Training residents for community psychiatric practice: guidelines for curriculum development

There is a critical need to recruit and retain more psychiatrists with the required skills and interest to work with seriously mentally ill and/or socially disadvantaged patients within organized programs in community settings. More residency training programs having the capacity to prepare psychiatrists for community practice can help to meet this need. A consensus definition of the clinical, administrative, consultative and academic areas of contemporary community psychiatric practice developed by the American Association of Community Psychiatrists is used to determine the goals of the training curriculum described in this paper. A comprehensive list of knowledge, skill, and attitude objectives, as well as suggestions for structuring clinical training assignments are provided as guidelines for curriculum development.