The mission of our Psychiatry Residency Training Program is to train compassionate, and excellent psychiatrists who think like scientists and act like humanitarians and to prepare residents for successful careers of their choosing in clinical practice, scholarship, teaching, and research. Our department provides a stimulating and supportive community and encourages high academic standards in a collaborative and service-minded setting.
Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) is an internationally recognized academic medical center whose missions of patient care, teaching and research are carried out with a strong emphasis on community service and the principle of Cura Personalis — care of the whole person. From its inception, Georgetown University School of Medicine has been committed to the pursuit of knowledge in service of the community and the care for the psychological, spiritual, social, as well as physical well-being of the person.
In the spirit of Cura Personalis, the Department of Psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital has been recognized for expertise and innovation in such clinical areas as psychosomatic medicine, the integration of primary medical and psychiatric care, providing evidence-based care to a wide range of patient populations, health equity and interdisciplinary clinical practice.
Education is a core mission of our department. Faculty and residents participate in the education of medical students at Georgetown University School of Medicine in all four years. Residents have the benefit of working directly with a faculty of renowned researchers, expert clinicians, and award-winning teachers. Our faculty provide residents with education and mentorship and work directly with them in a variety of clinical settings. A broad range of research is conducted in our department. We have a long standing relationship with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) where our CL fellows train. For the last 4 years, one or more of our residents have chosen to join the NIMH training program in their fourth year to learn more about research or pursue a research career.
Psychiatry residents at Georgetown have access to diverse patient populations and health care systems through their work at our affiliate sites including MedStar Washington Hospital Center (MWHC), the Veteran’s Administration Hospital and the National Institute of Mental Health. We have completed the expansion of our program to 9 residents per year, providing access to more educational opportunities at MWHC, including rotations on inpatient, outpatient and consultation-liaison services caring for severely mentally ill and underrepresented patients in an urban community hospital setting. A larger resident body will allow us to further personalize the training of residents interested in different aspects of psychiatry and offer more electives. We are dedicated to recruiting a diverse group of residents of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations and socioeconomic backgrounds. We strongly believe that an inclusive and diverse body of residents adds value to our program and to the care of our patients.
Our residents interact with fellows in our two accredited fellowships in Consultation-Liaison and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and have the option of applying to these fellowships. In addition, Georgetown's location in the nation's capital — an international crossroads and one of the world's most beautiful and culturally exciting cities — certainly makes it unique.
It is my privilege to serve as the Vice Chair for Education at MedStar Behavioral Health and the Psychiatry Residency Training Program Director at Georgetown. I am interested in innovative methods in postgraduate medical education and in integrating the many facets of our field from neuroscience to psychotherapy. My goal is to train well rounded, evidence-based and humanitarian psychiatrists who are as comfortable providing psychotherapy as they are with reading and utilizing the most cutting- edge scientific and clinical literature.
Sincerely,
Mayada Akil, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
Vice Chair for Education
Residency Training Director