Businessman and philanthropist J. B. Fuqua has
pledged $2 million to endow the J.B. Fuqua Chair in Late-Life Depression
in the School of Medicine. This pledge follows $2 million in gifts
from Fuqua beginning in 1999 to help found and support the Fuqua
Center for Late-Life Depression at Wesley Woods.
“Endowment gifts of this magnitude are precious because they
provide critical support at a time when clinical revenues are under
growing pressure from all sides,” said School of Medicine
Dean Tom Lawley. “This is especially so in the area of geriatric
psychiatry, which is being squeezed by Medicare and private insurers.”
William McDonald, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences and director of the Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression,
has been nominated as the initial Fuqua chair. Board-certified in
psychiatry and geriatric psychiatry, McDonald has been at Emory
since 1993.
His research and clinical practice focus on mood disorders, including
both mania and depression in older persons and those with neurological
disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s
dementia. McDonald also directs medical student education in psychiatry
and won teaching awards this year from both the Emory medical students
and, nationally, from the American Psychiatric Association.
“The endowment is intended to support physicians working primarily
in the field of late-life depression who are able to help move scientific
discoveries from the laboratory to the bedside for the benefit of
patients,” Fuqua said. “To me, Dr. McDonald epitomizes
the ideal combination of personal compassion and scientific enterprise
that I hope will always be found in the occupant of the Fuqua chair.”
Since its founding, the Fuqua Center has emphasized community outreach
and has pursued partnerships and collaborations with many organizations
in order to reach primary care providers, nurses, social workers,
clergy and others who work closely with older adults.
In addition to offering clinical services at Wesley Woods, where
it is based, the Fuqua Center provides psychiatric services and
educational programs for more than a dozen assisted living facilities
and retirement centers, as well as the Community Care Service program,
which provides case management for more than 1,200 elderly residents
of metro Atlanta.
“Mr. Fuqua has made a huge difference in our ability to reach
out to, and help, a large group of elderly persons who have traditionally
suffered in silence,” McDonald said. “There is no good
reason for an older person to endure the pain of clinical depression
for months and years on end without medical intervention, any more
so than there is for a younger person.”
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), clinical
depression is an under-recognized and under-treated condition, affecting
as many as 2 million of the nation’s 35 million persons aged
65 or above. According to NIMH research, as many as 5 million seniors
are believed to suffer from depressive symptoms that interfere with
normal functioning and leave them at heightened risk for developing
major depression.
“Mr. Fuqua’s understanding of the importance of recognizing
and treating late-life depression, and his vision in creating both
the center and this new chair, will powerfully affect the lives
of thousands of Americans,” Lawley said.
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