-up, individual counselling, evidence-based large volume psychotherapy classes (CBT- and DBT-based), and a sub-acute short stay crisis unit. A significant recent development has been the addition of a comprehensive virtual care program that features remote crisis assessments, virtual mental health wards (hospital-at-home) for acute crisis stabilization and intervention, and virtual post-crisis follow-up services including psychotherapy classes.

The emergency psychiatry program has a strong academic foundation and a focus on scholarly work. Members of the program lead a variety of active initiatives in the areas of research, quality improvement, and program evaluation. Projects investigating risk prediction, psychotherapeutic intervention, and virtual care are funded by local and national grants and provide opportunity for trainee involvement. Further details can be found in the research subsection of this web page.

Forensic Psychiatry Program

The adult forensic psychiatry program based at the Health Sciences Centre is a multidisciplinary program which provides inpatient and outpatient assessment and treatment.

The program provides court ordered assessments of fitness to stand trial and criminal responsibility, and provides disposition assessments for the Criminal Code Board of Review.

Treatment services are also provided for accused and convicted offenders, as well as individuals found not criminally responsible and unfit to stand trial. Additionally, the Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) team provides mental health and psychiatric care and support to individuals as a part of a mental health court diversion program.

The inpatient and outpatient components are located at the PsycHealth Centre on the PX3 wing. The inpatient unit consists of 15 beds. Offices for the FACT team) are on the second floor of the Crisis Response Centre.

The service provides educational experiences for several disciplines including medical students and psychiatric residents, nursing, psychology, social work and occupational therapy. Research activity is encouraged in the faculty and students of this program.

The program operates in affiliation with Shared Health Manitoba Community Forensic Mental Health Service and the Rehabilitation Forensic Program operated by the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

Geriatric Psychiatry Program

Given the changing demographics of our population, expertise and competence in the care of older adults will become increasingly important across most branches of medicine and surgery. Delirium, Neurocognitive Disorders, frailty and the interplay between physical illness and mental disorders make this population’s needs particularly challenging.

The geriatric psychiatry service offers training opportunities in all aspects of late life mental health care.

The program members work within multidisciplinary teams and independently provide diagnosis treatment and management of elderly patients across a variety of clinical settings.

Rotations are offered in core training requirements for both the General Psychiatry Program as well as the Geriatric Psychiatry Subspecialty Program. In addition, elective rotations are offered for medical students as well as off-service residents.

Victoria General Hospital

  • Four geriatric psychiatrists
  • Site of older adult psychiatric inpatient beds
  • Outpatient clinic
  • Consult liaison services
  • Site of core rotations both general psychiatry program and geriatric subspecialty program

St. Boniface hospital site

  • Two geriatric psychiatrists
  • Geriatric day hospital
  • Inpatient consultation-liaison
  • Outpatient clinic
  • Site of core rotations both general psychiatry program and geriatric subspecialty program

Deer Lodge Centre

  • Behavioural management unit
  • Geriatric day hospital
  • Inpatient consultation-liaison

Riverview Health Centre

  • Behavioural management unit
  • Geriatric day hospital
  • Inpatient consultation-liaison

Geriatric Mental Health Teams (GMHT)

  • Six geriatric mental health teams spread geographically throughout Winnipeg led by a geriatric psychiatrist
  • Outpatient and nursing home visits

Educational opportunities include weekly didactic seminars on various mental health topics that pertain to older adults as well as journal clubs throughout the year. In addition, opportunities are had to join our colleagues during Geriatric Medicine Rounds as well as attend Baycrest Rounds virtually.

General Psychiatry

The General Psychiatry Program based at the Health Sciences Centre is a multidisciplinary clinical program comprised of inpatient and outpatient sections.

The program specializes in the comprehensive assessment and treatment of individuals with complex psychiatric disorders.

When indicated, the program provides secondary and tertiary psychiatric care to individuals with established major mental illness, including schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders, etc.

The inpatient component of the program consists of 25 beds that are located at the PsycHealth Centre, ward PY-2.

The outpatient component is located on the same level at PsycHealth, in the PZ-2 area.

A variety of consultations, follow-up clinics and psychotherapy groups are operated.

Access to the clinical services of the General Psychiatry Program requires a physician referral, and most referrals come from either crisis or inpatient settings.

In addition to clinical service, education is an important mandate of the General Psychiatry Program.

The program provides the core psychiatric training experience for residents and medical students, as well as for other health related disciplines.

Usually there are two to four residents assigned to six-month rotations on the inpatient and outpatient sections, as well as three medical students at a time, doing six-week rotations in psychiatry.

Inpatient Service

The adult inpatient psychiatric units within Winnipeg are located at the Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital, and Victoria General Hospital.

We provide diagnosis and treatment of complex cases that require inpatient treatment. Our mandate is short-term assessment, stabilization, and preparing individuals for continuing recovery in the community.

The multidisciplinary team is comprised of physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, and social workers.

Clinical teaching is a core function and students from a variety of disciplines rotate through our service. The inpatient psychiatrists are involved in teaching both residents and medical students.

Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program 

The Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program of the Health Sciences Centre is a multidisciplinary specialty clinical service providing comprehensive assessment and treatment for individuals with a wide range of mood disorders including chronic and acute conditions.

The program provides these services through consultations to inpatient units, outpatient consultations, outpatient follow-up clinics, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) groups, an electroconvulsive therapy service and a ketamine service.

