Resident well-being is essential for optimal resident learning, competent and compassionate clinical care, and the smooth functioning of the residency program. Our Residency Wellness Program is a vital component to our psychiatry training program that promotes a sense of collegiality and enhances our residents’ emotional health. Supported by philanthropy, our Residency Wellness Program allows us to offer:

• wellness retreats
• wellness didactics
• resident bonding within and between classes
• opportunities for reflection
• resident-driven wellness programming
• welcome events for PGY-1s

Please consider donating to the Psychiatry Resident Education and Training Fund!

Our biggest strength is our people, and this year we hope to recruit faculty members to:

• Develop and oversee a new Center for Neuromodulation that will serve both inpatients and outpatients experiencing treatment resistant depression and other devastating psychiatric illnesses using new brain stimulation (neuromodulation) treatments.
• Advance clinical, research and training activities in healthy brain aging and age-related cognitive decline.
• Develop and lead a new clinician scientist training program.
• Lead our Psychiatry Residency Training Program, the largest psychiatry residency program in the US.

New space and facilities allow us to bring in excellent people and programs. We are pursuing:

• State-of-the-art space for teaching, research and clinical care at the new Behavioral Health Teaching Facility, the remodel and upgrade of the existing geropsychiatry unit at UWMC-Northwest, and the new UW Medicine Behavioral Health Institute at Harborview Medical Center.
• The creation of an Innovation Clinic to build our capacity for testing new types of medication, psychotherapy and other treatments for mental health and addiction problems.
• Partnerships to provide transitional clinical support for patients who are discharged from one of our inpatient psychiatric facilities to a supported housing program.
• A long-term residential treatment program for adolescents.

We continue to invest in novel ways to treat mental health and substance use. We are exploring:

• State-of-the art neuromodulation (brain stimulation) approaches to help people with treatment resistant depression and other serious brain health problems.
• The use of psychedelic compounds combined with psychotherapies for treating addictions including alcohol, opioid and tobacco use disorders.
• The development of vaccines, antibody-based strategies and small molecules to counteract opioid use disorders and overdose and the application of those strategies for other unmet medical challenges.
• Strategies to improve access to care and care for adolescents with depression and anxiety.

New facilities and programs present new opportunities to develop our workforce. We hope to build:

• A new workforce of Behavioral Health Support Specialists by training bachelor-level practitioners to deliver evidence-based psychosocial treatments in primary and specialty care and in schools.
• A Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Training Program in collaboration with the School of Nursing.
• A Physician Assistant Training Program in collaboration with MedEx Northwest.
• A Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry (BNNP) Fellowship Program in collaboration with the Department of Neurology.
• A Physician Scientist Training Program focused on clinical and translational research.
• A Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship and a Global Mental Health Fellowship to strengthen our training programs in these areas.