Areas of Concentration

We intend for our PGY 3-4 residents to identify particular areas of interest and passion where they will develop expertise and leadership. Many use elective time to craft individualized, eclectic programs. Others apply for entry into 1 of 7 areas of concentration in our residency and achieve distinction:

• Activities

  Mentorship

  Residents are paired with one primary mentor who helps them work toward personalized career goals and develop a network of mentors and colleagues for additional guidance and collaboration.

  VA Teaching Elective

  Residents have priority in scheduling this popular elective in which residents design, deliver, and evaluate a series of didactics for 3rd-year medical students and work with faculty to bolster their knowledge of curriculum development through reading and special projects.

  Curriculum Development Elective

  Residents have the opportunity to create a novel curriculum of their choosing. Previous residents have designed medical student elective curricula on innovative topics like Pop Culture in Psychiatry and Wellness and Spirituality.

• Example Projects and Publications

  Example Projects

  • Development of psychiatry residency courses and special seminars on such topics as literature and psychiatry; advocacy; domestic violence; spirituality; visual arts; and forensic psychiatry
  • Acting as psychiatry mentors in the UT Southwestern Colleges: teaching physical exam and interview skills to 1st and 2nd year medical students
  • Development of a "Being Well Through a Muslim Lens" course for the community
  • Creation of UT Southwestern's HEAL for Muslims group, a cross-department network of Muslim residents and fellows
  • Research investigating barriers to resident research and empathy and reflection in medical education

  Example Publications

  • Recruitment of Black Men and Women into Academic Psychiatry
  • A Dark Spot on a White Canvas: Thoughts on Being a Black Academic Psychiatrist
  • Moral Distress in Medical Student Reflective writing
  • Addicts and Admits: Metonymy in Medical Students’ Reflective Writing
  • “He Bore it Like a Scarlet Letter”: Medical Student Reflections on Substance Use Disorders
• FAQs

  Q. When do residents join the concentration?

  A. All residents are invited to apply for the concentration in the second year of residency. Third-year residents are also welcome to apply.

  Q. Can residents join the concentration and still fast track into child psychiatry?

  A. Yes, in these cases, residents work with their mentors to adjust the timing of concentration activities to fit the residents’ schedule.

  Q. How can I get more information?

  A. Please contact the concentration director, Molly Camp, M.D., for additional information: molly.camp@utsouthwestern.edu 

• Curriculum

  In PGY 1 and 2 residents complete readings and are exposed to different aspects of global health through a supplemental curriculum that is suggested to be 75% completed over 2 years. Through these educational experiences, residents acquire the knowledge base deemed essential for any future global health practitioner. In PGY 3 and 4, residents formally in the concentration expand on their foundational global health skillset through implementation of a longitudinal project and leading discussion of journal articles with peers and faculty in monthly seminars. Seminars in PGY 3-4 also include faculty who work in global mental health.

• Local Elective

  International Rescue Committee

  Through our partnership with the local branch of the IRC, residents are able to spend one halfday per week in PGY 3-4 providing therapy and medication management to refugees and asylum seekers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The largest contingents of patients seen at the clinic are from Spanish-speaking Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran and are Rohingya from Myanmar. Interviews are conducted using interpreters speaking various languages, reflecting the diverse backgrounds of the patient population.

• International Electives

  The core principle of our international work is sustainability, achieved through longitudinal global health elective experiences. In PGY2, residents will have the opportunity to embark on their first month-long international rotation to an established partner site in Guyana, China, or Türkiye with the intent of engaging in clinical and educational work at the site. Through this experience, residents are encouraged to identify opportunities for growth/research within the framework of psychiatric practice at the partner site and to collaborate with the partner site to develop sustainable solutions or projects over the subsequent years. In PGY4, residents return to the same partner site for a second month-long rotation with the goal of implementing and/or monitoring their proposed solutions.

  China (Sun-Yat Sun University)

  The rotation in China is structured for residents to engage in global mental health in a bilateral pair model. Residents have weekly didactics and journal club sessions with faculty from both academic institutions, focusing on themes of ethics/education, systems, and social determinants, as well as clinical practice. Each pair will collaboratively produce one case conference and/or one review article. Residents will have the chance to shadow and provide consultation for inpatient and outpatient care, while also participating in local cultural excursions to visit rural clinics in China. The rotation is conducted virtually, during which residents participate in didactics and scholarly projects and supplement their clinical work with local rotations, such as the IRC rotation in the local elective.

