NYC Health + Hospitals/NYU Public Psychiatry Leadership Program

Public or Community Psychiatry is the subspecialty that embraces the social mission of medicine. It focuses on the care of people with complex mental health and substance use needs receiving services that are typically publicly funded. It aims to mitigate the impact of social determinants of health, mental illness and substance use problems on healthcare access, treatment and outcomes.

You must have

• Certificate of graduation from an accredited psychiatry residency training program
• Current, valid license registration certificate for NY State
• Proof of current employment in a public mental health setting in New York City or proof of future employment with a projected stated date on or before August 1st
• Written approval of your participations from your employer

Proof of employment is not needed at the time of application. Employment may be part or full time. However, formal acceptance into the program will be contingent upon an employment start date by Sept 1, 2022, at the latest, as well as your employer’s written approval of your participation in the program.

In addition to meeting the basic eligibility criteria listed below, we think you would be an excellent fit for the program if:

• You are committed to working with people with serious mental illness and/or who are part of underserved populations
• You notice the myriad shortcomings of our current systems of care, and you want to do something about the problems you view as solvable.
• You are curious about resource allocation and fiscal management of organizations and how you can use these concepts to drive change

• One half day each week starting August through June of the following year, you will participate in learning that is either didactic or experiential.
• By the end of the academic year, you will also complete at least one project connected to your place of employment for which you will receive mentorship and supervision through the program.
• In addition, you will meet with an assigned mentor for at least one hour every other week for supervision. Topics of supervision will include general guidance and career mentorship as well as discussion of progress and challenges in your project on a deeper level.

Evidence shows that many well-meaning, thoughtful, empathic individuals burn out within their first few years of working in a public health setting. Delivering mental health care in community settings is challenging – many organizations do not rise to the level of their goals; instead, they fall to the level of their systems. We believe this “burn-out,” is the result of a design flaw in the system rather than the result of an individual’s shortcomings. It should be possible to have a career in public service without making grave personal sacrifices or at the cost of your own well-being.

Our program offers both additional training as well as formal mentorship with a mid-career psychiatrist with whom you’ll connect for an hour at least every other week as well as connections with the other psychiatrists in the program (both participants and faculty) who are going through similar experiences to provide a supportive peer network of colleagues.

• You can simultaneously work full time earning an attending salary.
• You will be connected to the largest public health care system in the country that provides comprehensive mental health services and will have access to experiences that come along with that unique position.
• You will be able to apply what you learn in this program at your job right away.
• You will be able to select a special project based on an issue you want to address at your work site and earn credit towards completing the program and receiving guidance.
• You will learn about business planning, public policy and legal aspects of mental health care – essential knowledge for leaders who are committed to a recovery oriented, systems based approach to delivery of mental health and substance use care in New York City.
• You will participate in numerous on site-visits to specialized programs in the city so that your learning is experiential.

Over the years as more public psychiatry training programs have started across the US, a core curriculum of important topics has evolved. We have structured our content using those topics as a guide and in line with the content covered on the certification exam in Public and Community Psychiatry offered by The American Association for Community Psychiatry (AACP) in collaboration with APA. The exam is offered through the APA Learning Center and if you are interested to know, more details about the creation of the exam can be found here: https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.11b2

As part of the NYC Public Psychiatry Leadership Program, you will be offered membership to the AACP as well as the materials necessary for the certification exam. In addition, you will receive an allowance to participate in the annual APA-IPS conference, which takes place in October every year.

Our simple application process is entirely online. Please click here to apply. Interviews will be scheduled once your completed application is reviewed and verified.