Residency programs that work with underserved

[JoseyCali123]

Are there any residency programs that work with underserved and are geared towards social justice? i know BU is one... trying to put a list of possible programs and curious

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[Espadaleader]

Yale

 

[Mass Effect]

Any major academic center in the East will give you this opportunity (probably out West too, though I'm not familiar with those programs). Psychiatry is made up of of many political/social justice types who want to help the undeserved and these people tend to swarm to major academic institutions. That said, you still need to learn general psychiatry and you need to not piss people off (look up Eugene Gu if you need explanation on this). That means using your opportunities to help without preaching a message that's going to get you in trouble. Abide by your institution's guidelines and seek guidance from your mentors toward the end of intern year once you know who's who.

 

[mbgr2014]

Most programs that are oriented towards "community psychiatry" (not the same thing as community based residency programs) work more with the underserved. Usually, this will also be in the mission of their program and emphasized on interview day. It also depends on what hospitals you're looking at. For example, Emory and Morehouse rotate through Grady Memorial Hospital, among others, which is one of the most underserved public hospitals out there. Grady is much like Boston Medical Center.

 

[dassie]

It's psychiatry so you would probably have a harder time finding a program that DOESN'T work with the underserved, but "geared towards social justice" is a little harder to define. Most psychiatrists I've met are pretty left leaning social justice types with varying degrees of actual political or advocacy involvement so I think if you're just looking for a friendly environment, I would guess most academic places would be welcoming. Otherwise, Yale has a social justice curriculum for the general residents. I would add Cambridge Health Alliance, NYU/Bellevue off the top of my head.

You could also try narrowing down to places with a public psychiatry track, though this tends to be variable - some places it's just doing a lot of hours at the state hospital, some places have a more policy focus.

 

[NickNaylor]

It's my own program, but I would say UT Southwestern qualifies. The main clinical site is a "safety net" county hospital system that mostly serves non-insured/Medicaid folks, many are not English speaking, and most receive what is effectively free care. We also have an affiliation with the community mental health system for Dallas and surrounding counties and do rotations there (essentially the same population as the above but for mental health). Advocacy is a relatively prominent part of the culture and the residency program leadership encourage involvement at the local, state, and national level. We have residents that do non-clinical rotations with a Texas policy think-tank based in the Dallas area, and one of our residents gave a keynote address at the NAMI Texas conference last year.

All that being said, I think issues like policy advocacy and social justice issues are things that will need to be driven by you more so than the program. There will be plenty of opportunities to explore this interest if you make it a priority.

 

[Monocles]

At almost any program there will be people wanting to work with the underserved, and others wanting to work with the worried well. Ideally a program should have a mixture of both! Just gotta make your own niche!

 

[FrustratedFamDoc]

Most residency programs will give you all the underserved population you can handle. In general, well insured people that have a choice of where to seek care don't usually choose to go to a doc that is still in training.

 

[Central_SOULcus]

I train in Los Angeles and there are programs there that fit the bill: Harbor-UCLA, Charles Drew, UC Riverside, USC...