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Besides NYU and CHA what are some of the programs with strong public psychiatry exposure/training that you think of?
This is a fine point. Going to big name programs that see primarily insured patients and operate mostly as psychiatric tertiary care is not the ideal. But going to a community program that focuses on just providing services to their county is not ideal either. I would target academic programs (which focus on training leaders for the field) that emphasize community psychiatry, and if they don't have a primary training site that is a county hospital, they're mostly aspirational. You want to roll-up your sleeves and work with the in-need populations, but you also want to do it with national thought leaders (otherwise you may as well train anywhere and pick up a county job after residency). The ideal is forest and trees.There is a difference between seeing a bunch of homeless uninsured patients and working in non-academic outpatient community mental health centers for example. If you are interested in public psychiatry, I would suggest looking for programs that give you exposure to community mental health centers rather than just ivory towers (which provide a different sort of community care).
I am also very interested in public service psychiatry. I'm very impressed with UCSF and Yale from what I've researched thus far. Can folks speak to public service psych at the boston programs- MGH, CHA, and Longwood in particular?