  Guyana

  The elective in Guyana seeks to engage residents in creating a cross-learning/bidirectional exchange of education and knowledge between UTSW and Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation staff psychiatrists and psychiatric residents while providing mental health services to Guyana’s population. GPHC is located in the capital city, Georgetown. It has an inpatient unit and an active clinic, and it provides consultation to the Accident and Emergency department and general hospital. GPHC residents and faculty also serve at outlying rural clinics, where UTSW residents may travel and provide consultation. UTSW residents may have the opportunity to travel to the National Psychiatric Hospital in New Amsterdam, which is similar to a state hospital, to observe services provided. UTSW residents and faculty will prepare lectures for psychiatric students and residents training in Guyana, and UTSW residents may also facilitate journal club and clinical case presentations. The first half of the rotation focuses on understanding the Guyanese system, observing and learning about the Guyanese mental health patient population, learning about the available formulary, and providing targeted education requested by Guyana’s psychiatric residents. The second half builds on the first half while beginning work, under UTSW faculty supervision, to provide psychiatric services alongside Guyanese residents and faculty. During the rotation, residents are encouraged to identify a project related to education, a mental health need, or services provided in Guyana in order to work toward long-term improvement. UTSW residents are encouraged to work with Guyanese residents, who also have to meet a research requirement prior to graduation, and potentially publish work together. Long-term goals include finding ways to engage in education with Guyanese residents throughout the academic year and offer virtual consultation monthly/weekly when not together in person.

  Türkiye and Syria

  The elective in Türkiye and Syria seeks to improve Syrian refugees’ access to mental health care, utilizing a three-pronged approach devised in conjunction with our local partners, Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations. First, residents design and deliver lectures, didactics, and journal clubs to junior doctors training in psychiatry in northern Syria, with the intent of producing sustainable and reproducible training modules. Second, residents travel to Türkiye to shadow and provide in-person consultation to staff psychiatrists at UOSSM’s local mental health clinics. Residents are encouraged to identify a gap in knowledge or health care delivery at the clinic and develop and implement a longitudinal project to bridge this gap. Third, to promote longitudinal care for this patient population, residents will spend one halfday per week during PGY 3-4 providing telepsychiatric services, staffing UOSSM’s local inpatient psychiatric unit in northern Syria and various outpatient psychiatric clinics.

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• Overview

  Interventional psychiatry is an emerging field that utilizes procedural-based treatments to alleviate mental distress, often when traditional pharmacologic and psychotherapeutic treatments have failed. Many interventional approaches aim to identify and then correct dysfunctional brain circuits. While traditional neuromodulation techniques have largely centered on ECT for depression, varied interventional approaches have now expanded to include TMS, ketamine-based therapies, MST, DBS, VNS, tDCS, nerve-blocks, and psychedelics aimed to treat a variety of conditions.

  Interested residents apply in the mid-point of PGY2. Selected residents participate throughout PGY 3-4, and accommodations are made for residents fast tracking into child and adolescent psychiatry.

• Education and Training
   

  Our education and training in neuromodulation techniques take advantage of the opportunities in our residency program. Residents complete electives that prepare them to manage patients with treatment-resistant depression, learn to deliver high-quality, evidence-based ECT, and gain familiarity with administering ketamine-based treatments and performing TMS mappings. Through ECT training, residents gain procedural familiarity in preparation for credentialing, to develop familiarity with anesthesia and airway management protocols, and to master electrode-lead placement management throughout all phases of ECT.

  Over the 2-year concentration, residents can tailor the track to meet their career/professional aspirations. The educational component is flexible to allow residents time to hone their skills in the neuromodulation techniques that they find most appealing, such as TMS, ECT, and esketamine. Residents graduate with a well-rounded education in neuromodulation to become leaders in interventional psychiatry.

• Mentorship

  Along with education and training, a primary focus is mentorship. From the beginning through the end of the concentration, residents are expected to meet with mentors in their areas of interest. Mentors serve as guides and assist in education, research, and networking for residents.

  Residents may also have multiple mentors across various modalities. For example, a resident may have an ECT mentor and a TMS mentor. Residents themselves may become mentors to medical students, pre-med students, and other learners who are interested in expanding their education about interventional psychiatry.

• Scholarly Project

  The final aspect is a scholarly project to be completed by the end of residency, such as original research, case reports, education/advocacy pieces, and legislation. The project goal is broad so that residents can generate individualized products in line with their passions. Scholarly projects also serve to synthesize the other objectives of education and mentorship into tangible outcomes that have the added benefit of bolstering our reputation as a leading institution in research and innovation.

  Examples of Past Scholarly Work

  • A Model for Formal Residency Training in Interventional Psychiatry article published in Academic Psychiatry
  • Assistance in the creation of the new ECT service at Parkland Hospital
  • Presentations at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting
  • Presentation at the International Society of ECT and Neuromodulation Annual Meeting
  • Presentation at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry Annual Meeting

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• Objectives
  • Expand knowledge of forensic psychiatry, including ethics, landmark cases, regulations and statutes governing medical practice, and forensic evaluation and report-writing, as well as correctional psychiatry
  • Gain an understanding of the foundations of U.S. health policy, including understanding the role of key stakeholders
  • Develop expertise in policy analysis and development
  • Improve clinical expertise in caring for forensic patient populations
  • Provide mentorship within the field of forensic psychiatry, including opportunities for scholarship
• Requirements
  • Meet monthly with concentration mentor (a faculty forensic psychiatrist)
  • Participate in forensic clinical electives
    • Forensic Unit of Terrell State Hospital
    • Special Needs Offender Program at Metrocare
  • Participate in mental health policy electives by developing individual advocacy projects and working toward implementation, with the mentorship of faculty at UTSW and Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute
  • Scholarly work in forensic psychiatry and/or mental health policy/advocacy
  • Attendance at UT Southwestern Forensic Seminar Series and local Forensic Group meetings

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• Clinical Training

  Concentration residents begin their psychotherapy electives during PGY3. Because of the depth of our faculty’s expertise, our program provides a broad range of educational experiences at diverse clinical sites, including the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University’s psychiatry outpatient clinic, the VA, and community health clinics.

