The UCLA Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship program was one of the first to be established in the United States by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in 1993, with the intention of providing psychiatrists with advanced medical education on the complex age-related and neuropsychiatric conditions in an ever-expanding older population . The extensive UCLA Geriatric Psychiatry Faculty provide a diverse, medical educational experience for Fellows which ensures that ACGME milestones for the fellowship are met and that specialty interests are supported. Fellows will develop advanced clinical expertise on the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions in older adults and the role of developmental, degenerative, psychosocial, cultural, racial/ethnic, and socio-economic impacts on their psychiatric health and wellbeing.
Fellows rotate in a variety of clinical settings to ensure exposure to the full range of geriatric psychiatric disorders. These include the UCLA Medical Center, the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System, and the Department of Mental Health (see below for descriptions). Rotations provide interdisciplinary clinical and research opportunities from experienced, expert faculty in Geriatric Psychiatry, in addition to Geriatric Medicine, Neurobehavior, Geriatric Psychology and Neuropsychology, Interventional Psychiatry, Palliative Care, and Sleep Medicine. Fellows learn the most up-to-date and innovative clinical approaches to treating specific conditions such depression, psychosis, age-related memory loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, Vascular dementia, Lewy body disorder and the atypical dementias, as well as geriatric clinical care adapted to virtual technologies, legal and ethical practices, and psychotherapeutic treatments. This broad exposure also provides ample opportunity for collegiality, cross-disciplinary collaboration, teaching and mentoring opportunities.