Douglas G. Jacobs, MD - Psychiatry

Dr. Douglas Jacobs, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is a nationally recognized expert on suicide and depression and a leader in the mental health field. He also maintains a clinical practice in Wellesley and Newton, Massachusetts, and is on the staff of several psychiatric hospitals in the greater Boston area. Dr. Jacobs founded and is Executive Director of Screening for Mental Health, Inc. (formerly the National Mental Illness Screening Project), a nonprofit organization devoted to mental health education and screening. He has edited three books and numerous papers on suicide.

Dr. Jacobs founded and directs National Depression Screening Day, the first program to apply the concept of a large-scale health screening to a mental illness. This collaborative effort is cosponsored by several national organizations including the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Mental Health Association. Since 1991, the program has provided free nationwide depression screenings each October during Mental Illness Awareness Week. In 1999, more than 3,000 sites around the country offered free screening for depression, and more than 100,000 people attended.

The success of National Depression Screening Day led Dr. Jacobs to establish Screening for Mental Health, which helps coordinate national mental health screening programs and ensure cooperation, professionalism, and accountability in mental illness screenings. Screening for Mental Health also offers screening programs for eating disorders and alcohol as well as interactive screening services via telephone and the Internet.

American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology - 1977

Depression

M.D.: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine - 1971

Residency in Adult Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School's Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 1972 - 1975

Harvard Medical School:

• Instructor in Psychiatry, 1974 - 1984
• Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, 1984 - 1988
• Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, 1988 - 1997
• Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, 1997 -

Staff Psychiatrist, Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA, 1975 - 1987

Courtesy Staff, Westwood Lodge, Westwood, MA, 1985 - 1988

Courtesy Staff, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, MA, 1985

Assistant Attending Psychiatrist, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass. -1987

American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

American Association of Suicidology

American Psychiatric Association

1. Magruder KM, Norquist GS, Feil MB, et al. (1995). Who comes to a voluntary depression screening program? American Journal of Psychiatry 152: 1615 - 1622.
2. Jacobs DG (1995). National Depression Screening Day: Educating the public, reaching those in need of treatment, and broadening professional understanding. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 3: 156 - 159.
3. Greenfield SF, Reizes JM, Magruder KM, et al. (1997). Effectiveness of community-based screening for depression. American Journal of Psychiatry 154: 1391 - 1397.
4. Jacobs DG. Depression screening as an intervention against suicide. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 60 (supp. 2): 42 - 45.

1. Jacobs DG, Brown HN, eds. (1989). Suicide: Understanding and Responding: Harvard Medical School Perspectives. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
2. Jacobs DG, ed. (1992). Suicide and Clinical Practice. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
3. Jacobs DG, ed. (1998). The Harvard Medical School Guide to Suicide Assessment and Intervention. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publisher.

No financial report received from reviewer.