Veronica Slootsky, MD and Maria M. Bodic, MD have been nominated by member organization AASP as our two candidates for the Young Psychiatrist Fellowship Awards of the World Association of Social Psychiatry. The awards will be given at the 22nd World Congress in New Delhi, India from November 30th to December 4th, 2016. Early career psychiatrists nominated from twenty-two countries will compete for the honor of presenting topics in social psychiatry. Each of ten final awards will included a stipend toward travel expenses to the Congress in India.

Veronica Slootsky, MD is an Assistant Professor at George Washington University School of Medicine. Drawing on her personal experiences and prior work with Physicians for Human Rights and asylum evaluations, she has been working in Cambodia, Nepal, and Washington, DC utilizing Testimonial Therapy with trauma survivors. Testimonial therapy involves culturally specific healing elements in each uniquely designed delivery ceremony, during which the retelling and reframing of the trauma story serve to decrease negative associations.   

Maria Mirabela Bodic, MD, Associate Director for Psychiatric Emergency Services at Maimonides Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, was nominated by AASP for her work in cultural competency and community mental health. She is also is active in APA, serving as President of the Brooklyn Psychiatric Society district branch, and is the Area 2 ECP Representative in the APA Assembly.

Both Drs. Bodic and Slootsky are slated to be on the panel of the AASP-WASP Symposium on treatment of social trauma in San Diego in May 2017. Dr. Bodic will be speaking on culturally-informed diagnostic interviewing in the emergency room to address aspects of poverty, acculturation stress, and the unique aspects of subcultures in ethnic neighborhoods. Dr. Slootsky will present her work on Testimonial Therapy.