As announced recently, this year’s Innovation in Education award has been named the Ivan Silver Award for Excellence in Educational Mentorship. As he prepares for the arrival of his successor, we asked Ivan to reflect on his time as our VP of Education and mentorship.
Who was your educational mentor?
At a crucial time in my career when I first became interested in education, I came in contact with the Centre for Studies in Medical Education which later evolved into the Wilson Centre. It was in the early 80s. At that time, there was an education scientist/faculty developer there named Dr. Richard Tiberius, who I immediately connected with because he was very inventive—a risk taker, very open to new ideas and willing to co-develop education projects or co-facilitate workshops with me. He had the unique talent of being both an education scientist and an amazing teacher of teachers. I wanted to be like Richard and he did everything to help me learn what he knew. I never did accomplish what Richard was able to do but his talents gave me a clear vision of what I aspired to and his generosity of time and patience gave me a great start to my career in health professional education.
What is the biggest change you have seen in your time with CAMH Education?
The biggest change is the shift to an academic focus for this program. We have engaged many faculty and staff in participating in education scholarship and research. Some of the fields (this is only a partial list) include innovative projects in simulation in mental health, patient and family education featuring co-created models of curriculum and material development, a new feedback model for resident education, service users as advisers to resident physicians, psychotherapy curriculum and issues in supervision, leadership development, gender bias and leadership, defining telepsychiatry competencies for residents, evaluation of web-based education and implementing clinical practice guidelines in addictions psychiatry.
What are you most proud of accomplishing during your tenure as VP of Education?
I most proud of the faculty and staff who have contributed so tirelessly to helping change the course of CAMH Education. I love the idea that we have an integrated Student Centre that onboards all of our health professional students and am very proud of our very accomplished teachers and supervisors at CAMH. I love the fact that we developed two Education plans since 2012 that helped direct the implementation of new program development and scholarship and above all focused on Education making a difference in the quality and safety of mental health care at CAMH. I love the idea that CAMH Education is an Education “player” in the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) and that our work is recognized by the Education Centres of Excellence in TAHSN. I love the new programs and units in CAMH Education which feature innovation in simulation and digital learning, education researchers and scholars, innovation in patient and family education, leadership in competency based medical education for residents, and our excellent program evaluation unit. I am also very proud of all of our support units in design, editing, publications, audio-visual, French translation, the library, and curriculum design and our robust community CPD programming.
What about CAMH Education’s future excites you?
I am very excited about my successor, Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam arriving at CAMH on July 1st, 2018. He is an amazing person, leader, scholar and innovator in health professional education. In my opinion, he is the best person in Canada to be the next VP of Education at CAMH. He has incredible energy, strategic vision and great interpersonal skills. With his skills as a leader, and the amazing staff in CAMH Education and teaching faculty, I feel CAMH should aspire to be The Centre of Mental Health Education Research, Scholarship, Innovation and Teaching/Supervision internationally.
Reminder: Nomination deadline for the Ivan Silver Award for Excellence in Educational Mentorship is next Friday, May 4th.
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