Harvard South Shore

The core mission of HSS is to develop psychiatric leaders who possess state-of-the-art skills in biopsychosocial assessment and evidence-based, integrated pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. HSS dedicates substantial curriculum time and faculty supervision to guide residents in developing these competencies. Additional strengths include the diversity of our patient population and continuity of care of treatment programs available. The rotations through our Harvard-affiliated venues including private, state, and federal facilities offer our residents exposure to a broad spectrum of patients with varying diagnostic and demographic characteristics. In addition the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) component provides an opportunity for residents to see patients long-term and to follow them from their acute inpatient illness through their outpatient rehabilitation and follow-up.

The collaboration among HSS hospitals provides breadth and depth of exposure to clinical populations that are central to 21st century psychiatry. These include serious mental illness, trauma, addictions, and issues in aging and the medical-psychiatric interface. Exposure to researchers and clinical supervisors with expertise in these areas enhances competency development with these populations.

HSS residents train in a variety of settings including private, VA, and state facilities, in both fee-for-service and staff model systems. Experiences range from community-based clinics to integrated, high-tech systems supported by cross-institutional electronic medical record systems. Program graduates will thus be prepared for careers that can navigate a wide array of healthcare settings that have varied missions and respond to diverse incentives.

In addition, every Wednesday is HSS’s didactic day. Our well developed core didactics on the central clinical skills of assessment, psychosocial treatment, psychopharmacology, and their basic neuroscience and psychosocial underpinnings provide small-group instruction in the clinical and theoretical bases of 21st century psychiatry.

Subspecialty seminars and elective rotations offer the opportunity for in-depth development of specialty areas of expertise for each resident. HSS training has sufficient flexibility to provide residents with the capacity to develop specialty foci in their particular clinical areas of interest. Residents have wide unique academic opportunities in many Harvard University programs of excellence, as well as mentored career development opportunities in research, healthcare organizational leadership, and teaching as part of the core HSS Program. Foci of recent residents have ranged from serious mental illness to psychosomatic medicine to evidence-based psychotherapy to basic research in neurobiology. The PGY-IV year provides substantial time for elective activities to develop a professional focus. For those interested in research, Harvard Medical School affiliation provides an academically oriented core staff, as well as access to a diversity of academic and professional resources throughout the wider Harvard system.

The VA Boston Healthcare System, our sponsoring institution and a major clinical teaching institution for Harvard Medical School, provides a stable and competitive financial base for resident and faculty salaries and a well integrated and expanding healthcare delivery system that includes a mature electronic medical record system, a diverse patient population with rapidly increasing numbers of women, and a full spectrum of acute, step-down, and outpatient services that serve as training sites.

The HSS consortium of affiliated healthcare systems expands clinical training to a wide range of populations and healthcare settings, including other major teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School and public sector facilities funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.

HSS residents themselves represent a key resource for other residents, in terms of clinical instruction, mentoring, professional modeling, and support during this busy stage of career and personal development.