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EmailA message from Baycrest's President and CEO Dr. William E. Reichman
It is with a sense of great privilege and honour that in July 2007, I took over as Baycrest’s President and Chief Executive Officer. I am deeply conscious of the proud leadership legacy I have inherited and am committed to building on the great strengths that this organization has developed over its 90 year history.
At Baycrest we are truly committed to the wellbeing of our clients and their families. They are at the very centre of all we do. Their needs must always come first. I believe it is important to support our health-care delivery with strong programs in research and education. Our researchers at Baycrest help all of us to better understand how our brain functioning is linked to our wellbeing; they ask important questions and conduct experiments to see what evaluation and care techniques work best for our clients. While it may appear in the short term that when we invest in research it is at the expense of clinical care, in fact, whenever we allocate our precious resources to scientific endeavours we ultimately optimize the wellbeing of our clients and other people the world over. I have seen evidence of that in my own life where research has had a dramatic impact on the ability of beloved family members to recuperate from what could have been life-threatening illnesses. As an educator, I know that the very best way to improve the wellbeing of clients and their families is through the dissemination of knowledge so that all of our skills can continue to improve.
Baycrest is well situated to become the iconic institution in the world — the first place that jumps to mind — for the delivery of health care, the conduct of research and the provision of education in aging and brain health. To that end, we will hold ourselves to the highest standard of performance to ensure we achieve excellence across all of our missions: care, scientific discovery and teaching.
Achieving iconic status will require us to continue to attract and retain the top talent from Canada and around the world , the strongest health-care providers, and the most innovative educators. In the coming weeks and months, we will also be working with our various stakeholders, including government and members of the community, to design what the next five years will look like for Baycrest through our Strategic Planning process.
Our future is without a doubt going to be as successful as our past given the talent and dedication of our team and the incredible engagement and support we receive from our families, clients and community. That is undoubtedly what makes Baycrest so special. I look forward to providing you future updates on our progress.
Dr. William E. Reichman is an internationally-known expert in geriatric mental health and dementia. Most recently, he was Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, where he also served as Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and President of the Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Group. His academic activities have focused on the pharmacological treatment of Alzheimer's disease and its associated apathy and negative symptoms.
Dr. Reichman is a former President of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and consultant to the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice on dementia and mental health-care delivery within nursing homes.