As a Geriatric Psychiatry Fellow at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, you experience a comprehensive, one-year program, integrated with the Department of Psychiatry yet operating independently as a subspecialty division. We are accredited by the American Council for Graduate Education and exceed recommendations from the Curriculum Committee of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. As a result, our fellowship prepares you for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology’s (ABPN) recently approved Examination for Added Qualification in Geriatric Psychiatry.
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Curriculum
Our program consists of a comprehensive didactic curriculum, inpatient and outpatient rotations in specialized geriatric psychiatry units, nursing home and senior housing consultation-liaison experiences, training in neurobehavior and movement disorders, a home-visitation program, electroconvulsive therapy elective, and research opportunities in both inpatient and outpatient treatments.
Didactic Coursework
Our faculty leads a weekly core lecture in geriatric psychiatry that includes lessons on psychiatric, functional, psychosocial, and family assessments; medical evaluation; physiological, cognitive, and central nervous system changes; competency epidemiology of late-life disorders; mood disorders; depression; anxiety; bereavement delusional disorder; sleep disorders in neuropsychiatric syndromes; iatrogenic disorders; drug and alcohol abuse; elder abuse; sexuality; electroconvulsive treatment; neuroimaging; Medicare and Medicaid; and evaluation as well as medical and behavioral management of dementia. We also hold a weekly outpatient case conference to collaborate on new patients and those who are clinically complex.
On a bimonthly basis, you participate in a journal club and a Board Review Course to prepare for the American Board of Psychology and Neurology subspecialty exam. You may also choose to attend our Intensive Update with Board Review in Geriatric and Palliative Medicine conference, co-sponsored each year with the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
We provide a full schedule of additional activities in general psychiatry, including Grand Rounds.
Inpatient Rotation
In this rotation, you function as the Assistant Service Chief of our 15- to 16-bed inpatient Geriatric Psychiatry service, managing its day-to-day operations. You gain experience as an administrator, as a supervisor of junior trainees, and as a researcher developing inpatient protocols. You come in contact with many geropsychiatry inpatients and are directly responsible for supervising six to eight cases, possibly carrying some of your own cases as well.
You report to the Unit Chief and collaborate with staff, students of the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel psychiatry residents, and graduate students in psychology. The unit includes a full-time attending psychiatrist and psychologist, specialized nurses, a social worker, and occupational therapists, working together in a relaxed and collegial environment. You also see outpatients during this rotation, and consult once or twice each month at our affiliate, Jewish Home Lifecare, an extended care teaching facility and nursing home in upper Manhattan.
Depending on your specific interests and needs, we can arrange additional supervision to focus more intensively on certain clinical, administrative, or group process issues.
Outpatient Rotation
With nearly 400 visits a month, our Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic serves a large, ethnically diverse population of New York City seniors. As a fellow, you are a member of our multidisciplinary team consisting of two attending geriatric psychiatrists, four Beth Israel psychiatric residents, and two geriatric psychiatry social workers. The Clinic Director supervises you in diagnostic and treatment issues. You may have supervision for group therapy.
You gain expertise in comprehensive psychiatric evaluation of ambulatory geriatric patients, psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacologic treatment of geriatric outpatients, and leading group therapy with elderly patients living in the community. You also hone your administrative competence.
You can expect a vivid and varied clinical experience in the diagnosis and treatment of mood, anxiety, cognitive, and psychotic disorders in elderly outpatients.
Nursing Home Consultation-Liaison
At Jewish Home Lifecare, our division manages consultations on one of the floors. As a fellow, you provide psychiatric consultation to residents and act as a liaison with their families and staff. You are part of a multidisciplinary team that includes an internist with geriatric subspecialty training. These activities are essential components of your geropsychiatry training.
Neurobehavior Center
Our free-standing Neurobehavior Center specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric problems that are secondary to neurological disorders. Many of the patients are elderly. You may attend conferences and teaching rounds or set up an elective at the Neurobehavior Center Clinic.
Consultations, Home Visits, and Elective
Part of your training will involve consultations on medical units and at several clinics near the hospital. Through these experiences you consult with colleagues in a primarily medical setting rather than a psychiatric one. This provides you both didactic and clinical training in functional assessment, observing the altered signs and symptoms of physical illness, and identifying medical conditions and iatrogenic factors that can alter mental status and behavior.
Another aspect of training is home visits. Making medical house calls, you evaluate homebound geriatric patients in association with a community agency.
You can also elect to spend one month gaining expertise in our active electroconvulsive therapy program.
Benefits
We provide a generous fellowship package. The stipend for next year is yet to be determined, but should be around $71,000. We also furnish malpractice coverage, health insurance, dental, optical, and hearing aid benefits. You may choose to contribute to a tax-deferred annuity as well. We also offer reduced-cost housing options.
We are committed to maintaining a pleasant and collegial working environment, and take your input seriously. We offer many opportunities for you to socialize and collaborate, both within the department and with other medical colleagues.
To apply for a fellowship with us, send your curriculum vitae and two letters of reference with cover letter to:
Lea K. Marin, M.D., M.P.H. (she/her)
Chief, Geriatric Psychiatry – Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Center
Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program – Mount Sinai Beth Israel
Wellness Champion – Mount Sinai Department of Psychiatry
Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Center
45 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
Lea.Marin@mssm.edu