UC Irvine Giving Day 2025

This Giving Day, please consider a gift to the Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior. Your gift today will support two of our top priorities.

PERINATAL PSYCHIATRY CLINIC

Perinatal mental health disorders are a common comorbidity during pregnancy, and their prevalence is growing due to increased focus in this field in recent years. Left untreated, these disorders have negative impacts on maternal morbidity and mortality, as well as adverse outcomes for the fetus, infants and children.

Together, Dr. Alexis Seegan (Adult Inpatient Psychiatry) and Dr. Katy Lunny (Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry), in coordination with their OBGYN colleagues, have launched the Perinatal Psychiatry Clinic. Their efforts are focused on identifying and treating at-risk patients during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. The program is taking referrals for individuals with preexisting mental health diagnoses who are planning to get pregnant, who have new onset psychiatric symptoms during pregnancy or after delivery or those with mental illness requiring medication monitoring during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Philanthropic support is vital to the growth of this program. Efforts are currently focused on the perinatal period, though expansion efforts will aim to cover the entire reproductive lifespan from menarche to menopause. Your gift will help support our program and its growth to provide comprehensive mental health care during these critical reproductive times.

GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY

We are thrilled to have recruited Dr. Lydia Ann, a double board-certified geriatric and adult psychiatrist, to lead our Geriatric Psychiatry program. Ann has extensive background in a variety of dementia and geriatric care settings (i.e. outpatient care, inpatient care, nursing home, home visits) and in leading multidisciplinary geriatric care models in large systems like the Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Ann aims to combat ageism by creating a patient-centered system and prioritizing core tenets of geriatric healthy living.

Despite being the fastest growing group in the U.S., older adults are also amongst the most overlooked and under-resourced. Age-based prejudice leads to serious, but preventable healthcare inequalities such as delayed diagnosis or barriers to treatment.

With the Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Geriatric Medicine, Ann has built a team to combat ageism and focus on identifying, characterizing and improving dementia and mental health care for seniors. As we are still in an early phase, philanthropic funding is vital to our growth. Your gift would help add key members to our multidisciplinary team such as important social work, nursing, neuropsychological and neurologic expertise. It would also help expand our program to reach seniors who are home-bound or with transportation difficulties. Please join us in changing the landscape of geriatric psychiatry in Orange County and provide our patients with the opportunity to age gracefully.

A gift of any amount is vital to the success of our department. Thank you in advance for supporting the Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior.