PHILADELPHIA – Dr. Dilip V. Jeste fell in love with psychiatry while growing up in a remote village in India. "Becoming an APA member seemed like a dream," Dr. Jeste told a packed hotel ballroom May 6 during the opening session of the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.
Today, Dr. Jeste is not only a member of the American Psychiatric Association but the group’s president-elect. He said the focus of his 1-year term will be on unity.
"The APA is a big tent," said Dr. Jeste, the Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging at the University of California, San Diego. He wants to make the organization broader, more international, and younger. "We need a concerted effort to [increase] diversity at all levels."
The APA exists to fight mental illness and to make sure that patients get the best possible care, he said.
"We can’t do this by ourselves," said Dr. Jeste, emphasizing the need to coordinate with other organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
He also stressed the importance of focusing on enhancing resilience and promoting wellness across the lifespan. "Older people are not a drain on society, but a resource," said Dr. Jeste, pointing out that the number of people in the United States aged 65 years and older is expected to double by 2030.
Dr. Jeste also serves as distinguished professor of psychiatry and neurosciences and the director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the university, and as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Earlier in the session, Dr. John M. Oldham, the current APA president, said that the workforce issues facing psychiatry are a huge concern. The latest figures from the National Resident Matching Program showed that fewer medical students chose psychiatry for the sixth year in a row. Yet, the shortage of psychiatrists continues in the United States and internationally.
"Medical students say the road to happiness" can be found in four specialties – anesthesiology, dermatology, ophthalmology, and radiology – but "students who want to go into psychiatry want to connect with patients," said Dr. Oldham, chief of staff at the Menninger Clinic, Houston.
The theme of his term – integrated care – stresses the need for psychiatry to be part of all health care discussions. "As medical homes come online, psychiatry must be at the table," he said.