Committee on HIV Psychiatry
Chair, Chloe Nims, M.D. 

Committee Charge

1. To support NYCPS members interested in HIV psychiatry and to work to improve the quality of care and management of people with HIV infection, people at risk of HIV infection, and people concerned about issues related to HIV.
2. To educate the NYCPS membership about HIV psychiatry and provide current and continuing medical information on the management of mental health issues for people infected with HIV or those at risk of acquiring HIV infection.
3. To support and encourage HIV advocacy, access to care, and education for the general public on issues related to HIV and comorbid psychiatric concerns.
4. To encourage psychiatric trainees and attending physicians, as well as allied health professionals, to acquire and maintain expertise in the mental health treatment of people infected with HIV
5. To provide a supportive and collegial community of NYCPS members who treat the mental health issues of people with HIV or populations at risk for HIV infection.

*If you would like more information about this committee, please contact us at [email protected].

Past Events

Medicine in Transition: Advances in Transgender Mental Health
October 16, 2018

Co-hosted with the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues (LGBT). 

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: What Psychiatrists Need to Know 
May 10, 2017 

On June 29, 2014, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the radical goal, accompanied by a three-point plan, to reduce the number of new HIV infections in New York State to 750 by the year 2020. This already ambitious target of 750 incident cases had since been revised to zero. One of the three actionable points in the governor's plan was the facilitation of access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP, for persons at high risk of becoming HIV positive, in order to keep them HIV negative. Used correctly, PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of infection by more than ninety percent. As New York State, which once saw the worst of the AIDS epidemic, strives to become a leader in ending it, the responsibility for reducing the number of new infections does not fall to HIV providers and advocates alone. We as psychiatrists should all be equipped to have educated discussions with our patients about this important advance in medicine and in public health. At the same time there is the need to become aware of and sensitive to the full array of complex psychological meanings which may and often do belie the seemingly simple task of taking a pill.

Winter Social 
February 23, 2016 

The Committee co-hosted a Winter Social with the Society for Liaison Psychiatry.