Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Residency

About the Program

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency offers a two-year program of specialized training in child and adolescent psychiatry for nine residents per year. Residents join staff in providing the best possible comprehensive care for children, adolescents and their families.

Our Teaching Approach

Child and adolescent psychiatry training at Mass General and McLean Hospital is based on the philosophy that no single conceptual framework is sufficient to understand human behavior. Residents are challenged to understand clinical issues in depth and to attempt formulations that integrate conceptual models. To that end, residents are taught to approach patients and their families from a developmental perspective using five clinical orientations:

• Psychodynamic
• Psychosocial
• Biological
• Behavioral
• Cognitive

Our program recognizes that adequate training for the current and future practice of child and adolescent psychiatry is, of necessity, demanding. Beyond attaining essential knowledge, skills and attitudes, residents need to develop a sense of professional identity that includes being a secure physician, an advocate for children, a sensitive therapist and a thoughtful participant or consultant within team structures.

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency works to produce leaders in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. During this unique, two-year program, residents learn through a variety of methods, including seminars, clinical conferences, individual and group supervision and clinical rounds. The residency curriculum is composed of both core clinical and educational rotations and electives chosen to foster each resident's individual interests. Most of the training in the program occurs within Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital Clinical Services, but residents also have the opportunity to draw on the programs and resources at a variety of affiliated institutions in Massachusetts. No matter what path a resident chooses, the relationships between residents and faculty remain highly interactive.

Combined Adult-Child & Adolescent Track

The Mass General/McLean Residency also offers two positions each year for a fourth-year medical student to match for a combined program including eight months of pediatrics in the PGY 1 year at Mass General, a two-year general psychiatry residency at Mass General and McLean Hospital (with the option to complete a third year of adult training) and automatic acceptance into the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency.

More information about the Combined Adult-Child & Adolescent Program is available on the McLean Hospital website.

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Curriculum

The goal of the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital curriculum is to give our residents a broad range of theoretical frameworks and practical clinical skills that they can bring to their work with patients. Training methods include formal seminars, clinical conferences, individual and group supervision and rounds on each rotation. With the exception of elective time, all residents have the same core clinical and educational rotations.

The Mass General/McLean program is unique in offering a robust two-year outpatient experience. This allows our residents to develop long-term treatment relationships with a core group of patients, to see the impact of their treatments over time and to watch the process of development unfold.

Year 1

Residents spend half of their time during the first year in the outpatient clinic seeing patients and meeting with a diverse group of supervisors. Residents have weekly supervision with the training director to guide them in the treatment of their patients from a variety of clinical perspectives. Every first-year resident is assigned a number of supervisors to work with throughout the year:

• Two individual long-term therapy supervisors
• A family therapy supervisor
• A cognitive behavioral therapy supervisor
• A psychopharmacology supervisor

Year 1 Blocks

Beyond the outpatient continuity clinic, the first year is otherwise divided into two six-month blocks:

• Consultation to Pediatrics: Fellows work closely with attendings on the consult service seeing inpatients on the pediatrics services at Mass General for Children
• Consultation to Community Systems of Care: Residents work with specialized supervisors to consult to a variety of community care systems. These include the Boston Juvenile Courts, a variety of school settings and school-based treatment and prevention programs (including the McLean-based Partnerships in Education and Resilience Program) and to the Acute Psychiatry Service at Mass General

In addition, residents also have two months of partial elective time during this block to pursue specialized interests.

Year 2

During the second year, residents continue seeing patients in the outpatient clinic. Multidisciplinary supervision in a variety of treatment modalities continues in this year.

