UCLA Psychiatry Residency Program

Community Psychiatry and Global Mental Health

The Community and Global Psychiatry (CGP) resident-faculty group was founded by our residents in 2017 to promote careers in public service, locally and globally, and to further educational experiences focused on health equity, structural competency, and social responsibility. Our group has grown to involve CGP chief residents, more than one-third of our residents, and over 30 faculty. CGP oversees over 40 hours of didactics in the core curriculum (for all residents), a faculty-resident mentorship program, and numerous ongoing educational seminars. And our work has involved partnerships with 20 community-based organizations and local public agencies.

We are excited for you to learn more about our work. For more information, please visit our UCLA CGP website: www.uclacgp.com 

Contacts: CGP Chief Residents Janice Cho, Jennifer Tu, and Ragda Izar and CGP Faculty Lead Enrico Castillo

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COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRY CLINICAL ELECTIVES

PGY1       Harbor-UCLA Psychiatric Emergency Room (required rotation, all resident tracks)

 Harbor-UCLA Track resident spends entire PGY-1 year at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center

PGY2       The People Concern (homeless services) - Skid Row mental health clinic (elective)

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center - Los Angeles County Department of Mental Urgent Care Center (elective)

Integrated Dual Diagnosis Outreach Clinic - VA

PGY3 and 4: Residents have the opportunity to spend nearly the entirety of these years in community psychiatry and global mental health electives, below:

Global Health Tintswalo, South Africa (4-week rotation)

County Edelman Westside Mental Health Center (Department of Mental Health)

  Women's Jail - Correctional Mental Health Services (Department of Health Services)

  Mental Health Diversion Court (Department of Health Services Office of Diversion and Reentry)

VA Integrated Dual Diagnosis Outreach Clinic

  HPACT (multidisciplinary team, co-location model for homeless veterans)

UCLA Spanish-speaking Psychosocial Clinic

  Los Angeles Human Rights Initiative - Immigration Asylum Clinic

Community     Homeboy Industries

 Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services

• • • • • • • TAY-FSP (providing intensive wraparound services to patients ages 16-25)

            • AB-109 (providing re-entry services for individuals on probation)

 The People Concern

• • • • • • • Supportive housing services

            • Field-based services for individuals experiencing homelessness

  Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center

  Venice Family Clinic

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GLOBAL MENTAL HEALTH CLINICAL ELECTIVES

UCLA has a vibrant global health community across multiple residency programs and the David Geffen School of Medicine and a Global Health - Social Medicine Grand Rounds series with speakers who are renowned leaders in the field www.worldhealth.med.ucla.edu 

• Clinical and Teaching Elective in Tintswalo, South Africa: Residents spend four weeks in Tintswalo, South Africa that includes inpatient and outpatient clinical experiences in general and forensic psychiatry. Residents also help train local nurse practitioners in mental health topics and treatment approaches, giving our residents experiences in education, mutual partnership, and sustainable capacity building.

• Los Angeles Human Rights Initiative - Immigration Asylum Clinic: on-campus asylum clinic that is offered as a PGY 3 and 4 clinical elective https://lahumanrights.org/ 

• Independent Elective (with approval from Drs. Castillo and DeBonis): opportunity to design your own global mental health elective. Researchers in our Department have ongoing partnerships in many countries including South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam, Thailand, Egypt. Residents can also connect with the UCLA School of Medicine’s Global Health Program, which includes Seed Grant and Travel Grant programs and partnerships in 27 countries.

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Career Development and Mentorship

Since 2017, CGP has organized a mentor match to pair interested residents with mentors who have expertise in a broad array of topics (everything from homelessness to justice-involved populations to community-academic partnerships to healthcare policy). Our Career in Community and Global Psychiatry Lunch Talks feature public psychiatrists, mental health services and policy researchers, and leaders and clinicians from LA County health agencies and other community organizations. Speakers talk about their career paths, current work, and opportunities for residents to work in public service.

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Advocacy and Structural Action

In CGP, we view advocacy as intrinsic to our role as physicians and as a tool to improve the health and lives of our patients and to combat burnout; it empowers us to address the broader social injustices that underpin our patients’ suffering. Via our CGP curriculum, residents gain structural competency--a foundational understanding of how laws, institutional policies, and social forces perpetuate health inequities--and then build specific advocacy skills to dismantle these injustices. Additionally, CGP organizes the Policy and Change event series that brings together residents, faculty, community members, and policy leaders, for panel discussions of health-related current events, culminating in immediate (in the room), short-term, and long-term advocacy action in partnership with community leaders. Past events include: “UCLA Mental Health and Medi-Cal,” “Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Post-Roe v Wade,” "Family Separations at the Border," "Gun Violence as a Public Health Issue," "The Dangers for People with Mental Illness and Other Disabilities at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center," and "Ending Jail Expansion in Los Angeles County."

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Concentrations in Community Psychiatry & Global Mental Health

Since AY 2018, we have offered these concentrations as career enrichment pathways to train future leaders in community psychiatry and global mental health. Concentrations are available to all residents--categorical, Harbor, or research track--and offer educational and clinical experiences, mentorship, and scholarly projects that are designed to help facilitate successful careers contributing to the future of public and global mental health systems, services, and the people they serve.

The Community Concentration and Global Concentration do not grant credits and the experiences are open to all residents.

Concentration Requirements

• Complete and write up a scholarly project under the guidance of a faculty mentor

• Complete the PGY-4 CGP didactic selective on Advocacy and Structural Competency

• Community Concentration only: Complete two PGY3-4 clinical electives in community psychiatry (must be at different clinical sites)

• Global Concentration only: Complete one PGY3-4 clinical elective in community psychiatry and at least one additional global mental health elective (this includes international rotations and/or the UCLA Psychiatry Asylum Clinic)

• Highly encouraged, with support provided by CGP core faculty

  • Participate in the CGP mentorship program, which matches residents with faculty based on mutual interests and preferred areas of mentorship

  • Organize a CGP-related event (e.g., site visit, Policy and Change event)

  • Present a Social Determinants Case Conference, working with a faculty discussant

  • Attend at least one relevant conference/meeting during residency (pending approval by residency administration)

  • When available, attend (and help organize!) CGP career lunch talks, case conferences, journal clubs, seminars, site visits, and resident-faculty networking events

  • Apply to relevant fellowships/awards

  • Submit scholarly project(s) for publication

  • Submit presentations to relevant conferences, such as the APA Annual and Institute for Psychiatric Services Meetings, the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture, and World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why should I consider a concentration?

The concentrations are an opportunity to develop a personal specialization in either community psychiatry or global mental health. It signals to the outside world that you have dedicated time to become a leader in one of these areas. The concentrations provide mentorship, scholarly projects, and exposure to community and global psychiatry, while connecting you to a community of passionate, like-minded trainees and mentors (both locally and nationally).

Do I have to do research to participate in the concentration? 

No. The “scholarly project” requirement is intended to give you the chance to pursue a topic of interest in depth; this may take the form of a research project, but there are a number of other options as well.

Do I have to publish in order to fulfill the scholarly project requirement?

No, but it is important to work closely with your CGP mentors to formulate a strong scholarly project that, most importantly, meets your career goals.