Legislative Advocacy and Forensic Psychiatry Training

Very few residency and fellowship programs offer mandatory or elective rotations in health advocacy. Where there are formal training opportunities, they are commonly didactic or clinical community rotations, where trainees participate in a clinically oriented project with a local community organization. Fewer programs offer specific training opportunities in legislative advocacy and the legislative process. The University of Washington assembled two task forces to advise the general psychiatry residency program on training needs in the areas of (1) Forensic Psychiatry and (2) Advocacy and Public Policy. Both task forces identified, as an aspirational goal, resident involvement in legislative and regulatory processes as means of advocacy. This article describes a model curriculum in legislation developed at the University of Washington that is suitable for trainees at different stages in their professional development (including residents and fellows), and an explanation of how the curriculum supports training in forensic psychiatry. Challenges in creating the elective training opportunity are also discussed.