Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
 Dr. Stephen Kramer
Interim Chair
| The patient's best interests come first. This commitment takes priority over everything else we do. Even though we are an academic center with serious commitments to education and research, we never lose sight of the fact that all our activities serve one person - the patient. Our mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of this region by means of Patient Care, Education, and Research. It is the full and thoughtful integration of these three elements that makes academic medical centers different; it is the dedication to placing patient care first that identifies the best of these centers. |
Here you can become acquainted with our faculty, their particular interests and become acquainted with our current residents. You will also find descriptions of our clinical services, residency program, medical student clerkship and specialty programs.
Residency Training News
Psychiatry Residency Program Newest Residents
Lalita Akers, MD from Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Oluseun Ayanga, MBBS from the University of Lago
Frederick Boyer, DO from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine
Christian Cespedes, DO from Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Catherine Green, MD from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
Kelechi Emereonye, MBBS from Abia State University
Raunak Khisty, MBBS from the Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Karad
Olga Thompson, MD from Moscow Medical Academy named after I.M. Sechenov
Faculty & Research News
 | Donald Peters, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, was awarded the "Loretta Y. Silvia Teaching Award" for clinical excellence, courage and compassion at the annual resident graduation dinner dance on Saturday evening, May 30, 2009. This annual award voted on and presented by the residents honors the memory of Dr. Silvia, a loved and respected member of the faculty for 17 years. |
Dr. Burton Reifler was named the first Kate Mills Snider Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. This Professorship is supported through the Geriatric Psychiatry Outreach (GO) Program, made possible by a generous gift from the Snider family in honor of their mother, Kate Mills Snider. The GO Program provides geriatric psychiatry house calls for older persons with mobility limitations. | 
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Recent Publications
Gretchen Brenes, PhD:
Insomnia in older adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17, 465-472. Brenes, G.A., Miller, M.E., Stanley, M.A., Williamson, J.D., Knudson, M., & McCall, W.V. (2009).
Racial differences in self-rated health at similar levels of physical functioning: An examination of health pessimism in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 64, 87-94. Spencer, S.M., Schulz, R., Rooks, R.N., Albert, S.M., Thorpe, R.J., Brenes, G.A., Harris, T.B., Koster, A., Satterfield, S., Ayonayon, H.N., & Newman, A. B. (2009)
Feasibility and acceptability of bibliotherapy and telephone sessions for the treatment of late-life anxiety disorders. Clinical Gerontologist. Brenes, G.A., McCall, V.M., Williamson, J.D., & Stanley, M.A. (In press).
Obesity and onset of significant depressive symptoms: Results from a community-based cohort of older men and women. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Vogelzangs, N., Kritchevsky, S.B., Beekman, A.T.F., Brenes, G.A., Newman, A.B., Satterfield, S., Yaffe, K., Harris, T.B., & Penninx, B.W.J.H. (In press).
The American Hospital Association
The website of the American Hospital Association has featured a story on the Geriatric Outreach Program, "Meeting the Mental Health Needs of the Elderly Home-Bound through a Geriatric Psychiatry Outreach Program - Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC." The article details the difficulties of many elderly patients getting to a health care setting to receive treatment due to frailty, disability, physical illness, or psychiatric illness. To meet the needs of these patients, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center established an outreach program for the frail elderly who need psychiatric services in their homes." AHA members can click here to read the case example to see how the Geriatric Outreach Program helps to meet the needs of the home-bound elderly.
Awards and Recognitions
The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP)
The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) has created a new AAGP Deirdre Johnston Award for Excellence and Innovation in Geriatric Mental Health Outreach Services to encourage programs to provide and/or expand services for meeting the mental health needs of the frail elderly in their homes. The association will grant $10,000 to a program based on its excellence and/or innovation in providing mental health services to older adults in the community.
This annual award is made possible by a generous gift from Arnold H. Snider to the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation, which with the association oversees the award. This award is named in honor of geriatric psychiatrist Deirdre Johnston, MBChB, MRCPsych, in gratitude for the care she provided to Kate Mills Snider, Mr. Snider's mother. Mr. Snider and his wife, Katherine, have endowed the Kate Mills Snider Geropsychiatry Outreach Program and Professorship Fund within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. View press release.
Deirdre Johnston MB BCh BAO MRCPsych was formerly a member of the Wake Forest School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, now with Johns Hopkins University.