SUNY Downstate’s Dr. Jean Tropnas to Receive Honor from American Psychiatric Association Assembly
Oct 28, 2010
The Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has chosen Jean Tropnas, MD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, to receive the 2010 Profile of Courage Award. The award will be given to Dr. Tropnas for his “exceptionally meritorious services with the relief efforts in Haiti” following the January 2010 earthquake.
A cofounder and the first president of the Haitian-American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Tropnas made three trips to Haiti following the earthquake to organize relief efforts. He also spearheaded SUNY Downstate’s outreach to the large Haitian-American community in Brooklyn. Dr. Tropnas will receive the award at the APA Assembly meeting in November in Washington, DC.
Dr. Tropnas’s sister died in the earthquake of January 12, 2010. In spite of this terrible personal loss, he reached out to help members of the Haitian community near SUNY Downstate cope with the loss of close family members and friends.
During his visits to Haiti, Dr. Tropnas ran supportive group sessions for medical clinic staff and teachers at an elementary school who continued treating patients and teaching young children, despite suffering their own heart-breaking losses.
Traveling to earthquake-devastated areas of Haiti without the support of any relief organization, Dr. Tropnas used his own funds to purchase items for schoolchildren. During one of his trips to Port-au-Prince, he visited four camps for displaced, homeless people, ignoring the dangers of structural hazards, high temperatures, and gang activity.
Dr. Tropnas also took the lead in Downstate’s outreach to the large Haitian American community in Brooklyn. He worked closely with religious leaders and arranged for visits to churches by psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, medical students, other health professionals, and counselors. Downstate provided blood pressure measurements, informational material on health and legal services, and screening for identifying people in need of mental health services. Those who needed follow-up psychiatric services were given referrals or followed up by Downstate personnel. Dr. Tropnas obtained a service grant to continue these efforts.
Dr. Tropnas’s service to the Haitian American community long predates the earthquake. After his training in psychiatry, he recognized the health care disparities among Haitians living in Brooklyn and decided, with the help of other Haitian-American psychiatrists, to create the Haitian-American Psychiatric Association. He became the first president of this Association, which has been reaching out to the Haitian community since 1984 providing education, health fairs, and pro-bono treatment to uninsured patients.
In nominating Dr. Tropnas for this award, his colleague at Downstate, Ramaswamy Viswanathan, MD, DSc, associate professor of clinical psychiatry and director of the consultation-liaison service, wrote, “Jean is an exemplary psychiatrist who has courageously reached out to help a poor and discriminated community facing repeated adversity, and he has done so disregarding his comfort and safety, even when he himself was dealing with losses.”
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About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn is one of four academic health centers (AMCs) in The State University of New York (SUNY) 64-campus system and the only SUNY AMC in New York City dedicated to health education, research, and patient care for the borough’s 2.7 million residents. Its flagship hospital, University Hospital at Downstate (UHD), is a teaching hospital and benefits from the expertise of Downstate’s exceptional medical school and world-class academic center research facilities. With a staff of over 800 physicians representing 53 specialties and subspecialties, Downstate offers comprehensive healthcare services to the community.
UHD provides high-risk neonatal and infant services, pediatric nephrology, and dialysis for kidney diseases and is the only kidney transplantation program in Brooklyn. Beyond its clinical expertise, Downstate houses a range of esteemed educational institutions, including its College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies, and School of Public Health. Downstate fosters innovation through its multifaceted biotechnology initiative, the Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT, which support early-stage and more mature biotech companies.