Seems like there isn't a lot of international work available for psychiatrists... But I'm new to the field (intern) so I was hoping someone can point me in the direction of resources, whether it be medical missions (saw one thread about Ethiopia) or other types of paid/unpaid work. I'm open to almost anything. At this point i want to get involved and hopefully make a global impact over the course of my in my career. Since I only have a week of vacation at a time, I won't be able to devote a lot of time to international work over the next few years but I'd like to research what opportunities are available and maybe get started. Thx!
International work
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If you are interested in clinical care and/or implementation, there is not much that you can offer until you complete your training. In addition, if you are looking to do 1 week trips (minus 2-3 days for air travel and ground transport) 2-3 times a year, it would probably be more cost efficient to donate the money that those trips would have cost, both in terms of the actual monetary cost (e.g., airfare) as well as the time cost of money (e.g., the salary you would have earned had you spent the 1-2 weeks at work, as well as the time and burden that it takes your host institution to train you since you will likely be unfamiliar with their systems and slower than the local resident or attending who will be assigned to supervise your work).
After you finish your residency, Partners in Health offers a one-year fellowship program for mental health implementation work in Rwanda and Haiti:
http://www.pih.org/news/entry/q-a-with-pihs-new-mental-health-care-fellows/
If you are interested in research (as opposed to clinical care and/or implementation) then there are a few more opportunities available. During medical school or residency you can participate in programs like the Fogarty Scholars program (https://fogartyscholars.org/), which provides funding for you to spend a year in a host country. After residency, there is very little that exists. MGH just started a new T32 post-residency fellowship program:
http://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/education/Fellowship.aspx?id=189
(Note: T32 training grants follow the NIH pay schedule, so you would be making somewhere in the $40K's -- that is after completing your residency, when your friends are making $130K and above)
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Not really sure where to point you in the way of information (I had a quick look, but couldn't find anything myself), but the rural and indigenous areas of Australia have a shortage of psychiatrists, and there are a lot of mental health issues these areas are dealing with (depression, addiction, etc).
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you would be best off staying away. but do you not have the opportunity to do international electives? At my program we can do international electives from intern year. indeed i am (hopefully) going down under for a month on elective.
1 week seems very short, but if you have more time, there are a number of opportunities you could explore in South Africa. Its a good place for an elective because there is an extremely high disease burden, but a relatively well developed clinical and research infrastructure. We had people rotate on psychiatry from the United States on an almost continual basis and they all seemed to find the experience very helpful.
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Don't forget about cultural differences. Not as important if you're a surgeon, but in psych....
