Graduate Medical Education University of Texas Southwestern--Austin Psychiatry Program

This is an exciting time to be a psychiatrist! The expansion of our understanding of neurosciences has led to major advances in the field. Over the course of your career in medicine, this explosion of knowledge will transform our understanding and treatment of mental illness.

Our residency program is committed to training residents to be life-long learners who will stay abreast of these developments, always striving to improve the lives of those affected by mental illness.

While the University of Texas Southwestern Psychiatry program is technically a new program as of the fall of 2003, it has its roots in the Austin Psychiatric Residency Program (APRP) which began at Austin State Hospital in 1955. The General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry programs existed there until 2003 when the State of Texas cut funding for all training programs at the state’s psychiatric hospitals. At that time, Austin Medial Education Programs (AMEP)—who already sponsored residency programs in other disciplines and was actively working with the University of Texas system to build a medical school campus in Austin—agreed to take over sponsorship of the General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency programs. Most recently, UT Southwestern has taken over sponsorship of all the residencies in Austin as we continue our efforts to build a academic medical campus in Austin.

I have been with this department since 2004. Since my arrival, we have added seven new faculty and expanded the general psychiatry residency from 16 to 24 residents. We have started new clinical services, including partnerships with the public mental health system and the UT College of Education. At the same time, we continue to collaborate with our many partners in the community. This program has the unique advantage of allowing residents to work in virtually every area of Austin providing mental health services—from the county and state hospitals to private practice, from the ACT team to IOP programs.

Unique aspects of the training programs include: exposure to a wide variety of acute and chronic psychiatric disorders, a comprehensive exposure to the practice of inpatient and outpatient psychiatry in the private, state, federal and community sectors, a strong focus on the integration of current bio-psychosocial knowledge and an emphasis in sensitivity and understanding of different ethnic and cultural heritages and socioeconomic circumstances.

As we work to expand medical education in Austin, I invite you to take a look at our program. You will find a young program with deep roots undergoing an enthusiastic transformation.

Kari M. Wolf, MD
Director
Department of Psychiatry