In this workshop jointly sponsored by the AAAP Education Committee and AADPRT Addiction Committee, members of both committees will outline the current gap between growing public health needs and existing Addiction Psychiatry (AP) expertise and available workforce and explore solutions to these challenges. Presenters will summarize the current state of AP training within general psychiatry residency programs, AP fellowship recruitment trends and projected impact on AP workforce, as well as recent changes in the recruitment process including the NRMP match. Participants will learn about specific strategies and inter-organizational collaborations (AAAP-AADPRT) geared towards addressing current challenges in AP training and progress made including recent initiatives such the Addiction Psychiatry Visiting Scholar program. With the need to educate residents more robustly in AP and facilitate influx into further subspecialized training, this workshop will introduce innovative teaching methods to incorporate AP education into general psychiatry residency programs and identify creative incentives in AP fellowship recruitment. Brief, interactive presentations will be followed by facilitated small group discussion by a leading content expert. In their small groups, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own individual training program’s areas for growth, explore available resources, and actively consult with other participants and session leaders on how to match these resources with their educational needs. With education as one of the AAAP mission core components this workshop aims to fill a gap in disseminating practical ways of approaching AP education within the limits of AAAP members’ various practice settings.

• Summarize current trends in addiction psychiatry training/recruitment, state of addiction psychiatry education in general psychiatry residency programs and impact on future addiction psychiatry workforce. 
• Describe inter-organizational (AAAP-AADPRT) collaborative opportunities to address addiction psychiatry training including creative incentives for fellowship recruitment.
• Identify one to two innovative strategies to enhance addiction psychiatry education in general psychiatry residency programs.

• Education
• Training
• Workforce

Alëna Balasanova, MD, Chairperson

                 

Dr. Alëna A. Balasanova is an associate professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in the Department of Psychiatry and also holds an appointment in the College of Allied Health Professions. She is dually board certified in psychiatry and addiction medicine. After obtaining her undergraduate degree from The Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Balasanova went on to earn her M.D. at Harvard Medical School and completed residency training at Boston University Medical Center. As the Director of Addiction Psychiatry Education for the Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine, Dr. Balasanova has developed novel educational programs for medical students, residents, fellows, and allied health professionals. Dr. Balasanova was the founding director of the Outpatient Addiction Psychiatry Clinic and also developed and now co-directs the inpatient Addiction Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service, both at the Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Balasanova’s professional interests lie at the intersection of medical education and stigma reduction. She has presented and published nationally and internationally on addiction psychiatry education and destigmatizing substance use disorders; in recognition of this work, Dr. Balasanova was awarded the prestigious American Medical Association Foundation Award for Health Education in 2020, the American Psychiatric Association Irma Bland Award for Residency Education in 2022 and Nancy Roeske Award for Medical Student Education in 2023. Dr. Balasanova was also named the Nebraska Medical Association Young Physician of the Year in 2021 and received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Gold Humanism Honor Society earlier this year. 

Daniela Rakocevic, MD, Presenter

       

Dr. Daniela Rakocevic currently serves as Chief of Addiction Psychiatry Division and Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship program director at Nortwestern University, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. 

Alexis Ritvo, MD, Presenter

                   

Alexis Ritvo, MD MPH is Program Director for the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine where she is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Clinically she is supervising attending of general psychiatry residents in the CU Medicine Outpatient Psychiatry clinic where she directs a co-occurring disorder subspeciality clinic. Her growing interest in the safe prescribing and deprescribing of prescription benzodiazepines led her to co-found the Benzodiazepine Action Work Group with the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse in November 2020. In January 2022, she also became medical director for the national non-profit the Alliance for Benzodiazepines Best Practices.