Regional Emergency Psychiatry Medical Director

Summary

The Regional Emergency Psychiatry Medical Director provides administrative oversight of psychiatric services across the emergency departments and urgent care centres of Winnipeg. The role is regional and cross-site: it does not replace site-level psychiatric emergency leadership, but provides coordination, standard-setting, and system planning across sites, working through the clinical leads of each service. Sites within scope include Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital, Victoria Hospital, the Crisis Response Centre, Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, Grace Hospital, Seven Oaks Hospital, and Concordia Hospital. The role focuses on consistency of psychiatric care across sites, access and flow, quality and safety, workforce and coverage planning, and collaboration with emergency medicine, mental health program leadership, and regional stakeholders.

Appointment

The role appointment for Regional Emergency Psychiatry Medical Director is made by the Provincial Specialty Lead for Shared Health, Mental Health and Addictions/Head of the Department of Psychiatry. The Regional Emergency Psychiatry Medical Director must be a staff member and faculty member in good standing with the Department of Psychiatry and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, and have Royal College certification in Psychiatry.

Role Expectations and Responsibilities

1. Administrative responsibilities

• Provides administrative oversight of psychiatric services delivered in Winnipeg emergency departments and urgent care centres: Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface Hospital, Victoria Hospital, Crisis Response Centre, Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, Grace Hospital, Seven Oaks Hospital, Concordia Hospital
• Holds monthly meetings with the medical lead of each site’s emergency psychiatry service
• Chairs a regular regional emergency psychiatry leads meeting to align practice across sites, share issues, and coordinate responses
• Collaborates with key stakeholders in the emergency psychiatry system, including the Adult Psychiatry Winnipeg (APW) Bed Manager, the Provincial Virtual Crisis Service (PVCS) medical leads, the PVCS Mental Health Flow Specialist, VECTRS, the ISO Mental Health Transport Team, and Interfacility Transport leads
• Works with site medical and operational leadership, emergency medicine leadership, and mental health program leadership on emergency psychiatry service delivery
• Leads development of regional standards, SOPs, guidelines, and care pathways for emergency psychiatry, and supports site-level adaptation
• Monitors access, flow, wait times, and length of stay for psychiatric patients in emergency departments and urgent care centres; leads regional quality improvement work
• Provides system-level input on psychiatric coverage models, call structures, staffing, and recruitment across sites
• Works with site leads to manage patient complaints, critical incidents, and safety events with regional implications; supports consistent review and follow-up processes
• Attends regular meetings with senior mental health program leadership
• Attends ad hoc leadership meetings on issues as they arise. This includes meetings within the Mental Health Program, at individual sites, and with outside stakeholders. Direction on meeting involvement will come from the Provincial Specialty Lead for Shared Health Mental Health and Addictions and the Chief Operating Officer, Shared Health, Mental Health and Addictions
• Participation in relevant regional and departmental committees as required. Examples include the Provincial MH Flow Steering Committee and the WPS/Shared Health Joint Operations Committee
• Represents emergency psychiatry in regional planning, including interfaces with police, EMS, community crisis services, inpatient psychiatry, and child and adolescent services

2. Clinical responsibilities

• Maintains an active clinical role in emergency psychiatry at one or more sites within scope, sufficient to retain credibility and current working knowledge of emergency department conditions
• Participates in the call rotation as arranged with the relevant site
• Available for consultation to site leads on complex or contested clinical and medico-legal situations arising in the emergency setting

3. Supervisory & Educational responsibilities

• Provides support and mentorship to site-level emergency psychiatry clinical leads
• Supports orientation and onboarding of psychiatrists new to emergency psychiatry work in Winnipeg
• Contributes to Department of Psychiatry educational activities relating to emergency psychiatry, including the annual PGY-1/-2 ED/CRC Boot Camp in July
• Supports consistency of learner experience and supervision standards across emergency psychiatry sites
• Supports continuing education initiatives for physicians and interdisciplinary staff working in emergency psychiatry

Reporting Line

The Regional Emergency Psychiatry Medical Director reports directly to the Provincial Specialty Lead for Shared Health Mental Health and Addictions, and indirectly to the Chief Operating Officer, Shared Health, Mental Health and Addictions

Skills

Required

• A minimum of five years of regular, ongoing emergency psychiatry practice (beyond on call service)
• Senior leadership experience in a health care setting
• Communication: strong communication skills, reliable in response times, respectful communication
• Collaboration: works collaboratively across sites and disciplines, with health leadership, clinical partners, and outside stakeholders
• Leadership: provides guidance and direction across multiple services, effectively manages complex clinical and operational scenarios, proficient in navigating health system pathways and challenges
• Clinical: proficiency in emergency psychiatric assessment and management. Skills in triaging urgency and risk. Recognizing relevant physical comorbidity. Comfort in working in less structured and resourced environments
• Leads and supports continuous quality improvement
• Access and familiarity with CHR (Momentum), EPR, TigerConnect, Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and MB Telehealth
• Be familiar with relevant SOP and operations documents
• Supportive and respectful toward learners

Valuable additional experience

• Inpatient psychiatry
• Acute outpatient assessment work
• Familiarity with the range of Manitoba psychiatric services and referral pathways
• Experience working with Indigenous communities
• Educational and teaching experience
• Experience working in a 24/7 facility