Molyn Leszcz
Dr. Molyn Leszcz is the former Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital, Professor and served as the Department’s Interim Chair from October 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015.
The Mental Health and Addictions Acute Care Alliance is another major focus of activity, integrating emergency mental health care with seven hospital partners, including CAMH; St. Michael’s Hospital; St. Joseph’s Hospital; Toronto East General; Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital. Each hospital is represented at a Steering Committee that meets every other month. Dr. Don Wasylenki is the Medical Director of the Alliance and Adair Roberts is the Administrative Director of the Alliance. Drs. Molyn Leszcz and Ms. Jan Lackstrom are the Steering Committee Co-chairs. The Alliance partners collaborate on a series of projects aimed at improving emergency mental health care and access. These include an interhospital bed transfer system; a standardized interprofessional assessment form; flow mapping of ED psychiatric care provision; improving access to urgent care; improving collaborative care for patients requiring intensive treatment; knowledge transfer and exchange with our community partners; and an innovative clinical research project addressing frequent users of emergency services – CATCH ED.
Dr. Leszcz’s academic and clinical work has focused on broadening the application of psychotherapy within psychiatry. Dr. Leszcz lectures broadly and has published in the group therapy literature regarding integrative and interpersonal approaches in group psychotherapy; group psychotherapy for patients with schizophrenia; evidence-based approaches to group therapy and modified interpersonal group psychotherapy for patients with substance abuse; group psychotherapy applications for geriatric depression; and for the medically ill. He co-authored with Irvin Yalom, the 5th edition of the Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (2005), also translated into German, Hebrew, Greek, Polish, Czech, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese editions.
Dr. Leszcz has been awarded Fellowship in the Canadian Group Psychotherapy Association and was recognized as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. Dr. Leszcz is on the Board of Directors of the National Registry of Certified Group Therapists and he co-chaired the AGPA Science to Services Task Force leading to the 2008 publication of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Group Psychotherapy for which he was awarded the 2009 Anne Alonso Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychodynamic Group Therapy. Dr. Leszcz has been the recipient of a number of teaching awards at the University of Toronto.
Research Synopsis
Areas of research have included the evaluation of group therapy applications to specific clinical populations including patients with cancer; genetic predisposition to cancer; schizophrenia; geriatric depression; and patients with concurrent mental health and addictions issues. A current focus is the evaluation of models and methods to improve the evidence based practice of group therapy. An allied area of interest includes interventions for health care workers stress and resilience.