Yale Department of Psychiatry Program-Wide Chief Residents Kali Cyrus, MD, and Phelan Maruca-Sullivan, MD, hosted a Town Hall Forum on Travel, Immigration, and Executive Orders on May 12 at the Connecticut Mental Health Center.
The forum followed a State of Our Community Forum held in November 2016. It focused on the implications of recent Executive Orders related to immigration for patients and colleagues. The intent was to address the heightened anxiety caused by the orders by creating a space for people to support one another and to provide information about the content and enforcement of the orders.
Among the speakers was Sister Mary Ellen Burns of Apostle Immigrant Services in New Haven who discussed the significance of the orders for patients with a variety of legal statuses in the New Haven area.
Maya Prabhu, MD, LLB, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and faculty in the Law and Psychiatry Division, provided an overview of the recent orders, the challenges they have faced in the courts, and the real versus potential impacts for patients and individuals practicing or training in the United States on visas.
Robert Rohrbaugh, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Residency Program Director, and Esperanza Diaz, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Residency Program Director, reaffirmed the department's commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social justice, and answered questions about the department's and university's resources for affected trainees and staff.
Questions touched on several topics, including how to weigh patient care against patients' fears of contact with law enforcement, how to appropriately connect undocumented patients with community resources, and how best to support colleagues and friends within the medical community whose visas and work status face uncertainty.