Facility Oakland Medical Center Department of Psychiatry Address Adult Psychiatry Building 1 3900 Broadway Oakland CA 94611 Behavioral Medicine Building 2, 2nd Floor 3900 Broadway Oakland CA 94611 Map & Directions Telephone Adult Psychiatry Appt: (510) 752-1075 (option1) Behavioral Medicine Appt: (510) 752-1075 (option 3) E-mail your doctor

Department Hours

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Closed	8:00 am 7:00 pm	8:00 am 7:00 pm	8:00 am 7:00 pm	8:00 am 7:00 pm	8:00 am 7:00 pm	Closed
Closed during lunch, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm

"Taking joy in life is a woman's best cosmetic." - Rosalind Russell

Welcome to my Home Page

For those new to this site, I have written a little about me and how I practice psychiatry. I hope you will take the time to read what I’ve written. I am enthusiastic about using the Web as a way of communicating with you, providing you with links to informative sites and enhancing your experience at Kaiser Permanente. My goal in working with you is to collaborate with you in improving your quality of life.

As the largest group of women in history enters menopause, the medical field is developing a new integral approach to women's health and to the understanding of the interface between hormonal shifts, mood, and quality of life. I have specialized in the area of psychiatric aspects of women's health. This encompasses a large field of medicine that crosses over between gynecology, endocrinology, and psychiatry. I treat depression in pregnancy and post partum, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, mood problems and depression in perimenopause, as well as libido problems associated with hormonal conditions and medical conditions. For some of these problems, such as libido, the patient may see her gynecologist first prior to seeing me. I also treat any of the regular uncomplicated psychiatric conditions.

My interests in women's health have slowly grown over these past twenty years that I have been with Kaiser Permanente; I started my career here in 1984. I have been regional director of the psychiatry women's health program for a number of years. Our current project is a clinical guideline on mood and perimenopause. I also participate in the regional guideline development process for the menopause guideline. I am very involved in teaching within the Kaiser system and without. I have taught at a number of major national gynecology meetings and menopause meetings. I particpated in a seminal research project at Kaiser on capturing those mom's with post partum depression in their child's well baby visits. I just finished an analysis of the evidence for the use of estrogen and testosterone for libido treatment in the menopausal woman. This will be published in the November Journal of The North American Menopause Society. I frequently teach at local medical centers and have an ongoing appointment to teach at the Stanford Medical Center as an Adjunct Associate Clinical Faculty member of the psychiatry department. Recently, I have started to reach out to the public and donate my time to teach on these sorts of topics. I have lectured at the Claremont Hotel to health club members as well as nonmembers, to the Sutter Women's Health Gathering, and on KQED 88.5 on depression (see their website, 9/04). The non-profit I started on women's health is a voluntary activity for me as well as the other clinicians I have asked to help with it. We have asked our national and international advisors in many diverse fields of women's health to donate their time and write articles for the public on women's health and midlife. Those articles are provided free at our website, http://www.afwh.org. We also have a clinician section where we do continuing education streaming videos on these topics.

My education and training is varied. I studied Biochemistry at Cal Berkeley, my home town, and then went on to an MD at Columbia in New York. After Columbia Medical School, I did an internship in medicine followed by a residency in psychiatry as well as a fellowship in Behavioral Medicine at New York University Medical Center and the Bellevue Hospital. Subsequent to completing my fellowship and residency, I earned a number of boards in my specialty. For the United States, I earned board certification in psychiatry (ABPN). I belong to three organizations in psychiatry among the many medical associations that I belong to. I have become a fellow in two of these, the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Psychiatry. I also am a member of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, an invitation only "think tank" in psychiatry. I am currently on the committee for psychopharmacology; previously I was on the public education committee. In the former committee, we evaluated Omega 3 fatty acids and their impact on wellness and psychiatry.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my career at Kaiser. I am very familiar with Kaiser and particularly Kaiser Oakland as I was born here, and received all my pediatric and adolescent care here. I was very proud of what a wonderful job my colleagues at Kaiser Oakland did when first my mother had cancer a number of years ago and then a decade or so later my father. There is nothing that creates more pride in one's workplace than to see one's parents so well cared for. They were proud of the care they and their family received since the middle 1950's and were very proud of their daughter and their care when they both ended their lives at Kaiser Oakland. The care was sensitive, attentive, and topnotch. I could not have felt better as a daughter and a physician at Kaiser Permanente than I felt with the care my parents received. Now my child is the third generation to receive care at Kaiser Oakland. Having received care all my life from Kaiser Permanente Medical Group and then spending my adult life from age 28 to now in practice with the group, I think I have developed a practice philosophy probably unique to us "Kaiser kids". I tend to take on the whole patient, advocate for the patient, and think about the entire package of care necessary for my patient to reach wellness. I think I ended up modeling on wonderful doctors who had cared for me as a child such as Dr. King, Chief of Pediatrics in the 1960's, and others. I always think of my patients being someone's kids, parents, and siblings - no different than when my mother would call for an appointment for me or my brothers and sister when we were kids.

Why do I practice with Kaiser Permanente Medical Group? I truly love the model of care. I can see anyone, I do not need to charge them, and there is no incentive to prevent them from receiving care in any specialty at Kaiser. To me Kaiser is the best operating model of public health medicine. I sometimes say to friends that if I won the lottery I would still be a doctor and would still work for Kaiser. We practice quality medicine for all who have our insurance. And, I think we do a very good job at delivering a complex set of services to an enormous population. I also enjoy the camaraderie and group practice style of TPMG. I genuinely like being a doctor and could not imagine having another profession. Being in medicine has brought me much satisfaction and challenge.

When not studying, working on the non-profit, teaching, or coming to work at Kaiser Permanente Oakland, I am enjoying motherhood. I take the greatest pleasure in being with my child, enjoying his other little friends, and doing things with him and his cousins. I am lucky in that my whole extended family has stayed local. I have a busy and full life with hiking, sports, a photography hobby, and generally a full and interesting life with friends, colleagues, and family. As for all of us working mothers and fathers, my biggest challenge is keeping things in balance. I learn from my patients, my friends, family and colleagues watching them do the same balancing act.

HELPFUL LINKS

If you'll click on "Mental Health Information and Web Sites" in the blue box at the top left of my Home Page, you'll find lots of useful information on a variety of topics such as Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, Eating Disorders and others. Please feel free to explore the various links on my Home Page. I want you to get the information you need, and to be able to find answers to as many of your questions as possible. You can look things up at your own pace, in private, anonymously.

I hope you are as pleased with what we offer as I am.

My Credentials

Medical school	Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY
Residency	New York University Medical Center, New York, NY
Fellowship	New York University Medical Center, New York, NY
Board certification	Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Disclaimer
If you think you have a MEDICAL OR PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY or go to the nearest hospital. DO NOT attempt to access emergency care through this web site. An emergency medical condition is a medical or psychiatric condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that you could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in any of the following: serious jeopardy to your health, serious impairment to your bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. An emergency medical condition is also "active labor," which means a labor when there is inadequate time for safe transfer to a Plan hospital (or designated hospital) before delivery or if a transfer poses a threat to the health of the member or unborn child.

This site may contain links to other web sites outside of www.permanente.net. Kaiser Permanente has no control over the content or the availability of these sites, and is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites. Web links are provided as an educational tool, and should not be relied upon for personal diagnosis or treatment. A link or reference to a web site should not be construed as an endorsement of the site or its contents. Any medical content that you feel may be important to your health should always be discussed with your Kaiser Permanente physician.