Upstate’s Nevena Radonjic, MD, PhD, is battling the mental health care crisis in Central New York and just presented her efforts nationally.

Last month, Radonjic and Marcy Guzik, program coordinator, shared the Upstate Mental Health REACH Initiative at the 2024 Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. that is intended for psychiatrists who are interested in learning about academic development, teaching psychiatry, and research on psychiatry education.

Designed to expand the capacity of primary care providers to diagnose and treat common mental health disorders in adults, the free program is the only one of its kind in New York state and has delivered workshops to 300 physicians and other critical health care workers so far.

“We want to help our colleagues, but the bottom line is improving access to care,” explained Radonjic, who serves as program director. “If you feel more confident that you know how to treat depression and anxiety, you’re going to do it.”

When Radonjic was invited to participate in the widely attended conference, reviewers noted that the proposal was “important” and had “impressive” numbers. Honored to present her poster, Radonjic hopes that national attention will lead to more funding so the program can continue to improve access to mental health services for those in need in rural and impoverished areas in Central New York.

She and her colleague Seethalakshmi Ramanathan, MD, MPA, both from the Upstate Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, witnessed the dearth of mental health care firsthand while consulting at clinics in the region, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was apparent that they were doing a lot of work, but didn’t have sufficient support,” said Radonjic of their time with physicians who struggled to manage their patients’ mental health needs.

The U.S. only has enough mental health professionals to support 26 percent of the needs of the population, numbers that are even lower in New York state at 18.8 percent, according to the 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation report. In 2021, 22.6 percent of adults in the Syracuse metropolitan area reported that they had a form of depression, which is significantly higher than the New York State average of 17 percent, per Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data.

In partnership with the Upstate Foundation, the doctors received seed funding from the Patrick P. Lee Foundation, as well as monies from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. The resulting program first launched in 2022, with bi-annual online workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program has since switched to in-person workshops featuring some of Upstate’s top medical professionals, such as Thomas Schwartz, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as Ramanathan and Radonjic. The program is supported by coordinators Marcy Guzik and Rosemarie Earle. Recently, Yasmeen Awayda joined as a social media coordinator to increase awareness of the educational program on different social media platforms.

Each workshop, which is awarded 6.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits, is followed by 10 ECHO bi-weekly sessions, and targets how to treat adult patients ages 18 and older. Attendees, who come from various health professions, have traveled from across the state to learn about a range of topics from treating substance use disorders to suicide prevention. The feedback has been positive, with many attendees planning to adapt their method for screening and treating patients.

Radonjic will expand the workshops to include motivational interviewing techniques to decrease substance use and encourage lifestyle changes. The program will also offer sessions focused on alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorders. “We hope that with these skills primary providers will feel more comfortable asking difficult questions,” she said, “and treating mild-to-moderate mental health disorders, including substance use disorders.”

The next Upstate Mental Health REACH Intensive Workshop will be held Oct. 19 at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Caption: Upstate Mental Health REACH Initiative Program Coordinator Marcy Guzik, left, and Program Director Nevena Radonjic, MD, PhD, attend the 2024 Association for Academic Psychiatry (AAP) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., Sept. 13.