Feature: Dr. Chandlee Dickey – an exciting time for change
By Cam Buchan
The first night in an inner-city hospital Emergency Room in St. Louis was all Dr. Chandlee Dickey needed to chart her future.
“There was a young man – quite psychotic – in the ER,” recalled Dickey, who, at that point, was considering a career in surgery. “It was the challenge of trying to connect with him, and the creativity that was required to make a human connection, that I found very stimulating.”
In that moment, Dickey found her home and has never looked back.
Now, as a Professor and Chair/Chief in the Department of Psychiatry at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Dickey looks ahead at the opportunities for her own department with equal enthusiasm.
The journey to Schulich Medicine
Dickey’s education began at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. From there, she moved to Johns Hopkins, where she honed her patient interview skills and learned how to support patients with mental health problems. After serving as Chief Resident at Hopkins, she moved to Boston for two fellowships: A clinical neuropsychiatry fellowship and a brain imaging research fellowship. She also spent a number of years at both Brigham and Women's Hospital and Veterans Affairs Boston, both teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts.
“I was the first psychiatrist ever in the Brigham Neurology Department. There, I developed a background in neurology, which gave me the opportunity to care for adult patients with developmental disorders, dementia, and epilepsy.”
Dickey’s areas of interest include education innovation, leadership development, schizotypal personality disorder, and methamphetamine addiction. She has also been a leader in psychiatric education nationally in the U.S.
After 25 years at Harvard, she was eager for a new challenge in another country.
Moving to London has opened her eyes to a new area of need: Methamphetamine addiction.
“I had never seen a methamphetamine problem until I came here,” she said. “Working clinically in the ER here and living downtown, I quickly learned what methamphetamine was and how much it wreaks havoc on communities, damages the brain, and kills people.”
Now, In collaboration with Greg Gloor, PhD, Chair of the Biochemistry Department, Dickey is fund raising to search for a therapeutic brain target – that part of the brain or the enzymes involved in methamphetamine addiction.
“Right now, we don’t have good evidence-informed treatments, so we’re treating patients without terribly much direction.”
As a leader, Dickey is challenging her team to think aspirationally as they plan the future of the department together. The team’s collaborative nature and resiliency will certainly be assets as she leads her team into the future.
“I would love to see us trying novel ways of collaborating with community organizations to shift the balance of mental health care from the hospital to the community, and move much more towards prevention,” said Dickey. “Psychiatric issues and addictions are relapsing, remitting disorders that have a good chance of recurring multiple times across a lifetime. So, while most mental health efforts are in the treatment and maintenance of these issues, I would love to see a shift toward more prevention.”
Dickey is also bringing attention to matters of diversity in the workplace.
“I think it's really important to have women and people of color in senior leadership positions, because we want others who are coming up to see themselves in those roles. Attention to issues of diversity and inclusion are critical to the health and wellbeing of our organization.”
“I would love to see us trying novel ways of collaborating with community organizations to shift the balance of mental health care from the hospital to the community, and move much more towards prevention.” — Dr. Chandlee Dickey, Professor and Chair/Chief in the Department of Psychiatry
