Residency Training Program
in Psychiatry

Programs

THE PSYCHIATRIC CORE PROGRAM: PGY-I through PGY-III

The Core Psychiatry Program is designed to provide the clinical experiences essential for the development of basic knowledge and skills necessary for practice in all sectors of contemporary psychiatry. The four months of the PG-I year devoted to psychiatry initiate the Core Psychiatry Program and are spent on an inpatient psychiatry service.

The PGY-II year consists of one 3-month adult psychiatry inpatient rotations, two 3-month selective rotations in a specialized area of psychiatry, a 2-month consultation/liaison rotation, and a one month emergency psychiatry rotation. Work with long-term psychotherapy patients also begins in PGY-II and continues throughout the Residency. The PGY-III year consists of 12 months of outpatient psychiatry and includes supervised clinical experience in addiction and child psychiatry.

Beginning with the 4-month psychiatric rotation in PGY-I, the resident will begin the Core Psychiatry Program. This consists of adult inpatient and child psychiatry in PGY-I; inpatient, partial hospital, emergency and consultation-liaison psychiatry in PGY-II; and outpatient (includes supervised clinical experience in child and addiction) psychiatry in PGY-III.

PGY I and PGY-II:  Residents entering the Program in PGY-I will have three months of inpatient adult psychiatry and 1 month of Child/Adolescent inpatient psychiatry and 2 separate three month inpatient care psychiatry rotations in PGY-II. These rotations involve experiences at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, and the Veterans Administration Connecticut Healthcare System. This mix of rotations ensures that residents complete an optimal number of initial evaluations, and gain in-depth experience with a variety of biological, psychological and social treatments. Each placement is in a different setting, assuring exposure to a range of patients in both public and private settings who are diverse with respect to diagnosis, age, social class and ethnicity. The remaining 6 months include 2 months of consultation/liaison, one month of emergency psychiatry, and 3 months of selective which includes options for a variety of specialized experiences including geriatrics, research or community psychiatry placements.

Educational objectives for this year are focused on the comprehensive evaluation and diagnosis of patients from biological, psychological and social perspectives and the delivery of treatment to a wide variety of patients in different treatment settings. The training emphasizes thorough psychiatric evaluation, accurate formulation of the patient's clinical status, and implementation of an appropriate treatment plan.

In addition to these overall objectives, different units or configurations of units have additional educational objectives appropriate to the particular clinical setting. For instance, residents on the inpatient units of CMHC will have the chance to learn directly about psychiatric delivery for the underserved. Residents on the clinical research units will have the opportunity to learn about research issues and methods.

PGY-III: This is an outpatient year which includes addiction and child psychiatry experiences in addition to general adult ambulatory psychiatry. The goals of this year are to develop basic skills in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients in the outpatient setting; to become proficient in crisis intervention; to understand the role of the psychiatrist in working with other professionals, paraprofessionals, and community agencies; to identify and learn to use the formal and informal community resources available to assist in the treatment of patients with mental illness; to become proficient in the treatment of patients with addiction disorders, and to gain initial experience in the ambulatory assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children.

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