One Brooklyn Health System-Interfaith Medical Center Program

Program Identity & Fit

Interfaith Medical Center's psychiatry residency is a four-year, community-based safety-net program in Central Brooklyn treating a chronically underserved, high-acuity population with heavy emphasis on inpatient psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, and an extensive addiction/substance use treatment infrastructure (detox, rehabilitation, CDOS, methadone maintenance). Clinical training spans acute inpatient units, consultation-liaison, three outpatient clinics, and community-based supportive housing, reflecting a mission centered on serving patients facing mental illness, addiction, and poverty. Research is present in the curriculum (ethics in psychiatry research, research seminar) but not positioned as a defining feature; the program instead emphasizes personalized supervision, a peer "buddy" system, and progressive autonomy through a PGY-4 Junior Attending rotation. Faculty and resident outcomes (several attendings are program graduates now serving as unit chiefs) suggest an identity oriented toward producing well-rounded community/general psychiatrists rather than academic subspecialists.