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Lawrence Real, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
DBHIDS
Lawrence A. Real, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer at DBHIDS. As part of the DBHIDS Executive Management Team, Dr. Real ensures alignment, coordination and integration of clinical initiatives and system transformation efforts across DBHIDS and throughout the provider community.
Prior to joining DBHIDS, Dr. Real was the Medical Director of Horizon House, Inc. from 2010-15. For over twenty years, Dr. Real was an integral part of the administrative, clinical and teaching staff of the Department of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, including serving as Medical Director of the Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment from 1997 to 2010. He began his career at what is now Community Council, where he was Medical Director from 1983-1987.
Throughout his career, including terms as President of both the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Psychiatric Societies, Dr. Real has been known as a champion of community psychiatry and as an advocate for individuals with serious and persistent mental health conditions. He received the Philadelphia Society’s Edward Lawlor and Robert A. Jones Awards for, respectively, public service and political action, and commitment and service to individuals with long-term mental health challenges, and in 2012 received the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania’s Bell of Hope Award.
Dr. Real has also been acknowledged for his long-standing support of the family advocacy movement, including being amongst the first recipients of the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from both the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI, 1992) and NAMI Pennsylvania (1993, 2013). He is a co-founder of TIKVAH/AJMI (Advocates for the Jewish Mentally Ill), an organization practicing recovery-oriented community inclusion since 1991.
Dr. Real is a graduate of Yale University and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He completed internship and adult psychiatry residency training at Hahnemann university Hospital, where he was co-chief resident. Dr. Real is board-certified in psychiatry and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He also was amongst the first to be certified in Community and Public Psychiatry by the American Association of Community Psychiatrists. Dr. Real currently serves as Chair of the Community Psychiatry Committee of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society and Co-director of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society’s Leadership Development Program. He is on clinical faculty of Penn’s Department of Psychiatry, and serves as a Co-director of Penn’s Fellowship in Public Psychiatry.