Dr. David Conn

Dr. David Conn is the vice-president of Education and inaugural director of the Centre for Education and Knowledge Exchange in Aging at Baycrest. He is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto and the founding Co-Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health and Chair of the Coalition’s National Guidelines Project.

Dr. Conn completed his Medical Degree at Trinity College, Dublin, and his training in psychiatry was carried out at the University of Toronto. He subsequently completed a Fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

He joined the Department of Psychiatry at Baycrest in 1983 and served as department chief from 1992 to 2010. He also served as vice-president of Medical Services at Baycrest from 2007 to 2010. He was the medical director of the Mood and Related Disorders Clinic from 2004 to 2012. He has a keen interest in telemedicine and is medical director of Tele-health Services at Baycrest.

Dr. Conn’s academic interests include nursing home psychiatry, guideline development and knowledge translation. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 publications and is the co-editor of three textbooks including "Practical Psychiatry in the Long-Term Care Home: A Handbook for Staff”.

He received the 2005 Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry Award for Outstanding Contributions to Geriatric Psychiatry in Canada and a Distinguished Service Award from the International Psychogeriatric Association in 2009. He has also received the Ivan Silver Award for Excellence in Continuing Mental Health Education and the Henry Durost Award for Excellence in Creative Professional Activity from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. In 2010 he was co-recipient of the CIHR Betty Havens Award for Knowledge Translation in Aging.

Dr. Conn is a past president of the Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry and is currently a Board member of the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA). He chairs the IPA Task Force on Mental Health Services in Long-Term Care Homes and co-chairs the IPA Education Committee.