A physician or nurse practitioner referral is required to access CBT groups and outpatient consultation.

A psychiatrist referral is required to access other services within the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program.

Members of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program are actively involved in a wide range of research endeavours in collaboration with members of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Group.

Neuromodulation and Neuropsychiatry Clinical Program

The Neuromodulation and Neuropsychiatry Unit provides two distinct clinical services, Neuromodulation (rTMS Treatment) and Neuropsychiatry Consultation.

Neuromodulation (rTMS)

The rTMS clinic at Saint Boniface Hospital was established in January 2012. The clinic is equipped with two TMS machines. We provide full-course treatments to new patients each year in addition to maintenance treatments for returning patients.

Neuropsychiatry Clinic

Neuropsychiatry encompasses a variety of clinical services such as assessment and management of patients with brain injury, neurodegenerative disorders, epilepsy and functional neurological disorders.

Consults are accepted both through centralized intake and direct referral from family doctors, psychiatrists and neurologists.

Schizophrenia Treatment and Education Program (STEP)

The Schizophrenia Treatment and Education Program (STEP) is based at the Health Sciences Centre.

This multidisciplinary program includes an inpatient care, outpatient clinics and cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis (CBTp) groups. In addition, STEP provides specialized consultation services regarding the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with psychotic disorders. The program focuses on the comprehensive management of adults with psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and delusional disorder.

STEP psychiatrists provide inpatient care at Health Sciences Centre with particular expertise in management of psychosis. The inpatient team consists of staff psychiatrists, a social worker, nurses, occupational and recreational therapists and a mental health rehabilitation worker.

Those who are followed by the outpatient part of the program are considered STEP patients. The outpatient clinics are staffed by psychiatrists, senior nurse-therapists and an occupational therapist. The occupational therapy staff, together with the recreation therapist and the mental health rehabilitation worker, provide a range of services under the heading of "rehabilitation readiness". The emphasis is to prepare patients for and connect them with community-based services. Referrals are accepted from psychiatrists and other physicians, either through HSC psychiatry's centralized intake, or by direct physician referral to the program.

STEP provides a range of training opportunities to medical students, psychiatric residents, nursing students at various levels of training, as well as occupational therapy and social work students. The program maintains links with a wide range of community services, programs and agencies, including the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Clubhouse of Winnipeg.

Short Term Assessment & Treatment (STAT) Program

The Short Term Assessment & Treatment (STAT) Program is a multidisciplinary program located at the Health Sciences Centre that provides day hospital and outpatient programs for patients requiring acute psychiatric intervention in the context of a focal crisis or destabilization, or who would otherwise benefit from short-term, intensive interventions.

Patients referred to the STAT Program primarily present with adjustment disorders, personality disorder-based difficulties, and a range of comorbid diagnoses including mood disorders and anxiety disorders.

The STAT Program utilizes an intensive (five day/week) day hospital program that is primarily group therapy based, and is of a time-limited nature (five weeks).

The STAT day hospital program provides time-limited individual and group psychotherapies as well as psychoeducational and pharmacological therapies.

The group therapies include elements derived from dialectical behavioural and cognitive behavioural therapy.

The STAT Program receives approximately 350 to 400 referrals per year for acute care day hospital/outpatient-based treatment from emergency room physicians from the Health Sciences Centre, other PsycHealth programs, St. Boniface General Hospital, and community physicians.

The STAT Program also addresses the intermediate to long-term needs of patients with personality disorders and ongoing active symptoms through dialectical behaviour therapy interventions on an outpatient basis, when clinically indicated.

The STAT Day Hospital Program treats approximately 20 patients at any given time in the day hospital program, and approximately 80 to 100 outpatients who are seen for a short term follow-up (two to three months) after day hospital attendance.

There are three dialectical behaviour therapy skills training groups, serving approximately 24 patients who attend on a weekly basis for approximately one year.

There is an opportunity for residents to do elective training in dialectical behaviour therapy, which represents a unique opportunity to become trained in an evidence-based psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder.

The STAT Program provides a learning experience for students from a variety of disciplines including psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, occupational therapy and social work.

It provides for clinical exposure and an opportunity to develop personal comfort in working with patients with prominent and often complex interpersonal Axis II difficulties.

An ongoing literature review and case rounds are undertaken with a focus on the diagnostic assessment and treatment of individuals with significant personality pathology and comorbid psychiatric disorders.

PGY5 residents may be assigned for senior elective placements on the STAT Program on a full or part-time basis.

This elective may be taken in conjunction with an elective in dialectical behaviour therapy or other electives.

The STAT Program is located in the PX1 area of the PsycHealth Centre and is staffed by three psychiatrists, five psychiatric nurses, two occupational therapists and a social worker.

Faculty and staff

Events

Grand rounds

The Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds is an opportunity to discuss high yield topics chosen by Department Faculty, Residents and Members.  Presentations will be made by physicians, residents and multi-disciplinary team members.

Contact us

For urgent mental health help, please contact the Mobile Crisis at 204-940-1781 or visit the Crisis Response Centre at 817 Bannatyne Avenue.   
 

Psychiatry
PZ433-771 Bannatyne Avenue
University of Manitoba, Bannatyne campus
Winnipeg, MB R3E 3N4 Canada

204-787-7056 
204-787-4879