BOSTON- The New England Hellenic Medical and Dental Society (NEHMDS) honored Prominent Greek-American psychiatrist Dr. Arthur Papas with the Hygeia Award, at its 16^th Annual Awards Dinner. The organization also granted seven scholarships to deserving, qualified, medical and dental students of Greek descent in the amount of $2,500 each made possible through the generosity of the Markopoulos and Hionidis Families.

NEHMDS was established in 1973 by a group of Greek physicians working in Boston, including Konstantinos Hionidis, Nicholas Markopoulos, Harilaos Sakellaridis, Menelaos Aliapoulios, Demosthenes Kotronis, and George Katsas.  The Society’s goal is to foster medical education, friendship, collaboration, communication, community awareness, and networking among professionals with common Hellenic ancestry and interests, such as Vasilopita-cutting events, Greek Independence Day Parade walks, awards ceremonies, research symposia, and lectures.

ABOUT DR. PAPAS

Dr. Arthur Papas is an adult psychiatrist in full time private practice with 45 years of experience treating patients, many of them Greek speaking, and teaching medical students and psychiatric residents. He has teaching appointments at Harvard Medical School and at Boston University School of Medicine, and has contributed to organized psychiatry by serving on several committees of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society.

Special areas of interest include working with patients who have anxiety and/or depression associated with work issues, interpersonal conflict, or personal struggles. He uses the modalities of individual psychotherapy, couples therapy, and psychotherapeutic medications when indicated. He sees patients for the traditional 50-minute hour and works with them over an extended period of time toward successful resolution, when possible, of the issues for which they sought treatment.

A graduate of Harvard College and Tufts University School of Medicine, Papas spent a year in surgery at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) before moving on to his psychiatric residency at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. Following his residency, he spent two years in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam war, where he was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal for his work as Director of the Alcoholism Rehabilitation Program.

After his military service, Papas returned to Boston to join the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital (where his uncle had been a urologist for 40 years) and held a staff appointment for 45 years. He has worked treating acutely ill adolescents and adults on inpatient psychiatric units at Emerson Hospital in Concord, MA and Westwood Lodge Hospital in Westwood, MA, and has served as Clinical Director of the former Metropolitan State Hospital in Waltham, MA.

Papas has staff appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Westwood Lodge Hospital. He is a member of the American Medical Association, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society.

His Hellenic roots are in Arcadia and Anatolia, but his life’s journey began in Watertown and Arlington. At age five, Papas moved to Milton where he was raised, graduating from Milton High School. He has been a strong supporter of organized Hellenic American activities, and is a member of the Alpha Omega Council in Boston and Councilor of the Hellenic American Psychiatric Association, an affiliate of the American Psychiatric Association. He has sung in the choir at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Weston for 28 years and resides in Weston with his wife, Tina, a Professor of Oral Medicine at Tufts Dental School.