Dr. Paramjit Joshi received two awards at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) meetings in Chicago this May. The first award is the APA Bruno Lima Award for outstanding contributions in the care and understanding of victims of disasters. Dr. Joshi has worked worldwide, training mental health workers in Macedonia and Bosnia as well as with the Baltimore City Police Department, implementing a mobile crisis unit for counseling children who have witnessed violence. She initiated the John’s Hopkins Children’s Center Office for the Prevention of Violence. She received this award for her dedication to the well-being of children and her global humanitarianism.

Dr. Joshi also received the Annual Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) for her contributions to greater public understanding of brain disorders, working to eliminate stigma, fighting against discriminatory policies against people with brain disorders, and caring for people who suffer from mental illness.

Dr. Joshi is the Chief, Division of Behavioral Medicine, and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She was born in India and completed her Pediatric training at Christian Medical College at Brown Memorial Hospital. She came to the United States to train in psychiatry, and then to complete a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she remained on faculty until last year. She has published extensively on the issues of childhood trauma, pediatric psychopharmacology, affective disorders, and community mental health issues. She has written a handbook for crisis intervention, “Empowering Children: Psychological Assistance Under Difficult Circumstances” published by the Society for Psychological Assistance in Zagreb. She is an editor of the popular AACAP book series, “Your Child” and “Your Adolescent”. She serves on numerous regional and national committees. Dr. Joshi resides in Baltimore with her husband. They have two adult sons.

Dr. Joshi plans to continue to focus on affective disorders, prevention of violence, childhood trauma, and community based mental health issues in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. She plans, in collaboration with DRADA, to launch a adolescent depression awareness program in the D.C. public schools in the fall.