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As this year’s WMed Well-Being Promotion Symposium quickly approaches, Karen Horneffer-Ginter, PhD, said recently she is proud that the annual event has quickly become a tradition at the medical school, offering an important opportunity to circle back to – and refocus on – the important topics of self-care and burnout and suicide prevention.

“We’ve really established this as a day every year where we re-commit to the importance of this for the WMed community, as well as the broader community,” said Dr. Horneffer-Ginter, the medical school’s chief wellness officer and associate dean for Culture.

The symposium, now in its third year, will be held Thursday, September 5, 2024, from 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., at the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus. The event aims to raise awareness, provide education, and encourage conversation about the importance of mental health and well-being in the health care and medical school community.

The symposium is held in memory of Rebekah Sharp, MD, a beloved faculty member at WMed, who passed away in August 2021.

The event is free and open to the public and registration is open through Friday, August 23. If you plan to attend, please register��. For anyone who can’t attend in person, the morning and afternoon keynote sessions will be available via livestream the day of the event and recorded for anyone who wants to view the presentations at a later date.

Dr. Horneffer-Ginter said the symposium will offer an array of interesting and engaging topics. The event will kick off on September 5 with breakfast and a meet and greet where attendees will get the chance to connect with one another through conversational prompts. Welcome remarks will then be delivered by Dr. Horneffer-Ginter and WMed Dean Robert G. Sawyer, MD.

The morning keynote address – “More Than Yoga and Pizza: Individual and team strategies to increase professional fulfillment” – will be delivered by Jillian Bybee, MD, director of Wellness for Graduate Medical Education and associate program director for the pediatric residency program at Corewell Health West. Dr. Bybee is also an assistant professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Bybee’s presentation will be followed by several breakout workshops that will be facilitated by “powerhouse teams” of physicians, psychologists, and others from WMed and Bronson Healthcare, Dr. Horneffer-Ginter said.

“The hope is that the balance of topics complement each other quite nicely,” Dr. Horneffer-Ginter said.

After the breakout workshops, lunch will be served and noontime remarks will be delivered by Eric Achtyes, MD, MS, DFAPA, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at WMed. Following Dr. Achtyes’ remarks, attendees will hear the afternoon keynote address – “Zero Suicide Implementation in Health Systems” – from Brian Ahmedani, PhD, LMSW, a former colleague of Dr. Achtyes who serves as director of the Center for Health Policy & Health Services Research at Henry Ford Health. Dr. Ahmedani is also the director of Research for Behavioral Health Services and a senior scientist at Henry Ford.

After Dr. Ahmedani’s presentation, the symposium will wrap up with remarks from Dr. Horneffer-Ginter and a mindfulness exercise with Mark Schauer, MD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at WMed, and Pattie Curtis, RN, BSN, MHSA, the medical school’s director of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness.

“We in the Department of Psychiatry at WMed wholeheartedly support efforts to remind the entire community of the importance of well-being and suicide prevention,” Dr. Achtyes said. “We are delighted to continue to be involved in the planning of this important event.”

Dr. Horneffer-Ginter said she was grateful to Dr. Achtyes and others from the Department of Psychiatry who were instrumental in helping plan and sculpt this year’s symposium.

“I really appreciate how people come together to plan, put on, and attend this event,” she said. “There is such an importance to these topics and I think there’s a sweetness to how we all come together to lift up these different voices and differing areas of expertise in a meaningful way.”

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