By Shriti Patel, MD
EVMS/Sentara Endowed Chair for Academic Leadership Advancement in Psychiatry
Director of the Psychiatry Residency Program
Associate Professor in Psychiatry
Eastern Virginia Medical School
This year at the AADPRT (American Association for Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training) Annual Meeting in Austin, TX, Eastern Virginia Medical School was well represented. In attendance was Psychiatry Residency Program Director Dr. Shriti Patel, Associate Program Director Dr. Kelsey Johnson, Child and Adolescent Associate Program Director Dr. Mariam Rahmani, PGY2 Dr. Janelle Milstead, PGY2 Dr. Lorrie Sartore, EVMS Psychiatry Program Specialist Alexis Savage, and EVMS Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Specialist Dr. Melody Johnson.
The theme of the meeting was “Our time is now, AADPRT changing psychiatric residency training.” The conference sessions encouraged “stimulating discussions, to integrate joy and spontaneity in the learning process, and to think outside the box as we continue to make psychiatry training more and more relevant for future generations of trainees and patients.”
Every year, AADPRT offers the opportunity for expert teaching and community engagement for residency program leadership, which includes educational programs and consultation for training directors and program administrators. A plenary talk by Dr. Jeffrey Katzman highlighted the current impact of loneliness on the resident workforce and offered creative techniques, such as the use of improvisation exercises to facilitate social connections and enhance resilience. Another Plenary presentation by Dr. Donna Sudak identified the value of psychotherapy in psychiatric training, offering effective models, including the future use of artificial intelligence in practicing well-rounded psychiatric care.
The AADPRT workshops traditionally offer a wide selection of engaging sessions that allow program directors, associate program directors, and even chief residents to consider ways to improve the training experience and ultimately enhance patient care in psychiatry. This year, Dr. Patel and Dr. Johnson facilitated a workshop titled “Silver and Superb: Transforming Trainee Ageism into Appreciation.” They collaborated with geriatric psychiatrists across the nation to present and raise awareness about age discrimination in the healthcare system, including among physicians and healthcare teams. This session allowed training directors to practice incorporating discussions about implicit and explicit bias in resident/fellow supervision, and highlighted the opportunity to utilize intergenerational exposure between trainees and older patients as a training tool to combat ageism.
We look forward to hearing Dr. Patel speak on ageism in geriatric mental health care at our PSV 2024 Annual Fall Meeting in October 4-5, 2024.
