The University of Arizona College of Medicine Geropsychiatry Fellowship Program is a one-year, full time fully accredited training program offered by UArizona COM-T Department of Psychiatry in conjunction with the Southern Arizona Veterans Administration HealthCare System in Tucson, AZ.
This program offers a variety of rich clinical experiences in two large health care systems, plus a robust and comprehensive didactic curriculum.
The Geriatric psychiatry fellow will see and evaluate older patients with delirium, depression, or other acute psychiatric emergencies on the medical surgical floors of the hospital and provide skilled guidance in their management to the hospitalist team. The Geriatric psychiatry fellow will learn the assessment and recognition of a variety of Neuropsychiatric conditions in the hospital as well as in the outpatient setting. Fellows will have a panel of outpatients in three settings as well as experience with specialized inpatient Geropsychiatry Units. Fellows will have experience in Long Term care, Geriatric medicine, and in a specialized dementia treatment center. This will prepare the graduates for a variety of careers in Geriatric Psychiatry. They will also develop experience in the clinical assessment of decisional capacity, diagnosis and management of dementing disorders, and legal issues of abuse, neglect and need for guardianship. Fellows will also be active participants in the teaching programs of the Department of Psychiatry for residents, medical students, and allied professionals. They will partake in the didactic curriculum and will also be guided in an independent study project.
- Diagnosis and management of dementing disorders
- Diagnosis and management of acute delirium
- Hospital consultations to medicine and surgery units
- Emergency evaluation of older adults
- Management of mood, anxiety, substance use, and psychotic disorders in older adults
- Understanding medical issues in aging and the contribution of those issues to psychiatric care
- Working in consultation with primary and long term care providers
- Understanding role of Neuroimaging and laboratory testing in assessment and treatment
- Understanding approach to end of life issues and palliative care
- Evaluating decisional capacity, testifying in competency hearings, assessing for elder abuse
- Using ECT as a treatment methodology
- Age-specific approach to psychopharmacology
Requirements
- Adult Psychiatry Residency Program Certificate
- License to practice medicine in the State of Arizona
- Three (3) letters of recommendation
- Personal Statement
- Must be able to meet background checks and drug tests required by participating sites