Year in Review 2022-2023: Mentoring Tomorrow’s Mental Health Providers

Each day, patients and their families from across the Commonwealth and around the globe turn to McLean for mental health care, support, and education.

At McLean, and throughout Mass General Brigham, we see the profound impact that psychiatric illness has on all of us.

Meeting the growing mental health needs of youth, adults, and older adults, as well as the needs of their support networks, poses unprecedented challenges—particularly in the face of a continued workforce crisis and economic duress.

Indeed, our mission has never been more compelling than now. At this moment, more than ever, meeting these challenges will require next-generation leadership and new approaches, building upon our strengths of the past and present to embrace a full range of opportunities.

In this year in review magazine, you will read about our rising forward momentum at McLean, as exemplified by a cadre of new inspiring leaders, exciting recruitments of exceptional young talent, expansion of innovative training programs to build the next generation, a glimpse of new approaches for advancing the field through pioneering science, and educational efforts that epitomize our commitment to amplified positive impact by disseminating our expertise at scale.

We are eager to share highlights from the past year and are most grateful to those of you who choose to join us as part of the larger McLean community, dedicated to this most worthy shared mission.

In this context, we gratefully acknowledge the vital role that philanthropy plays in fueling McLean’s ability to grow and advance.

Now, more than ever, the generosity of longstanding donors, as well as those who are new to supporting McLean, is helping us to sustain and grow our services, disseminate our expertise, and advance the field, all in the service of transforming and saving lives.

Read the Articles

New Leadership Enhances Integration Across Mission Elements
A unifying theme in leadership changes at a number of McLean Hospital’s divisions during 2022 was the integration of clinical and research activities while also making diversity, equity, and inclusion a centerpiece. Daniel P. Dickstein, MD, FAAP, Sara L. Weisenbach, PhD, ABPP, and R. Kathryn McHugh, PhD, are leading the way.

Mentoring Tomorrow’s Mental Health Providers
Many students know their career path from the day they enter college, if not before. But for those who find themselves pondering their next steps as graduation approaches, McLean Hospital now offers an opportunity to road test some of their ideas. The PBac, directed by Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD, is a two-year commitment for college graduates interested in pursuing a career in mental health, whether in psychology, psychiatry, nursing, or social work. Unlike many other post-bacc programs, fellows are hired to work full time.

Sharing Expertise To Help Others: Collaboration Supports Black and African Communities in Boston
Teaming up for a first-of-its-kind conference, McLean Hospital’s Education Outreach team and Women of Purpose International (WOPI-Boston International), an organization that empowers African immigrants, hosted a three-day mental health conference aimed at providing mental health outreach to Black and African communities in the Greater Boston area.

Bringing McLean’s Deconstructing Stigma Work to the Middle East
Stuart Katz’s job literally takes him around the world. “Between 15 and 22 countries annually, I visited 22 in 2022,” said the CEO of New York-based TAL Tours. But in addition to checking out hotel and tourist amenities, Katz added another topic to his itineraries after a family member received care at McLean Hospital.

Wellcome Leap Trial Aims To Improve Depression Care Through Precision Medicine
Depression has become the leading cause of disability worldwide across all illnesses, according to the World Health Organization. In only a single year, 264 million people deal with depression, and 800,000 lives are lost to suicide. Yet psychiatrists are often forced to resort to a trial-and-error approach when considering pharmaceutical treatments for individuals experiencing depression.