Geri psych resources

[sunlioness]

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I found myself the other day wishing that my organization employed a geriatric psychiatrist. Then I read the recent article about how the dearth of geriatric psychiatrists is a looming healthcare crisis and got to thinking that maybe I should just become a geriatric psychiatrist. And maybe if I did, my current organization would hold my job for me. I actually really do like demented old people. I always have. I just dread them as patients mostly because I feel out of my element. Training woukd likely fix that.

This is seriously a thought I only just had yesterday and one I might well forget about tomorrow. And any sort of fellowship would likely be a few years off just because I wouldn't do that to my employer while there's already another psychiatrist who is going part time temporarily to do an informatics fellowship. Not to mention that there arent any fellowships here in town and I don't feel like moving (though Indy, Chicago, or St Louis wouldn't be huge moves). But I figured it couldn't hurt to educate myself. What resources do people recommend? Those who are Geri folk here, what do you like/not like about it?

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Maybe just going to a meeting or 2 would help?

http://www.aagponline.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=Home

 

[notdeadyet]

Nice, sunlionness. This isn't an area I'll be fellowshipping, but it's definitely one I think a lot of us are curious about that doesn't get a lot of traction on SDN...

 

[billypilgrim37]

As a CAP, my opinions about geri psych are well summed up in Christopher Buckley's Boomsday.

That said, one of my best friends is pretty happy with her just-started geri fellowship. It's another niche that may or may not pay you an extra dime in the future, but if you want that training, there's really nothing better than the fellowship, and I don't know why more adult psychiatrists don't pursue it (other than it being entirely unnecessary, but I've stated before that I think the unnecessariness of a fellowship is a terrible reason not to pursue it). Interestingly, a handful of our ED attendings are geri-trained. I would think that for C/L work in some contexts, the geri fellowship would be about as helpful as the C/L fellowship itself.

 

[sunlioness]

I was thinking it might help with C&L cross coverage stuff too. I might look into that conference in March. 🙂

 

[sunlioness]

LOL! And the APA just spammed me with ""New and Essential Titles in Geriatric Psychiatry".

 

[vistaril]

I found myself the other day wishing that my organization employed a geriatric psychiatrist. Then I read the recent article about how the dearth of geriatric psychiatrists is a looming healthcare crisis and got to thinking that maybe I should just become a geriatric psychiatrist. And maybe if I did, my current organization would hold my job for me. I actually really do like demented old people. I always have. I just dread them as patients mostly because I feel out of my element. Training woukd likely fix that.

This is seriously a thought I only just had yesterday and one I might well forget about tomorrow. And any sort of fellowship would likely be a few years off just because I wouldn't do that to my employer while there's already another psychiatrist who is going part time temporarily to do an informatics fellowship. Not to mention that there arent any fellowships here in town and I don't feel like moving (though Indy, Chicago, or St Louis wouldn't be huge moves). But I figured it couldn't hurt to educate myself. What resources do people recommend? Those who are Geri folk here, what do you like/not like about it?

Im not doing a geri fellowship, but I feel more than comfortable seeing any geri pt and would be more than comfortable working on an exclusively geri unit. Wouldnt want to because it's not something I enjoy.

Geri fellowship is a year, and if you look at how some of the rotations are structured, it's a lot of bs.....one could actually set up their 4th year in such a way(if they were interested in geri) to get more good geri exposure from their 4th year than you get in some fellowships....

this trend in psychiatry of creating all these fellowships is a bit absurd. The only areas of psychiatry I wouldnt feel 100% comfortable working exclusively in are forensics and child. Child psychiatry i think is mostly ridiculous(ie the 90000% increase in bipolar d/o since I started this post) and would never want to do it. But geri, addiction, consults, etc?? There is absolutely no need for a fellowship, and in fact it may actually be a hindrance in that one could learn more their pgy-5 year by getting out there and getting a real job in that area......

 

[michaelrack]

I. But geri, addiction, consults, etc?? There is absolutely no need for a fellowship, and in fact it may actually be a hindrance in that one could learn more their pgy-5 year by getting out there and getting a real job in that area......

👍

 

[sunlioness]

So I had a review with my boss a few weeks ago and mentioned that I saw a need for me geriatric services and that we didn't really have anyone in the department. She told me that if I read 10 articles, I'd probably immediately become the local expert. (Kind of a scary thought). Still not sure where I'm going with this and to be honest, I like reading books more than articles. But am frustrated I didn't check the date on one book I bought recently. Parts of it are still decent, but it's hard not to cringe a little when reading the authors sing the praises of SGAs and HRT.

Still thinking about going to the conference next March in L.A. Might hit that instead of APA in San Fran in May. Especially since I went to APA last year. I will, though, be at the psychosomatic conference in Atlanta in November if anyone around SDN is hitting that one.