|
ADULT PSYCHIATRY RESIDENCY PROGRAM
The Adult Psychiatry Residency Program provides a broad-based experience
that prepares Residents for their chosen careers. Didactic and clinical
responsibilities are designed to foster the development of ethical,
independent, and responsible psychiatrists who will make significant
contributions to the health of adults and their families. We provide
a flexible environment that trains Residents to excel in the professional
role of their choice, including psychotherapist, psychopharmacologist,
administrator, academic educator, and/or clinical investigator.
Graduates are competent in the diagnosis and treatment of the full
range of mental disorders. The overall philosophy of the department
is pluralistic: assessing each individual, couple, or family thoroughly
and applying the most evidence based, humanistic approaches to any
clinical situation.
At Cambridge Health Alliance, we emphasize a bio-psycho-social
approach to the understanding of mental illness. We value psychotherapy
and we have a deep and enduring commitment to teaching psychodynamic
psychotherapy. Residents learn about psychodynamic principles through
didactics and close supervision throughout the residency. Our curriculum
also includes training in the use of major psychotherapies including
cognitive-behavioral, time-limited as well as long term dynamic
and supportive therapies, group therapy, and family systems therapy.
The curriculum also has a strong biological psychiatry component
that includes neuroscience, neuropsychiatry, and the principles
and practice of psychopharmacology. Psychopharmacology is taught
throughout the four-year residency, as well as in each clinical
rotation where population specific and illness specific nuances
of psychopharmacologic treatment are studied. Training includes
integrating psychopharmacology into psychotherapeutic treatment
as well as managing the psychopharmacologic treatment of patients
seen by other non-medical therapists.
During the Residency we stress a developmental point of view through
didactics on human development and clinical work with children.
Our goal is to enhance the understanding of adults and to provide
basic skills in child psychiatry. Training is conducted with assistance
from faculty of the Department's Child and Adolescent division.
The overall goals of the training program are to prepare psychiatrists
who are skilled clinicians, critical appraisers or the science behind
the practice of psychiatry and medicine, and lifelong learners in
order to keep up with the extraordinary developments in psychiatric
research and clinical practice. Lifelong learning skills are developed
in a context of scientific knowledge and clinical application. Over
the four years of didactics and clinical rotations, increasing emphasis
is placed on the process of learning by case based seminars and
cooperative learning experiences. Residents consolidate their learning
through having to teach medical students and each other, and in
presenting to the department of psychiatry in various formats.
Clinical and didactic education occurs in multidisciplinary settings
in which there are training programs for a full range of mental
health professionals. Inter-disciplinary conferences have been developed
for trainees in psychiatry, psychology, social work, and psychiatric
nursing.
A particular strength of our program is the patient population,
which includes people with a broad spectrum of mental health problems
and an impressive array of ages, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Of equal importance, training in our program is integrated within
a comprehensive community mental health delivery system. Service
and training occur in a variety of settings: inpatient, outpatient,
partial hospital, emergency service and outreach, home visits, walk-in
clinic, day treatment, social club, linguistic minority clinics,
and other such opportunities.
This comprehensive four year training program has 32 residents
. The training program is one of the four Harvard Medical School
Adult Psychiatric Residencies, and the department serves as a popular
training site for Harvard Medical students. Medical student teaching
is an active part of the psychiatric residency program. Specialized
chief residency positions provide opportunities for residents interested
in pursuing clinical, academic, and research interests. An intensive
two-year psychotherapy fellowship provides an opportunity for advanced
work in long term psychodynamic therapy.
The Department also sponsors a two-year Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program, to which some Residents
choose to apply after their PGY3 or PGY4 in our Adult Psychiatry
program. Our Adult and Child Training Programs are certified and
in good standing with the Residency Review Committee in Psychiatry
of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
The Department also sponsors ACGME accredited fellowships in Geriatric
Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine.
|
|
|