  In addition to psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapies, more specialized modalities offered include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, and Exposure Response Prevention. Trauma-focused therapies such as Prolonged Exposure Therapy and Cognitive Processing Therapy are also available.

• Mentoring

  Concentration residents are paired with psychotherapy mentors who help them develop personalized career goals. Mentors are selected per individual residents' clinical and career interests.

• Research

  Residents can participate in ongoing clinical trials that focus on psychotherapeutic interventions within medical populations.

• Scholarly Project

  Residents work with mentors and the concentration director to develop a scholarly project. Past projects include a CBT-based group therapy intervention for patients with eating disorders, psychotherapy practice habits of UTSW residency alumni, and a survey of psychotherapists’ attitudes toward and experiences of telehealth psychotherapy.

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• Clinical Training

  Residents rotate among a variety of sites that serve children, adolescents, young adults, and college students, including at UTSW, Children’s Health outpatient psychiatry clinic and suicide prevention program, Paul Quinn College health and wellness clinic, UT  Arlington counseling center, and UTSW’s Student Wellness and Counseling. Residents develop clinical skills in assessment, diagnosis, and management of eating disorders, first episode psychosis, autism spectrum disorders, developmental disorders, and adolescent substance use disorders.

• Psychotherapy

  Residents have the opportunity to work with young adults who are managing issues of transition to adulthood and may participate in the LAUNCH group at Children’s Health, a 6-week skills-based group to help high school students transition to adulthood.

• Didactics

  Residents participate in bimonthly didactic meetings, with topics such as the transitional age brain, addressing suicide on college campuses, college mental health developmental/learning disorders, and mental health issues for college students who are minorities.

• Scholarly Project

  Residents complete a scholarly project before the end of training that includes the topic of transitional age youth or college mental health.

• Mentorship

  Residents receive mentorship to provide support in developing and working toward career goals.

• FAQs

  Q. When do residents join the concentration?

  A. Our residents are invited to apply to the concentration at the end of PGY2, and concentration activities continue through PGY 3-4.

  Q. Can residents join the concentration and still fast track into child psychiatry?

  A. Yes, residents who wish to pursue a CAP fellowship will need to declare their interest early, so we can ensure completion of program and concentration requirements.

  Q. Do I have to complete a CAP fellowship to complete the concentration?

  A. No, the TAY concentration is constructed such that residents will be prepared to work well with young adults and adolescents even if they do not pursue a fellowship. Residents gain exposure to working with children and families during their time on the concentration. As such, they may be interested in pursing CAP fellowship, which would be fully supported.

  Q. How can I get more information?

  A. Please contact the concentration director, Jessica Moore, M.D., for additional information: jessica.moore@utsouthwestern.edu 

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• Clinical Training

  Residents rotate at three core training sites: the combined OB-complications and postpartum depression clinic and violence intervention and prevention clinic at Parkland, the Women’s Stress Disorders and Military Sexual Trauma clinic at the VA, and the Eating Disorders Research and Outpatient Clinic at UTSW. Under faculty supervision, residents develop clinical skills to diagnose and manage psychiatric disorders in the peripartum period, PTSD and trauma and stressor-related conditions, eating disorders, and complex personality disorders in women, using evidence-based treatments.

• Psychotherapy

  Residents have opportunities to train in advanced, evidence-based psychotherapies such as cognitive processing therapy for PTSD, cognitive behavioral therapy for peripartum disorders and eating disorders, and dialectical behavioral therapy for personality disorders. In addition, residents attend a monthly psychoeducation group for women seeking psychiatric consultations.

• Didactics

  The Women’s Mental Health and Wellness Group and Reading elective is a yearlong, half-day rotation offering essential readings of women’s mental health and wellness.

• Scholarly Activities

  Residents present at case conferences at the end of their core clinical rotation, present at VA mental health grand rounds, and complete a scholarly project before graduation. Residents prepare an article (review, case report, or research) during their rotation with the eating disorders team.

  Example projects and accomplishments:

  • Residents created a new elective providing psychotherapy services clinic for female inmates in the Dallas County Jail System
  • A resident received the Association of Women Psychiatrists travel award while a resident in this concentration, which included contributing to its newsletter, where the resident highlighted the unmet mental health needs of women in incarceration
  • Residents gave Grand Rounds presentations on PTSD during pregnancy and the postpartum period, a model for behavioral integration in women’s health, and military sexual trauma

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