Petal Abdool MD, FRCPC

Biography

Dr. Petal S. Abdool is a Geriatric Psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a Consultation-Liaison Geriatric Psychiatrist at Providence Healthcare. She is the Assistant Program Director of International Medical Graduates and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Psychiatry. She is the inaugural Medical Director of the CAMH Simulation Centre and a graduate of the CFD Education Scholars Program 2020-2022. She was appointed in September 2022 as the Faculty Lead, Simulation Education Integration for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Some of her clinical work in the past decade involves a collaboration with LOFT to provide supportive housing for homeless seniors with severe mental illness. Her research focuses on the use of Simulation methodologies to advance teaching and assessment in medical education.

From the Nomination

Dr. Abdool’s commitment to social responsibility is also evident in her efforts to develop education programs and training to support the University’s EDIIA mission. She is the Principal Investigator on a University of Toronto Continuing Professional Development Ideas and Innovation Grant aimed at studying discrimination and microaggressions directed towards Internationally trained Health Professionals, including medical trainees. This scholarly initiative will generate data on trainees’ needs and develop education tools for teachers/supervisors and training programs to better support internationally trained health professionals. Dr. Abdool is also a strong advocate for Seniors and takes great pride in teaching residents how to improve their mental health care and provide psychosocial support to this patient population. During her time as Medical Head of the Geriatric Mental Health Outpatient Services at CAMH, she led a multidisciplinary team that created a manual and started Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) groups for Geriatric Depression that helped to decrease waitlists/wait times and increase access to this evidence-based treatment for elderly depressed patients.

About the Award

The Social Responsibility Award was established in 2015. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions of faculty members and residents in the development and/or implementation of socially responsible initiatives, programs or research related to postgraduate medical education. The purpose of the award is to emphasize the importance of social responsibility to postgraduate training and to acknowledge the leadership of specific individuals in helping Postgraduate Medical Education meet its social accountability mandate.