Jessica Gold, MD, MS, a Yale School of Medicine graduate and the daughter of Mark Gold, MD, an alumnus of the Yale Psychiatry residency, has been named the first place winner of an essay contest in the journal Psychiatric Times.
Jessica Gold's essay, "The Mirror," is on the cover of the journal's July issue. It tells of the care Gold gave to an elderly neurosurgeon who wanted to end her life because she was no longer able to practice medicine due to her advanced age.
"In her poignant description of care for a severely suicidal patient, Dr. Gold shows not only the importance of, but also the difficulty in, maintaining an attitude of therapeutic hopefulness -- even with an extremely hopeless patient," wrote Allan Tasman, MD, editor-in-chief of Psychiatric Times.
The contest drew more than 100 essays. Tasman wrote that the editors "looked especially for how (the psychiatrist's) patient experience both influenced his or her own career and illustrated a significant aspect of importance in the therapeutic alliance."
Gold is starting her third year of residency in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Her father completed his residency in psychiatry at Yale in 1978, and received the department's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2008.