Page 2 - Jan_Feb_2023_Newsletter
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NCPS OFFICERS                      President’s Message

              2022-2023                       Farah Zaidi, MD


    Officers                                  "I have the audacity to believe that peoples
    Farah Zaidi, MD - President
    Michael Ostacher, MD, MPH - President-    everywhere can have three meals a day for their
    Elect / Treasurer                         bodies, education and culture for their minds,
    Takeo Toyoshima, MD - Vice President      and dignity, equality, and freedom for their
    Emaya Anbalagan, MD  - Secretary          spirits."
                                              -Martin Luther King, Jr.
    APA Assembly Representatives
    Yelena Zalkina, MD (22-26)                I see the relevance, but lack of implementation, of this inspiring message by
    Mel Blaustein, MD (21-25)
    Peter Forster, MD (20-24)                 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on a regular basis during my work with pa-
    Raymond Reyes, MD (19-23)                 tients  surviving  on  the  margins  of  our  affluent  society.  January  marks
                                              “National Poverty Awareness Month in America”, in addition to celebra-
    Past Presidents                           tions  for  New  Year  and  MLK  Day.  Relationship  of  poverty  and  SMI  in
    Shana Levy, MD, DFAPA                     marginalized patients is intertwined. If one is treated without the other,
    Anna Glezer, MD                           devastating adverse effects will become evident overtime on bodies, minds
                                              and spirits of not only of the sufferers but also the community at large.
    Councilors
    Janet Baek, MD (20-23)
    Vacant (20-23)                            The field of psychiatry has rapidly evolved, with opportunities and chal-
    Elizabeth Rawson, MD, MHS (21-24)         lenges, especially since the first wave of de-institutionalization of patients
    Vacant (21-24)                            with severe mental illness in1950s. Over time, it has become crystal clear
    Richard Altesman, MD, DLFAPA (22-25)      that  multifactorial  psychopathology  underlying  mental  illness  warrants
    Richa Bhatia, MD  (22-25)                 multimodal treatment approaches. Initiatives which focus on social deter-
                                              minants of health, along with traditional and novel biological therapies are
    Resident Councilors                       of increasing interest and are integrated as essential components into suc-
    Surur Sharif, MD ~ CPMC                   cessful treatment planning. On State level, CalAIM and CARE Court are
    Jimmy He, MD ~ Kaiser Oakland             couple of such initiatives which promise to address diverse social determi-
    Kathryn Brown, MD, MBA ~ Kaiser Oakland   nants which impact overall health. However, on national and global level,
    Tiffany Chao, MD ~ Kaiser San Jose
    Manisha Yelda, MD ~ Kaiser San Jose       one rapidly evolving paradigm in biological therapies is the re-emergence
    Ashley Shatola, MD ~ San Mateo            of Psychedelics and their therapeutic potentials.
    Kara Wang, MD~ San Mateo
    Catherine Shir, MD ~ Stanford             In recent years there is an ever increasing number of research trials on var-
    Jasmine Tatum, MD ~ Stanford              ious psychedelic compounds for variety of conditions ranging from psy-
    Cynthia He, MD, PhD ~ UCSF                chiatric illnesses (anxiety, depression, PTSD etc.) to addiction to pain to
    John “Connor” Barnhart, MD ~ USCF         many more. Rapid shifts in policies/laws with decriminalization and legal-
                                              ization is also happening in different parts of our country. However, the
    Chapter Presidents
    James Eyerman, MD, DFAPA                  concerns are also raised about widespread use of psychedelics with pre-
    North Bay Counties                        liminary scientific evidence and unknown long term effects. Additionally,
                                              some are also concerned about possible near monopoly of certain affluen-
    Parliamentarian                           tial groups with personal and financial interests in psychedelics  which
    Raymond Reyes, MD                         may  further  promote  inequality  for  marginalized  patients  in  accessing
                                              care. We’ll read about some of these aspects in Dr. McInnes’s articles on
    Communications Committee                  psychedelics in this newsletter.
    Peter Forster, MD ~ Editor
    Richa Bhatia, MD                          Related to challenges and concerns for inequality, another big challenge
    Farah Zaidi, MD
                                              facing field of medicine is access to safe care.
    PFNC President
    Zena Potash, MD                           When in June 2022, the supreme court reversed Roe v. Wade, the outrage
                                              over women’s reproductive rights and safety, reverberated throughout the
    Interim Executive Director                country. Though fortunately reproductive rights of women in California
    Stephen Gamboa                            remain protected, the lobbying efforts for “closing the provider gap and

    415-334-2418 | F:415-239-2533 | ncps.org                                                          Continued on page 3
         NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY                                   Page 2        January / February 2023
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