Outpatient Psychiatry

This 12-month continuous experience forms the core of your third-year residency training. You will conduct intake evaluations and regular follow-up appointments, receiving direct supervision from faculty to help you refine your interviewing and diagnostic skills. Patients come from a diverse adult population, including veterans and college students.

Among your duties, you will:

• diagnose and manage patients with Axis I and Axis II disorders common to outpatient settings
• document patients’ information accurately for the records systems at each site where you work
• establish working relationships with non-medical primary therapists
• present cases at multidisciplinary meetings
• educate patients and their families about treatment goals, the nature of the illness and their roles in the therapeutic process
  

The primary site for the outpatient rotation is the Erie County Medical Center, which includes specialized OCD, first episode psychosis and mood disorder clinics. You will spend one-half day per week at a community clinic focusing on motivational interviewing techniques.

In addition, you will spend four to eight hours per week at alternate sites, including the Buffalo VA Medical Center and Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Outpatient Psychiatry Clinics in order to see a more diverse patient population.

Caring for patients at a variety of sites shows you how assessment and treatment work in different health care systems and gives you experience with patients from many distinct populations. Faculty with expertise in areas such as schizophrenia, personality disorders, PTSD and psychopharmacology serve as supervisors at all locations.

You also have weekly two-hour supervised individual psychotherapy sessions and at least one additional hour of supervision at each alternate site where you treat patients. Supervisors will join you for all initial patient visits as well as many follow-up visits.

This rotation includes a seminar in psychopharmacology,  psychodynamic psychotherapy with group supervision, and a seminar in cognitive behavioral therapy with didactics and group supervision.

PGY-3

12 months

The average caseload at Buffalo General is 40 to 50 patients, including patients enrolled in continuing day treatment. Alternate sites have varying caseloads in accordance with their distinct needs and resources: You will see 15 to 25 patients at ECMC, 20 to 30 at the Buffalo VA and 20 to 25 at the UB and Buffalo State Counseling Centers.

You will treat a range of major psychiatric disorders typically seen in the outpatient setting, such as psychotic, mood, anxiety, substance use, post-traumatic stress and personality disorders.