PGY-5 Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship Program

The Boston Medical Center / VA Boston Healthcare System Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship is a one-year (PGY 5) Fellowship program that was originally accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in 1997. Since the program’s inception, we have had continued ACGME accreditation due to our strong training experiences and outstanding faculty at each training site. The Fellowship provides psychiatric physicians with advanced training in the recognition, diagnosis, and treatment for persons with substance use disorders (SUD) and co-occurring mental health disorders (COD). The program is funded for six PGY 5 Fellows.

The primary training site is at the VA Boston Healthcare System Jamaica Plain Campus, where Fellows gain extensive experience using methadone and buprenorphine in treatment of patients with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and COD. An Opioid Rapid Access Clinic provides an opportunity to manage OUDs in an acute setting while the long-term management of OUD patients takes place in a continuity clinic. The continuity clinic also provides Fellows a full range of patients with other substance use disorders and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. A comprehensive series of didactic presentations that draws upon experts in the field rounds out the experience at the Jamaica Plain campus. Those didactics are complemented by a Journal Club that offers the Fellows a collegial setting to explore the extant literature on SUD.

Expert training at other renowned tertiary care facilities in the greater Boston area ensures that graduates are not just clinically competent and knowledgeable. Graduates routinely state by the end of their training, they are comfortable in treating complex presentations that entail all aspects of addiction treatment, while working within complex systems of care. Clinical rotations combined with comprehensive curricula promote broad expertise and an informed perspective to pursue a career in Addiction Psychiatry. Curricula and interactive learning includes knowledge of history of substance use disorders, sociological and public policy aspects of addictions, as well as roles of mutual-support groups, spirituality, and community-reinforcement aspects of treatment of the addictions.

To complement the outpatient training experiences at VA Jamaica Plain, Fellows also rotate through Boston Medical Center (addiction medicine consultation, adolescent dual-diagnosis services, and outpatient adult Addiction Psychiatry), Bedford VA (partial hospitalization program and geriatric addiction treatment), and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (addiction consultation services, services for pregnant women, and management of complex inpatient detoxification).

Opportunities to participate in research and quality improvement projects are available at all of the primary rotation sites. Fellows are provided with substantial elective time and are encouraged to pursue scholarly interests, for which a wide variety of mentors are available.