Richard C. Veith, MD

Personal Statement

I am a Seattle native who has spent my entire academic career at the University of Washington School of Medicine. I joined the faculty of the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in 1977 and was based at the Seattle VA Puget Sound Health Care System. I joined the Seattle-American Lake Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC) in 1977 as a clinical investigator and later served as GRECC Director from 1987-1998. In 1998, I was appointed Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and held this position until February, 2014. I am certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with Added Qualifications in Geriatric Psychiatry and am listed in America’s Top Doctors and Best Doctors in America. I am recipient of the 2005 American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Robert Cancro Academic Leadership Award: Best Chair. I have conducted extensive research on the treatment of depression in patients with heart disease and stroke and has published more than 140 scientific publications. I am active in community efforts to improve the quality of care for the seriously mentally ill and with my faculty colleagues am implementing regionally, nationally, and internationally innovative and highly effective models of care that integrate mental health care into primary care settings. I am working with medical schools and the health ministries in Vietnam and Cambodia to strengthen psychiatric education, expand the mental health workforce, and develop delivery systems for psychiatric care in those countries.

Education

Psychiatry Residency, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1974-1977
Internal Medicine Internship, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1973-1974
MD, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1970-1973

Department Affiliations

Teaching Philosophy

​What’s fun about teaching in an academic setting is the array of venues and diversity of teaching methods that one can employ. I very much enjoy the traditional ‘apprentice’ model of teaching by example and on the fly in the hospital setting on clinical rounds. Small, informal seminars and large, national audiences can be highly stimulating. I have particularly enjoyed recently conducting clinical assessments and teaching out in the provinces in Cambodia and Vietnam.

Having participated in the planning stages of the ongoing UW School of Medicine curriculum reform, I have acquired exposure to and developed some degree of facility with contemporary, innovative teaching methods, e.g., student-centered learning, ‘flipping the classroom’, problem-based and case-based learning, and small group discussion – these approaches pose a special challenge in the traditional culture of southeast Asian students of the large lecture halls of medical schools in Vietnam and Cambodia!​

Recent Publications

Effectiveness of Collaborative Care and Colocated Specialty Care for Bipolar Disorder in Primary Care: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.
(2023 Jul-Aug)
J Acad Consult Liaison Psychiatry 64(4): 349-356
Cerimele JM, Blanchard BE, Johnson M, Russo J, Bauer AM, Veith RC, Unützer J, Fortney JC

Vietnamese Version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (30 Items): Translation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, and Validation.
(2021 Dec 12)
Geriatrics (Basel) 6(4):
Nguyen TV, Nguyen KT, Nguyen PM, Nguyen NM, Ly CL, Nguyen T, Nguyen MTT, Le HM, Nguyen XTK, Duong NHP, Veith RC, Nguyen TV

Developing Telemental Health Partnerships Between State Medical Schools and Federally Qualified Health Centers: Navigating the Regulatory Landscape and Policy Recommendations.
(2019 Jun)
J Rural Health 35(3): 287-297
Fortney JC, Veith RC, Bauer AM, Pfeiffer PN, Valenstein M, Pyne JM, Dalack GW, Kramer TL, Ferro LJ, Metzger K, Shore JH, Carlo AD, Coates S, Ward-Jones S, Larkins E, Hafer E, Shushan S, Weaver DL, Unützer J

Randomized trial of telephone versus in-person delivery of a brief psychosocial intervention in post-stroke depression.
(2017 Oct 10)
BMC Res Notes 10(1): 500
Kirkness CJ, Cain KC, Becker KJ, Tirschwell DL, Buzaitis AM, Weisman PL, McKenzie S, Teri L, Kohen R, Veith RC, Mitchell PH

Equitable care of psychiatric emergency room patients: it does take a village.
(2014 Jul)
Am J Psychiatry 171(7): 720-2
Snowden M, Pasic J, Mitchell S, Unützer J, Veith RC

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