Psychiatric residency training in affiliated centers: report of five years' experience.

Abstract

With the growing importance of mental health in our country, there is an increasing demand for trained psychiatrists. The development of adequate facilities for training psychiatrists becomes a matter of national importance. Two as yet unsolved problems seem to dominate the picture of psychiatric training as it has developed since the war. One problem pertains to economics, the other to the peculiar nature of the process of psychiatric training. We shall state these 2 problems briefly. Psychiatric residency training is a long and costly process, undertaken usually at an age when most young physicians are married, have dependents, and must look for lifetime careers. They need financial support while in training. In keeping with the growing importance of mental health, federal and state funds, in larger amounts than ever before, are being made available for psychiatric training, especially since the war. There exists, however, a considerable discrepancy in the motives which mobilize the public funds to finance the training of psychiatrists and the motives which bring young physicians into the field. The majority of young aspirants for psychiatric training are motivated by the appeal of private practice. On the other hand, the public funds for training are appropriated under the pressure of the need for trained psychiatrists to staff the public mental health agencies such as state hospitals, mental hygiene clinics, and like community psychiatric services. To reconcile the discrepant motivations which bring the best young minds into psychiatry with those which provide the wherewithal for their training is a long-term problem for which there are no short-term solutions. It will re-