Paul D. Kirwin, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Program Director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale, has been chosen to receive the Jack Weinberg Memorial Award in Geriatric Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association.
The award, established in 1983, honors a psychiatrist who over the course of his or her career has demonstrated special leadership or has done outstanding work in clinical practice, training, or research into geriatric psychiatry.
The recognition from the APA follows Kirwin’s being named 2017 Educator of the Year by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP), a national association representing and serving its members and the field of geriatric psychiatry. That award honors an AAGP member who has demonstrated excellence in the field of geriatric psychiatry education.
As the long-tenured director of the Yale Department of Psychiatry’s Geriatric Fellowship, Kirwin has trained hundreds of psychiatry residents, including over 50 geriatric psychiatrists. He also teaches students at the Yale School of Medicine as course director and creator of the Psychosocial Curriculum.
“In this course, he is responsible for guiding students’ sensitivity to cultural issues while interfacing with patients, instructing them on the mechanics of interviewing, sharing with them the gift of the therapeutic alliance, and teaching them how to gather information from patients in a sensitive, comprehensive manner,” wrote Michelle Conroy, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale, in her letter nominating Kirwin for the Weinberg award. “I can truly think of no better person to direct such a milestone course.”
Kirwin is past president of the AAGP, and has chaired the AAGP Scholars Program as well as the teaching and training and program committees. He has served on other boards and committees within the organization, and currently is a member of the APA’s Council on Geriatric Psychiatry.
He has published on numerous initiatives within the field, and recently collaborated with colleagues at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven on successful aging among older veterans, prescribing psychotropics in older veterans in the absence of charted psychiatric diagnoses, the late life exacerbation of PTSD in veterans, and resilience in veterans with PTSD.