UH Mānoa medical professor wins national honor for elderly mental health
Dr. Ike Ahmed presented "2010 Diversity Award"
University of Hawaiʻi at MānoaContact:
Posted: Mar 3, 2010
Dr. Iqbal “Ike” Ahmed
Mental illness is an important contributing factor to disease and suffering among the elderly, yet older people are less likely to receive the mental health counseling and care that they require. Fortunately, in Hawai‘i, that need is recognized by both the departments of Psychiatry and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).
In fact, JABSOM Psychiatry Professor Iqbal “Ike” Ahmed, MD, is receiving national recognition this week for his outstanding service and attention to the mental health-care needs of minority or underserved elderly populations. The American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) will present its 2010 Diversity Award to Dr. Ahmed on March 5, 2010, during its annual meeting in Savannah, Georgia.
“As the Director of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology in our Psychiatry Department, Dr. Ahmed has been a leading clinician, scholar and professor for JABSOM students, residents, and colleagues,” said Dr. Naleen Andrade, chair of Psychiatry. “This national award is well deserved and we are thrilled for him. It recognizes the quality of his work and how JABSOM is striving to meet our mission for diversity.”
Dr. Ahmed, like most JABSOM faculty members, also treats patients in Hawai‘i. He is an attending psychiatrist in geriatric psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine consultation services at The Queen’s Medical Center, one of JABSOM’s partner academic training institutions.
“This award represents the recognition of work accomplished not just by me, but by a number of my colleagues and those who I’ve had the pleasure of training,” said Dr. Ahmed. “They have all collaborated with me in teaching and writing about the socio-cultural factors that impact the evaluation and treatment of our ethnic minority elderly."
JABSOM Dean Jerris Hedges noted that Dr. Ahmed is a leader in the field of geriatric psychiatry, serving as editor and contributing author on the American Psychiatric Association's Ethnic Minority Elderly Curriculum in 2006. “Dr. Ahmed has chaired influential committees within AAGP and in the American Psychiatric Association that have moved the discipline toward greater awareness about the needs of our elders—who represent a significant and growing population in Hawai‘i,” said Dr. Hedges.
For more information, visit: http://www.jabsom.hawaii.edu