Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences

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Geriatric Psychiatry

Program Overview

This is a one-year fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry which is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Features 

• Two Geriatric Psychiatry fellowship positions are available beginning July 1st.


• Our program prepares our fellows to become outstanding geriatric psychiatrists who enter hospital and/or private practices throughout the country. Some of our graduates have opted to continue their academic careers and have taken on leadership roles in geriatric psychiatry training programs in their institutions.


• Our fellowship provides comprehensive clinical training with rotations through a variety of clinical settings and subspecialties serving the elderly population of a large urban center in the United States.


• Fellows rotate through an acute inpatient service, an outpatient continuity clinic, a long-term care facility, consultation-liaison, and a Home-based primary care service.


• Our fellows are encouraged to collaborate in ongoing research at the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University under supervision of qualified mentors.

Program Description

This fellowship offers excellent clinical, educational, and research opportunities and aims to produce geriatric psychiatrists who will become specialists in their field. With this goal in mind, fellows obtain training in the various domains of Geriatric Psychiatry under the guidance of well-trained and dedicated faculty.

Program Leadership

Dr. Marie DeWitt is the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program Director at Wayne State University and Director of  Acute Psychiatric Services as the John D Dingell VA Medical Center.  She attended undergraduate and medical school as part of Inteflex at the University of Michigan.  She completed her residency at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and her fellowship at Emory School of Medicine's geriatric campus in Atlanta.  Immediately after completing fellowship, Dr. DeWitt began working at the Atlanta VA where she was the primary provider of ECT and an inpatient attending for geriatric Veterans.  She then transferred to the Houston VA where she provided mental health care for older Veterans in the primary care clinic and the Community Living Center, before leading the ECT service.  While at the Houston VA, she also laid the groundwork for a Geriatric Mental Health continuum of care and collaborated with the Internal Medicine service to develop a Delirium Awareness and Prevention Program.  Academically, Dr. DeWitt enjoys teaching and has been involved in the clinical and didactic educational experiences of psychiatry fellows, geriatric medicine fellows, psychiatry residents, pharmacy residents, psychology interns and post-docs, medical students, and PA residents and students.  Her areas of interest include delirium, ECT, resident and fellow training, health care delivery to older adults, and relationships between medical and psychiatric conditions, and the social implications of an aging population.

Faculty
A multidisciplinary faculty consisting of clinical and pre-clinical researchers, clinicians, and educators provide hands-on supervision and include:

• Board-certified Geriatric Psychiatrists


• Board-certified Geriatricians


• Board-certified Neurologists


• Nationally recognized Gerontologists


• Doctoral level Psychologists


• Board-certified Neuropsychologists


• Board-certified Physiatrists


• Specialists in Pain Medicine and Palliative Care

Facilities
All the major clinical rotations are based at the Detroit Medical Center (<abbr title="Detroit Medical Center">DMC</abbr>) and its affiliated institutions:

• John D. Dingell VA Medical Center - a state of the art teaching hospital located in the heart of the <abbr title="Detroit Medical Center">DMC</abbr>


• Detroit Receiving Hospital - the major teaching site of the <abbr title="Detroit Medical Center">DMC</abbr> and Wayne State University School of Medicine


• Harper University Hospital - houses the renowned Karmanos Cancer Institute and the Senior Memory Evaluation Center within the <abbr title="Detroit Medical Center">DMC</abbr>


• Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan - one of the largest rehabilitation hospitals in the nation, located in the <abbr title="Detroit Medical Center">DMC</abbr>


• Boulevard Temple Nursing Home - an extended care facility serviced by the department of Geriatric Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit


• The Institute of Gerontology - on the campus of Wayne State University is recognized as one of the top centers for gerontology research nationwide

Clinical Rotations

• Three month inpatient rotation at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in 3 one-month blocks. Fellows spend 3 half-days on the inpatient unit as senior residents with supervisory and clinical responsibility akin to a junior attending for rotating general psychiatry residents


• Nine month placement at a Long-term care facility (two half-days a week), where fellows work in close collaboration with a Geriatric Medicine multidisciplinary team


• Nine month placement on a Home-based primary care team (one half-day a week)


• Year-round outpatient continuity clinic at the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center, one half-day a week serving seniors.


• Year-round part-time rotations in Geriatric Medicine, Geriatric Neurology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Palliative Medicine, Geriatric Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, substance abuse disorders in the elderly, and ECT

Didactic Curriculum

Our didactic program provides a comprehensive and broad review of the essential elements of Geriatric Psychiatry and helps prepare our graduates for the subspecialty examination in Geriatric Psychiatry conducted by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology leading to Board Certification in Geriatric Psychiatry. Our syllabus includes the following lectures and seminars:

• Introductory course in the normal and biological aspects of aging


• Basic and advanced aspects of geriatric psychopharmacology


• Assessment and treatment of mental disorders in the elderly


• Introduction to psychotherapy in the elderly and its practical application in a life-stage context


• Impact of psychiatric illness on care givers


• Psychiatric aspects of grief and loss in the elderly


• Elder abuse; legal and ethical issues in the elderly


• Administrative aspects of psychiatric care in the elderly


• Year-long continuing research seminar


• Monthly journal club where fellows learn critical reading and appraisal of the current literature in geriatric psychiatry


• Clinical case conferences that facilitate clinical discussion in a spirit of inquiry and scholarship and offer guidance to residents in diagnosis, management, and treatment issues in their patients.

Entrance Requirements

• Successful completion of an ACGME accredited residency in General (Adult) Psychiatry


• USMLE (or COMLEX) I, II and III


• Eligible for permanent licensure in Michigan

Requests for an application and further information should be directed to the fellowship program director or the program coordinator.