Year 2 Blocks

The time outside of outpatient services is divided into three four-month blocks:

• Block 1 - Franciscan Children’s Hospital: Residents rotate on the inpatient psychiatric unit of Franciscan Children’s Hospital, which is affiliated with McLean Hospital and treats children across a broad spectrum of ages and diagnoses. During this rotation residents serve as leaders of a multidisciplinary treatment team
• Block 2 - McLean Adolescent Acute Residential Treatment Program: Residents rotate in the unlocked, residential treatment program. This program's multidisciplinary treatment approach often employs elements of family therapy, individual therapy, group therapy, dialectical-behavioral therapy and medication management. The length of stay in this program tends to be longer than in an inpatient unit, allowing for a deeper level of engagement with patients and families
• Block 3 - Electives and Chief Residency: Because a high percentage of our residents continue on to leadership positions in a variety of settings, we believe that some administrative and educational experience during training is important. Residents generally draw on the comprehensive resources of the Mass General and McLean systems for their electives, though arrangements can be made to accommodate experiences in external systems as well. Residents are given wide latitude about how to spend their elective time.
  See clinical elective options

  • Programs specializing in community psychiatry
  • Global psychiatry work
  • The interface between technology and psychiatry
  • Psychiatry and the media
  • Autism spectrum disorders
  • Mood and anxiety disorders
  • Burns and trauma
  • Forensics
  • Eating disorders
  • Psychodynamic psychotherapy
  • Medically ill children and family therapy
  • Dialectical behavioral therapy
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Many residents choose to pursue research or education-related projects either during their elective time or throughout their residency.

Training Sites

Residents spend most of the two training years on the Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital Clinical Services, but residents may also select opportunities for elective experiences at a number of affiliated institutions around Boston and Massachusetts. At all locations, residents and faculty are highly interactive, working with and learning from one another.

View training sites

Munya Hayek, MD
Associate Program Director, McLean Hospital

The faculty play a fundamental role in the residency program, as faculty members are responsible for the comprehensive professional development of residents. Most primary faculty members have appointments at Mass General or McLean Hospital. A large number of additional clinicians and researchers are available as teachers from affiliated institutions, Harvard University and institutions throughout metropolitan Boston.

How to Apply

Mass General offers positions for nine residents in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency each year and two positions in the Combined Adult-Child & Adolescent Track through the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP).

Eligibility

• Psychiatry residents may apply to the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency after July of their PGY 3 year for acceptance into the program for their PGY 4 year or after July of their PGY 4 year for acceptance in their PGY 5 year
• All entering residents must have completed an internship and at least two years of general psychiatry residency

Residents entering the forthcoming July must participate in the NRMP Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Specialty Match.

Timeline

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis beginning in the spring.

• The preferred deadline for receipt of completed applicant files is September 30th
• Interviews are conducted from September through November
• Formal offers for the following July are determined by the NRMP

Application Materials

Each applicant must submit the following materials through the Electronic Residency Application Service^® (ERAS).

Priority documentation:

• Brief autobiographical statement and summary of career goals
• Curriculum vitae (CV)
• Verification of training form, completed and signed by training director, indicating completion of training requirements in general psychiatry

Additional documentation:

• Original medical school transcript
• Letter of recommendation from medical school dean
  • Letter should state the hospital and specialty of internship
  • If separate from residency, please also include a letter of recommendation from the training director documenting at least four months of primary care medicine, internal medicine or pediatrics and two months (full-time equivalent) of neurology
• Letter of recommendation from the training director of the adult psychiatry program, including an overall evaluation of performance (applicants must have completed two years of adult training to apply for child and adolescent training)
• Two additional letters of recommendation, particularly from people who are familiar with your personal, clinical and academic qualifications

Note: If you already have a full Massachusetts medical license, a MA narcotics license, or a DEA certificate, please attach copies of your most recent application and wallet-size license.

A note on letters of recommendation:

• All letters should be originals
• All letters and application materials should be addressed to: David Rubin, MD, Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program

Interviews

We make every effort to review each and every completed applicant file. After an initial screening of your application, qualified applicants will be invited for interviews with faculty members at Mass General and McLean Hospital. These interviews are usually held on Thursdays or Fridays starting in September.

Applicants will meet with the training director and a least three members of the Selection Committee. We encourage you to express any potential areas of clinical or academic interest, so some interviews may be tailored to your interest.

Combined Adult-Child & Adolescent Track

The Mass General/McLean Residency has two positions in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) for a fourth-year medical student to match for a combined program in pediatric psychiatry and general psychiatry (with the option to complete a third year of adult training).

Applications for this position should be addressed to: Felicia Smith, MD, Director of the Mass General/McLean Hospital General Residency Training Program.

More information about the Combined Adult-Child & Adolescent Program is available on the McLean Hospital website.

Learn more