Psychiatry

The Department of Psychiatry’s faculty, clinicians, and staff are deeply committed to providing excellent care to the diverse populations served by Boston Medical Center (BMC), the Boston Veterans Administration Healthcare System, BMC Brockton Behavioral Health Center, and our Community Health Center partners. The department is also committed to training students, interns, residents, and fellows who help people from anywhere in the world. We provide addiction treatment, emergency psychiatric services, child and adolescent services, adult services, integrated behavioral health services, and global and local research programs. Our programs focus on mitigating the social determinants of health and providing culturally sensitive care, training, and research.

Research Programs

The Department of Psychiatry’s research initiatives encompass a wide variety of specialties, including psychosis and other serious mental illnesses, reproductive health, veterans’ health, PTSD and vicarious trauma, addiction psychiatry, neurodegenerative diseases, immigrant and refugee health, global psychiatry, and depression. Our research is informed by the culturally, ethnically, and racially diverse patient population at BMC. In our diverse local community, our researchers explore the myriad of intersections of culture and mental health. We apply a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the complex mental health needs of our patients, in both global and local contexts. We strive to make clinical research accessible and equitable for the patients we serve.

The investigators in our department use a range of research approaches, including basic science, clinical trials, implementation science, health services research, evaluation research, qualitative and mixed-methods research, epidemiologic research, epigenetic research, community-based participatory research, and biobank initiatives. We recognize the critical bidirectional relationship between research and clinical care. Our research allows us to enhance our knowledge of psychiatric illnesses and refine methodologies for diagnosing and treating a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders, while also leveraging clinical insights to inform and shape our research pursuits. We also provide research training and mentorship opportunities for our psychiatry residents, medical students, public health students, and other graduate and undergraduate students.

Clinical Programs

We strive to provide exceptional clinical care for all of our patients of all ages and backgrounds, using therapeutic modalities most appropriate to the patients’ needs and provided by specialists in the field and by trainees under the supervision of outstanding practitioners and teachers. The major services of the Department of Psychiatry include Emergency Services Programs, Urgent Behavioral Health Care, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Adult and Child Outpatient Mental Health Services, Integrated Behavioral Health, Mother and Child Mental Health, Criminal Justice Diversion Programs, Immigrant and Refugee Behavioral Health, Victim Assistance and Mental Health Recovery Services, and Peer Support Programs. The subspecialty outpatient programs available include Addiction Psychiatry, Restore Center for trauma-informed care, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) program, and Psychosis/Early Episode Psychosis Programs.

BMC Brockton Behavioral Health Center is a behavioral health facility that provides inpatient behavioral health treatment and clinical stabilization services (CSS) for people with substance use disorders and mental illness. Boston Medical Center was appointed as a state Community Behavioral Health Center (CBHC) for Boston. CBHCs are designed to serve MassHealth and MassHealth-contracted Managed Care Entity (MCE) members. MassHealth patients receive prioritized care within specified timelines, including same-day access for initial assessments.

Psychiatry Residency Program

The Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Psychiatry Residency Program is designed to provide comprehensive training in psychiatry, neurology, neuroscience, psychotherapies, trauma-informed care, and psychopharmacology. An integrated bio-psycho-social-cultural model forms the basis of our approach. Our program progresses across four years of training, from the basics in the PGY 1 year through advanced courses in the PGY 4 year. The academic programs include weekly didactics, research opportunities, core seminars, and special programs such as the Health Disparities Research Pathway, Medical Education Pathway, and the Global, Local, and Cultural Psychiatry Pathway. Residents have access to multiple clinical opportunities through clinical rotations and case-based conferences at unique and diverse training sites, including VA Medical Centers, community health centers, and Boston Medical Center.

Family Medicine-Psychiatry Combined Residency Program

This ACGME-accredited program combines the renowned residencies in family medicine and psychiatry into a curriculum designed to produce dual-trained physicians with broad-based training in both specialties. The mission of the program is to develop an innovative training experience for residents who are interested in dual board certification. The curriculum of the five-year program follows the guidelines of the American Board of Family Medicine and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, while also providing an innovative curriculum that integrates the two fields. This program is designed to provide a comprehensive, well-rounded, and balanced training experience to residents in Family Medicine and Psychiatry, as well as accommodating the individual residents’ specific interests within these two fields.

Fellowships

There are four fellowship opportunities available within the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University: Addiction Psychiatry, Community Psychiatry, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and the Boston University Medical Campus-Massachusetts General Hospital Global Psychiatric Clinical Research Training Program (BUMC-MGH GPCRTP). The core training sites include Boston Medical Center, VA Boston Healthcare System, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital/Bedford VA, Bournewood Hospital, Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center, Boston University on the Charles River Campus, the Danielsen Institute, and the Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders. International training sites for the BUMC-MGH GPCRTP include Barbados, Ethiopia, Peru, South Africa, Uganda, and Ukraine. The Department of Psychiatry at BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine is nationally recognized for its strength in addiction psychiatry, psychotic disorders, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma, child and adolescent psychiatry, cross-cultural and community psychiatry, and psychiatry services to a diverse community.