Boston VA Healthcare System Brockton- West Roxbury-Harvard Medical School Program

Program Identity & Fit

VA Boston-Harvard South Shore (VAB-HSS) is a four-year, VA-sponsored, Harvard Medical School-affiliated psychiatry residency that trains eight residents per year primarily within the VA Boston Healthcare System (Brockton, West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain), a tertiary VA referral center and National Center of Excellence for PTSD serving a veteran population with high rates of trauma, substance use, and complex psychiatric comorbidity. The program explicitly builds curriculum around four pillars—clinical fundamentals, research literacy, teaching skills, and leadership development—and offers a distinct PGY-5 Chief Resident in Quality and Safety track for those pursuing healthcare leadership and systems-improvement careers. Faculty and leadership emphasize evidence-based, patient-centered care within an interprofessional VA training ecosystem (psychology, pharmacy, social work, neuropsychiatry) and explicitly value diversity of resident background and lived experience as core to the educational environment. Graduates are positioned for careers spanning VA clinical practice, academic psychiatry, and quality/safety leadership roles rather than a single narrow track.