PsychSummit: Community Psychiatry Reflection and Reimagining Substance Use & Addiction Treatment Invitation

As part of PRMS’ ongoing efforts to support the behavioral healthcare community and promote the organizations that work towards this mission, we are pleased to feature Meagan O’Toole, JD, CAE, Executive Director of the New York County Psychiatric Society and PsychSummit co-founder, as our guest blogger this month. Ms. O’Toole reflects on PsychSummit: Reimagining Community Psychiatry, a national brainstorming series that ran throughout 2024, and introduces the January 11th PsychSummit 2026: Reimagining Substance Use & Addiction Treatment event.

From Dialogue to Action: The Evolution of PsychSummit

PsychSummit began six years ago with one driving intention: start the conversations that psychiatry actually needs to have.  As the event has grown and evolved, we’ve locked in on the conversations that lead to ideas that are implementable, scalable, and translate into meaningful change. We want to move beyond theoretical abstract academic debate and create a space where clinicians, leaders, researchers, systems thinkers, advocates, and future psychiatrists can come together to wrestle with what matters now. We want to move beyond identifying issues to brainstorming solutions that improve the future of psychiatry for both physicians and patients.

Every year since our founding, our attendees have taken deeper and deeper dives into the most pressing challenges facing psychiatry. We’ve covered some of the most cutting-edge and interesting topics, including rapid responses to COVID-19, climate change, structural racism, mass shootings, border mental health, and more. We are grateful for our many Advisory Panel members over the years, who have offered guidance to ensure our content is always innovative, relevant, timely, and valuable to the psychiatric community. They know we don’t stop at panels—PsychSummit is shared work sessions and collective problem solving with the goal of change that matters.

Most recently, PsychSummit took on Community Psychiatry and once again, the focus was not theoretical. It was not bird’s eye. It was human and it was deeply energizing.

As Dr. Helena Winston, a consultation-liaison and inpatient psychiatrist at Denver Health, a safety net hospital in Colorado, shared with us: “It’s really important to remember why you went into psychiatry and why you want to help other people, and I think that when we participate in initiatives like PsychSummit, we rekindle that fire and get excited about the fact that changes can be made and we can help people. And I love that.”

This is the heart of what PsychSummit is. This is why we exist.

2024: PsychSummit: Reimagining Community Psychiatry

Over the course of 2024, PsychSummit took on three pressing topics within community psychiatry:

• The Intersection of Housing and Psychiatry with Van Yu, MD 
• Enhancing Community Partnerships with Scott Simpson, MD 
• Workforce in Community Psychiatry with Altha Stewart, MD 

After each presentation, attendees participated in a group brainstorming exercise on the question, How might we as community psychiatrists play a role in catalyzing better policies and practices?, before breaking into small groups and discussing projects related to the ideas generated in the group exercise.

As Dr. Anna Costakis, Residency Training Director at Northwell Staten Island University Hospital, said: The “journey of PsychSummit, to be together in a place where we are brainstorming and learning and parsing out what’s realistic and what’s not, hearing concerns from around the country, feeling validated by people from around the country who have the same concerns as us, and then being able to come up with what we’re going to actually do about it and see that to fruition —  honestly, it’s the best thing ever.”

Psychiatrists tell us — consistently — that this is what they need more of.
This is what fills them back up and counters burnout.

Dr. Mira Bodic, a specialist in emergency psychiatry and the Director of Communications for the American Association for Community Psychiatry, said it best: “If I were to choose a good way to spend one hour to make my life easier as a community psychiatrist, meeting people from all over the country who are doing this work and getting inspired, encouraged, and energized by them would be the best use of that one hour that I can think of for my own professional development and outlook on my job and my future career.”

PsychSummit is not just about the topics or the speakers, it is the energy of who is in the room working together to help one another and advance the field.

Thank you to PRMS

PsychSummit would not exist today without the organizations that believe in structured, scalable, intentional conversation — conversation that translates to action.

When PsychSummit was simply a belief that if we convened the right people and the right voices we could catalyze change, PRMS was there to cheer us on. We believe even more strongly today than six years ago that when psychiatrists gather with purpose, agency, and shared determination — we can truly make a difference and we are grateful for our partners like PRMS that continue to see the value in the work we do.

The next PsychSummit will be on Sunday, January 11th, 2026, from 2:00-5:30pm ET. The free event will focus on reimagining substance use & addiction treatment.

Join the national discussion and REGISTER HERE!

PsychSummit: Reimagining Substance Use & Addiction Treatment will be an interactive event featuring expert speakers, group brainstorming exercises, connection with colleagues across the country, and the opportunity to work in small groups and design solutions to implement in the real world!

Join us to engage with other physicians who are passionate about advancing mental health and substance use care and brainstorm solutions to issues you are struggling with every day, with the support of expert peers experiencing the same problems.

PsychSummit is a one-of-a-kind event founded by the Colorado Psychiatric Society (CPS) and the New York County Psychiatric Society (NYCPS). Our mission is to empower participants to design the future of psychiatry by facilitating connections across the country and around the globe, starting important and often challenging conversations, and exchanging and implementing ideas to spark change.

If you have any questions or are interested in receiving a quote, contact PRMS at (800) 245-3333 or TheProgram@prms.com.