Lyness Elected President of National Geriatric Psychiatry Group
Jeffrey M. Lyness, M.D., professor of Psychiatry and director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Program at the University of Rochester Medical Center, has been elected president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP).
Lyness, who also is the department’s associate chair for education, will serve as president-elect from March 2009 until assuming the presidency in March 2010 for the 2010-2011 year.
“This certainly is a well-deserved honor,” said Eric Caine, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry. “It also reflects the outstanding national reputation of the entire Geriatric Psychiatry Program of the Department and its many members.”
In addition to his clinical and education responsibilities, Lyness researches the characteristics and course of depression in older adults in primary care settings. His research has been supported by grants from the National Institute for Mental Health, other federal agencies and industry.
“Jeff’s election to this high profile and important post comes at a time of rapid advances in the field of late life mental health, but also increasing need for services by a rapidly expanding population of seniors,” said Yeates Conwell, M.D., the department’s vice chair and director of the Senior Health and Research Alliance. “We are fortunate to have Jeff leading this effort.”
Lyness received his M.D. degree with Honor and with Distinction in Research from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He completed his internship in internal medicine at the Medical Center, and then was a psychiatry resident at Yale University. He returned to Rochester in 1990 to join the faculty and to complete clinical and research fellowships in geriatric psychiatry.
The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry was founded in 1978. The AAGP’s mission is to enhance the knowledge base and standard of practice in geriatric psychiatry through education and research and to advocate for meeting the mental health needs of older Americans. The association’s activities include the publication of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. AAGP also has an affiliation with the Geriatric Mental Health Foundation, which is an advocacy group for seniors and their families, and the AAGP Political Action Committee, which supports political processes serving the needs of the field and patients.