Message from the Chair
Department Interim Chair
Dr. P. Hall
Interim Chair of Psychiatry
Welcome to the Department of Psychiatry. Psychiatry at Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry is a dynamic department dedicated to providing person-centered care, innovative education, and future-focused research.
Our clinical program is committed to serving people with mental health needs throughout their lifespan and across southwest Ontario. Patients are at the center of all that we do. Our clinicians are devoted to helping patients regain control of their mental health and engaging in their communities. We provide compassionate, expert care in the assessment and treatment of disorders of addiction, anxiety, autism, eating behaviors, forensics, geriatrics, mood, personality, post-traumatic stress and psychosis. We serve patients throughout the continuum of care: from emergency services, inpatient stays, outpatient clinics, to community reintegration. Working from a framework of continuous quality improvement, we believe in partnering with our patients to learn how to best serve their needs. By forging connections with our community partners, we strive to provide care when and where patients need it.
Dedicated to life-long learning and the primacy of education, we provide a robust educational platform for undergraduate, post-graduate, and faculty learners. Our undergraduate program introduces medical students to the privilege of working with patients with psychiatric disorders and their underlying psychopathophysiology. Our faculty choose to work at Schulich to teach the next generation of psychiatry leaders. With programs in child and adolescent, general adult, and geriatric psychiatry, our trainees learn from knowledgeable faculty who model providing state-of-the-art care along with engaging in cutting edge research. To ensure that our faculty remain current with evidence-informed best practices, we provide a multi-layered and rich faculty development program.
Basic science and clinical translational research occurs with collaborators at Robarts Research Institute and Lawson Health Research Institute. Pioneering investigators work across modalities and programs to create and disseminate new knowledge. Schulich psychiatry is proud of its ground-breaking and bar-setting work in basic science, developmental disorders; early identification of mood, epidemiology, anxiety, and psychotic disorders; meditation; operational stress disorders; seizure magnetic stimulation; and zero suicide.
Our department is strong because our people. Our department is replete with passionate, dedicated individuals with creative talents from diverse backgrounds. I am proud to work alongside of such impressive individuals and to be part of the Schulich Psychiatry family.
Patricia Hall, M.D.
Dr. Hall was appointed interim Chair of the Department Psychiatry effective October 16, 2023.
In addition to her role as interim Chair, Dr. Hall is the interim Physician Department Head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Children's Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre
Dr. Hall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. She holds FRCPC certification in Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She was appointed Chair of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Chief of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program at Children’s Hospital in 2020.
Dr. Hall is passionate about faculty and learner wellness and participates in multiple mentorship committees for the Department of Psychiatry faculty. In 2023, she was awarded the Schulich Award of Excellence for Faculty: Faculty Mentorship Award.
Dr. Hall created and implemented the first Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Subspecialty Program at Western and held the role of Program Director from 2010 to 2020. Under Dr. Hall's leadership, the Royal College recognized a leading practice and innovation within the CAP subspecialty program in wellness.
Dr. Hall has participated in multiple national education committees and was a member of the Royal College Child and Adolescent Psychiatry CBME Working Group. She is recognized nationally for her contributions and was awarded the Postgraduate Education Award by the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2020. She has also received Schulich Excellence in Postgraduate Education Awards in 2014 and 2020 and multiple teaching awards in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Hall looks forward to working collaboratively to best support departmental operations.
