About Dr. Wiechers

Caring Physician, Healthcare Leader, Passionate Advocate 

Caring Physician

I am a geriatric psychiatrist and faculty member at University of California San Francisco and Yale University. I specialize in the care of Veterans with late-life mood, anxiety, and trauma-related disorders. 

I teach audiences of interprofessional healthcare providers at all levels of training in the subject areas of psychopharmacology, geriatric mental health, health policy and advocacy, and quality improvement. 

I have extensive experience in public speaking and communicating complex healthcare concepts both verbally and in writing to the public. 

I am also involved in national and local curriculum development, clinical supervision, and mentorship.

Healthcare Leader

As a leader of several national Veterans healthcare programs, I catalyze meaningful change in the way we provide integrated care for mental health and substance use disorders.  My work focuses on developing and deploying innovative care models and informatics tools that improve provider decision making.

I use my expertise in health policy, organizational management, and health services research to:

• Lead strategic program development

• Set national priorities

• Develop partnerships

• Create performance metrics

• Evaluate outcomes

Passionate Advocate

I am passionate about advocating for improved access, quality, and delivery of healthcare for people with mental health and substance use disorders.

I have experience in coalition building, stakeholder engagement, and grassroots network development. I also have hands-on experience with the federal legislative process.

I currently lead the public policy and advocacy efforts of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and will serve in 2020-2021 as the Secretary/Treasurer-Elect on the AAPG Board of Directors. 

I co-edited A Psychiatrist’s Guide to Advocacy, which explores the diverse definitions of advocacy and helps to identify methods and opportunities for advocacy by mental health practitioners. Hear more about this practical toolkit for advocacy and my work advocating for geriatric mental health on the podcast Psychiatry Unbound.

Full curriculum vitae available here

Learn more about my work on my Yale School of Medicine faculty webpage.

Follow me on Twitter!