Brittany Poynter

Dr. Poynter is an experienced clinician, teacher and researcher with a focus on Emergency Psychiatry and Quality Improvement. 

Dr. Poynter completed her medical school training at the University of Western Ontario in 2005. She began working in the CAMH Emergency Department in 2005 as a resident in psychiatry at the University of Toronto. In 2009 – 2010, Dr. Poynter was the chief resident at CAMH. Throughout her training she was honored with teaching awards from both CAMH and Mount Sinai Hospital. 

After completing her specialty training in June 2010, Dr. Poynter began working as a staff psychiatrist in the CAMH Emergency Department and crisis clinic. She was appointed as the Medical Head of the now Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan Emergency Department at CAMH in 2013. In 2015 she was appointed Medical Head of the Ambulatory Service, Acute Care Program, at CAMH, and now holds a dual leadership role. She is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. 

Dr. Poynter has trained in the Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic at CAMH. Dr. Poynter has published articles on deliberate foreign body ingestion, sex-differences in post-stroke depression and the medical assessment of psychiatric patients in the emergency setting. She authored a chapter for the 2006 Report for the Ontario Women’s Health Council. She has co-lead the development and implementation of a standardized order set for the management of acute agitation and aggression and has also implemented a Suboxone Induction Pathway in the CAMH Emergency Department. Most recently her team has opened a walk-in bridging clinic at CAMH which delivers care to complex patients in a barrier-free environment.