Residency Patient Care

A thorough residency experience depends on exposure to patients in a wide variety of settings and with a broad range of diagnoses. Read below for information about our different clinical sites.

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Outpatient Care

Outpatient Care

The Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute and Clinics (WisPIC) is a free-standing UW clinic 4 miles from UW Hospital. It is the home of the Department of Psychiatry, including its clinical, research, and education missions.

Residents begin their continuity clinics in the PGY2 year, with the opportunity to follow a robust caseload of patients with diverse diagnoses and treatment plans for up to 3 years.

WisPIC is the central site of psychotherapy training in the program. PGY2 residents begin with the fundamentals of psychotherapy and exposure to basic cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic principles. PGY3 residents develop more advanced skills, including the treatment of patients with personality disorders, marital-family therapy and brief psychotherapy. PGY4 residents have the opportunity to participate in group psychotherapy.

Residents also have a three-year long continuity clinic at the VA providing care to veterans.

Community Psychiatry

Community Psychiatry

Access Community Health is a not-for-profit community health center that provides medical, mental health, and dental care for Dane and Iowa County residents whose access to care is limited by financial, language, and cultural barriers. Access emphasizes an integrated treatment model for working with persons with comorbid medical and mental health issues. The staff includes primary care physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, psychologists, pharmacists, dentists, and a part-time psychiatrist.

Access and the VA are the primary site of community psychiatry training for residents. PGY3 residents spend half a day per week for 3 months at Access. They become integral members of treatment teams. Residents also rotate through the VA Community Psychiatry Clinic for half a day per week for 3 months.

Each year a PGY4 resident will have the opportunity to apply for our new Community Psychiatry track, which includes an intensive outpatient experience at the Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT), recognized internationally as the site where the ACT model was developed.

Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Residents join the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) clinic at WisPIC during their PGY2 year, affording them early exposure to this critical field, and allowing them more opportunity to decide on whether or not they would like to pursue a career in CAP. Residents continue to see their CAP patients even after the end of the PGY2 year, so that they can have a longitudinal experience for up to 3 years. Residents work closely with CAP fellows who also rotate in this clinic.

Inpatient Psychiatry

Inpatient Psychiatry

Residents hone their acute psychiatric skills in three settings:

University Hospital and Madison VA Hospital sites allow residents to gain experience in electroconvulsive therapy. A PGY3 rotation in Quality Improvement is based on these units, too, as are senior inpatient electives.

Geriatric Psychiatry

Geriatric Psychiatry

PGY2 residents spend 1/2 day per week for 6 months at the Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic at WisPIC. This provides them with a comprehensive overview of the the most common issues affecting older adults, including depression, anxiety and dementia.

PGY3 residents spend two half-days per week for 5 weeks at the VA Geriatric Research Education & Clinical Center (GRECC) with our Geriatric Psychiatry fellowship director.

Additional experience is available as electives at WisPIC or at Mendota Mental Health Institute.

Addiction Psychiatry

Addiction Psychiatry

The Madison VA Hospital is home to comprehensive addictions services. PGY2 residents participate in outpatient addiction evaluations, inpatient addiction consults and an addictions therapy group. All residents receive buprenorphine training approximately every other year.

Emergency Psychiatry

Emergency Psychiatry

PGY2 residents spend 1/2 day per week for 3 months on the Consultation-Liaison service; they also rotate in the UW and VA Emergency Departments. PGY1 residents see emergency patients when on night float, and PGY2-4 residents see emergency patients when on call. In addition, PGY3 residents see patients in the UW ED as part of their Consultation-Liaison rotation.

Forensic Psychiatry

Forensic Psychiatry

PGY3 residents rotate at Mendota Mental Health Institute, one of two state hospitals in Wisconsin. You will gain experience in forensic evaluations, treatment to competency, court-ordered psychological evaluations (as part of the involuntary commitment process) and decisional capacity evaluations.

Neurology & Neuropsychology

Neurology & Neuropsychology

As part of our commitment to providing residents with outpatient training experiences, we have developed a unique Neurology & Neuropsychology rotation for PGY3 and PGY4 residents that includes:

  • General outpatient neurology at University Hospital
  • Movement disorder clinic at University Hospital
  • Neuropsychology clinic at University Hospital
  • Memory assessment clinic at University Station outpatient clinic
  • Additional Neurology opportunities

Electives

Electives

For 4th year residents, electives make up about 50% of the PGY4 year. Residents with prior residency experience will have electives in their PGY1 and PGY3 schedules.  Residents have over 20 electives to choose from, including:

  • Addiction Psychiatry at UW Behavioral Health
  • Administrative Psychiatry at WisPIC
  • Administrative Psychiatry – Systems of Care in the Community
  • Community Psychiatry at Kajsiab House
  • Community Psychiatry at the VA CSP
  • DBT Group Therapy at WisPIC
  • Developmental Anxiety Disorders at WisPIC
  • E-Consult Elective
  • Electroencephalography at UWHC
  • Family Therapy Clinic
  • General Psychiatry at UHS
  • Geriatric Psychiatry at WisPIC
  • Geriatric Psychiatry at Mendota
  • Healthy Eating Services at UHS
  • Inpatient Group Therapy at B6/5
  • Inpatient Psychiatry Senior Resident Rotation at B6/5
  • Inpatient Psychiatry Senior Resident Rotation at the VA
  • Integrated Care at the VA
  • Integrative Health
  • Interdisciplinary Treatment Team at the VA
  • Mindfulness-Based Group Therapy
  • Neuropsychology at UWHC
  • Palliative Care for the Psychiatrist
  • Quality Improvement Elective at WisPIC or the VA
  • Research Electives (contact individual researchers for details)
  • Sleep Disorders at Wisconsin Sleep
  • Sleep Disorders at the VA
  • Teaching Elective at UWSMPH