Dr.

Molyn Leszcz

Faculty

Full Professor

Psychotherapies, Humanities and Education Scholarship

Geriatric Psychiatry

Mount Sinai Hospital

600 University Avenue

Ste. 925

Toronto, ON

M5G 1X5

416-586-4800

4555

mleszcz@mtsinai.on.ca

416-586-8654

Dr. Molyn Leszcz is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital, Professor and Vice Chair, Clinical, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. The responsibilities of the portfolio of the Vice Chair, Clinical include a focus on the eight Divisions within the University Department of Psychiatry with particular emphasis on fostering collaboration and integration amongst the academic areas. Dr. Leszcz’s academic and clinical work has focused on broadening the application of psychotherapy within psychiatry. Dr. Leszcz lectures broadly and has published in the group therapy literature regarding integrative and interpersonal approaches in group psychotherapy; group psychotherapy for patients with schizophrenia; evidence-based approaches to group therapy and modified interpersonal group psychotherapy for patients with substance abuse; group psychotherapy applications for geriatric depression; and for the medically ill. He co-authored with Irvin Yalom, the 5th edition of the Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (2005), also translated into German, Hebrew, Greek, Polish, Czech, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese editions.
 

Dr. Leszcz has been awarded Fellowship in the Canadian Group Psychotherapy Association and the American Group Psychotherapy Association. Dr. Leszcz is on the Board of Directors of the National Registry of Certified Group Therapists and he co-chaired the AGPA Science to Services Task Force leading to the 2008 publication of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Group Psychotherapy for which he was awarded the 2009 Anne Alonso Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychodynamic Group Therapy. Dr. Leszcz has been the recipient of a number of teaching awards at the University of Toronto.
 

The Mental Health and Addictions Acute Care Alliance is another major focus of activity, integrating emergency mental health care with seven hospital partners, including CAMH; St. Michael’s Hospital; St. Joseph’s Hospital; Toronto East General; Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital. Each hospital is represented at a Steering Committee that meets monthly. Dr. Don Wasylenki is the Medical Director of the Alliance and Adair Roberts is the Administrative Director of the Alliance. Drs. Peter Voore and Molyn Leszcz are the Steering Committee Co-chairs and Dr. Jan Lackstrom represents the Alliance Administrators on the Alliance Executive. The Alliance partners collaborate on a series of projects aimed at improving emergency mental health care and access. These include an interhospital bed transfer system; a standardized interprofessional assessment form flow mapping of ED psychiatric care provision; and, e-training of staff to improve psychogeriatric ED assessments. The Alliance is also engaged in an important project to recognize and address frequent users of the emergency department who present with mental health and addictions concerns. The project is a collaboration of community partners, the Alliance Hospitals, the TCLHIN and the University of Toronto.

Areas of research have included the evaluation of group therapy applications to specific clinical populations including patients with cancer; genetic predisposition to cancer; schizophrenia; geriatric depression; and patients with concurrent mental health and addictions issues. A current focus is the evaluation of models and methods to improve the evidence based practice of group therapy. An allied area of interest includes interventions for health care workers stress and resilience.