Our History and Mission
The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Harvard Psychiatry Residency Training Program provides residents with strong clinical training in all areas of psychiatry and robust opportunities for academic exploration and professional development. BIDMC has a distinguished history of training leaders in psychiatry for the past several decades, having hosted its own residency program before acting as a core institution of the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program from 1994-2020. In June of 2017, the first PGY1 class for the new BIDMC-Harvard program began their work in our program. We are excited for the opportunity to continue to utilize our clinical and academic strengths to produce the next generation of doctors at the forefront of psychiatry.
We believe that psychiatrists, regardless of area of practice, should be fluent in both traditional and emerging models of mental illness. We welcome the neuroscience that is currently shaping new paradigms and will lead psychiatry into the future, and believe that the power and potential of human connection in which psychiatry's origins lie remains central to all treatment. All residents will be exposed to patients from the entire spectrum of those with mental illness, whether in relation to age, ethnicity, culture, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic means, or other important aspects of identity and experience. They will work in multidisciplinary teams with other mental health specialties in settings that represent the gamut of treatment options currently available to those with mental illness, including inpatient, outpatient, partial-hospital, emergency department, inpatient consultation, and collaborative care, and they will have experience in both private and public systems.
The residency is keenly aware of the disparities that have shaped a psychiatric work force that has been historically been lacking in diversity, from the point of view of race, ethnicity, class background, and other important aspects of identity and experience. We are dedicated to creating a more diverse and inclusive residency, and have instituted a number of programs to increase topportunities for applicants from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds.
