Please join us in welcoming Dr. Michael Cummings, M.D. to the SafeMinds board of directors! Dr. Cummings has over 15 years of experience treating children, adolescents, and adults for all major psychiatric conditions and developmental challenges in a wide array of community and institutional settings. He currently serves as vice chair of community affairs and outreach for the Department of Psychiatry of the University at Buffalo, associate medical director of Erie County Medical Center.
Dr. Cummings has had a major focus on developing and integrating systems of care for individuals with mental illness and developmental disabilities who are at high risk of avoidable hospitalization or incarceration. To this end, Dr. Cummings, along with his clinical partner Janell Van Cleve, has created a project entitled “APIC: Access to Psychiatry Through Intermediate Care.” This 1.8 million dollar grant-funded pilot program provides mobile psychiatric interventions and case management for children, adolescents, and adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities whose needs are not being met by the current system of care. The primary goal is to reduce avoidable emergency room visits, hospitalizations, arrests, out of home placements, and exposure to unnecessary poly-pharmacy.
SafeMinds Board President Sallie Bernard stated, “We are very pleased that Dr. Cummings has joined SafeMinds board. His experience in and dedication to identifying client and family needs in the home environment and connecting them to appropriate medical, behavioral, and other supports is improving the independence and functioning of so many individuals with autism. In this way, Dr. Cummings work is an excellent example of SafeMinds mission of finding treatments for people on the autism spectrum.”
Dr. Cummings earned his B.S. from Cornell University, and his M.D. from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biological Sciences. His residency at the University of Buffalo focused on general psychiatry, and child and adolescent psychiatry.
SafeMinds Executive Director Lisa Wiederlight stated, “Dr. Cummings’ APIC program is creating more appropriate, proactive, and cost-effective alternatives to our current reactionary and costly mental health treatment services for the developmental disability community. His participation on our board will help SafeMinds expand its SafeBodies initiative in both research and public policy advocacy arenas.”
For more information on SafeMinds board of directors, or how you can get involved, please contact us.
