Hi, I’m Dr. Mohamed Attia, a staff psychiatrist at CAMH. I work in Ambulatory outpatient services with the Depression and Bipolar Disorders clinic, as well as the Emergency Department and Bridging Services. I’m also an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, where I teach medical students and psychiatry residents.
I’ve always liked asking questions, and medicine gave me a reason to do something with the answers. What drew me to psychiatry was how much you can learn by asking one more question. Two people might both tell you they can’t sleep, but what’s keeping each of them awake can be entirely different. I enjoy the science of figuring that out and the human part of sitting down with someone to decide what might help.
I began working as a staff psychiatrist in 2020 after completing my residency at the University of Toronto. My first connection to CAMH was as a psychiatry resident, and recognized the value and diversity of cases our hospital sees on a regular basis.
What I value about my work here today is that clinical care and teaching happen side-by-side. We have access to the best and brightest colleagues with expertise in many sub-fields to help offer very tailored and personalized psychiatric care.
One of the hardest parts working in ambulatory care is that someone can be well enough to leave the emergency department and still have a very difficult week ahead. In a brief visit, you’re trying to understand what brought them to hospital, what support they have at home, and what they can realistically do while they wait for ongoing care.
That transition is what drew me to bridging work. You get to ask, “What happened when you got home?” Sometimes the answer changes the plan. A medication may be too sedating for someone to get their kids to school, or they may be too anxious to make the phone call you’d agreed on. Being able to work through that together is a part of psychiatry I really enjoy.
In my practice, I'm motivated by hearing what improvement means in someone’s own life. As psychiatrists, we might ask whether a person’s mood or sleep has improved. The detail that matters most to them might be that they finally answered a friend’s text or felt like making dinner again. Those are the kinds of moments that affirm my choice.
Another significant reason is being able to witness people in their darkest moments and being their guiding light through that difficult journey! You can really give someone purpose, hope and meaning again - which is the value and beauty of psychiatry.
