UW to Offer Fellowships to Train Psychiatrists in Integrated Care

The University of Washington has been awarded funds by the state of Washington for a new integrated, evidence-based psychiatry training program to improve access to mental health care in Washington State.

As part of this program, the university’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will offer up to five positions a year in its Integrated Care Fellowship. The psychiatrists selected to participate will learn how to provide integrated care through delivery of consultation in primary care and other non-mental health settings, provision of telepsychiatry, and leadership to improve systems of care.

Anna Ratzliff, M.D, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Integrated Care Training Program at the University of Washington, said the one-year fellowship experience will focus on developing both clinical and leadership skills to deliver population-based mental health care.

“These new fellowships are focused on teaching skills in effective consultation, telepsychiatry, and team work rather than traditional office-based psychiatry that reaches only a relatively few number of patients,” she told Psychiatric News. “The fellowships are part of a larger effort to substantially address a serious mental health workforce shortage and to improve access to psychiatry consultation in areas and settings where there is poor access now.”

Applicants to the Integrated Care Fellowship must have completed an ACGME-accredited psychiatry residency training by the start date. They should submit the following materials by November 1: a personal statement discussing the candidate’s reasons for wanting to participate in the Integrated Care Fellowship; a current curriculum vitae; a letter of recommendation from a residency director confirming satisfactory or expected completion of general psychiatry training and discussing overall performance in residency, clinical skills, interpersonal communication, professionalism, and teaching, research, or leadership activities; a letter of recommendation from any psychiatry subspecialty fellowship program the candidate has completed or is completing; two other letters of recommendation from faculty members with whom the candidate has worked during residency or fellowship; USMLE scores; and proof of medical licensure. ■

More information about the fellowship is available by contacting Ratzliff at [email protected].