UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine-UCLA Medical Center Program

Program Identity & Fit

UCLA Psychiatry is a large, restructured academic program organized into four distinct Tracks (Mid-Wilshire, Greater Los Angeles, Westwood, Research), each anchored to a home clinical site and offering a genuinely different training identity within one department - acute severe mental illness and clinician-educator development at the new Mid-Wilshire hospital, underserved/veteran-focused social medicine at the VA and county-affiliated Greater Los Angeles sites, longitudinal outpatient psychotherapy and psychopharmacology via a piloted X+Y curriculum at Westwood, and physician-scientist development with heavy protected research time in the Research Track. The program draws on the Semel Institute's deep research infrastructure (basic, translational, clinical, and social-science mentorship) alongside safety-net and public-sector exposure through LA County Department of Mental Health, Harbor-UCLA, correctional health, homeless health services, and an optional global mental health rotation in South Africa. Research is structurally significant but not universally mandatory: the Research Track expects MD/PhD-level accomplishment and offers up to 50-60% protected time and dedicated funding, while other Tracks allow up to 30% protected research time for interested residents. The program explicitly states it values holistic qualities - clinical performance, community service/advocacy, leadership, resilience, and distance traveled - over test scores, and structures itself to be "big enough for opportunity, small enough for community" through track-based mentorship.