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VIDEO: APA president-elect describes upcoming term initiatives

ATLANTA — Maria A. Oquendo, MD, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association and professor of psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute, explains how psychiatrists and mental health professionals can fulfill the theme of her upcoming presidency: prevention through partnerships.

“The idea is that we should partner with different medical specialties to reach vulnerable individuals before they become ill,” Oquendo told Healio.com/Psychiatry.

Psychiatrists and mental health professionals can partner with pediatricians, obstetricians and schools to potentially decrease children’s risk for anxiety, depression and other mental health illnesses and properly address any maternal mental illness.

Oquendo discusses Typical or Troubled, an APA program that teaches educators how to spot early indicators of psychiatric illness among children.