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San Mateo County Psychiatry Residency Training Program

Overview

San Mateo County Psychiatry Residency Training Program

Overview

San Mateo County General Hospital became one of the first model community mental health centers in the country in the 1960s and the birthplace of the first chapter of NAMI in 1974. Our psychiatry residency program launched in 1965 with a focus on public psychiatry.

Today, San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services provides a structured training environment committed to outstanding comprehensive medical education with a rigorous focus in the public health sector including clinical care, scholarly activities and advocacy informed by the values of social justice and health equity. We are dedicated to training physicians to develop expertise in improving the overall health of all community members, particularly those who are underserved or marginalized.

We emphasize a person-centered and recovery-oriented approach to care for the individuals in our community. From home visits to geriatric patients, to evaluating patients in the county’s designated psychiatric emergency room, to participating in many of the BHRS strategic initiatives for mental health, our psychiatry residents are be part of the constructive solutions to the critical problems facing today’s mental health care system.

In addition to our residency program’s commitment to public psychiatry and rotations at the San Mateo County BHRS health system, we also provide clinical rotations in other health care settings to give our residents a wide range of psychiatric training experiences. We have several rotations within the Kaiser Permanente health system including addiction psychiatry, child psychiatry, and neurology. We also have established rotations within the Stanford University Hospital and Clinics including child psychiatry and neurology.  These rotations give our residents significant exposure to the structures of care within the HMO setting and as well as at a major academic center.

Highlights of our program include:

  • Public psychiatry, including experiences in our own county psychiatric emergency service, the opportunity to do home visits and outreach to our most vulnerable patients, and emphasis on health equity and social justice.
  • Longitudinal outpatient clinic experiences and psychotherapy training beginning in PGY2.
  • Diversity of training sites to provide a comprehensive experience.
  • Emphasis on “Leading Now” with unprecedented resident access to opportunities to collaborate with institutional leadership and to participate in resources and program development on high impact issues.
  • Flexible elective time that can be scheduled throughout PGY 2-4 to support resident-driven learning and scholarly work.
  • A supportive and ”professional family” atmosphere.
  • Location in the vibrant and diverse San Francisco Bay Area

We look forward to meeting you and discussing the ways our training program can help you launch your career as a psychiatrist!

Location

222 West 39th Avenue
San Mateo, CA 94403
Directions to the Program

General information

Curriculum

Our program devotes an entire day per week to protected time for didactics. Our teachers are experts in the field and come from within our own system as well as from major academic centers in the area. We favor learning in small interactive groups and often use a round table tutorial or case discussion format. Our curriculum emphasizes public psychiatry and work with historically oppressed communities while also incorporating new advances in field. PGY 1 and PGY 2 residents engage together in foundational courses taught by core faculty.

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Our residents work together to meet a challenge

Our Residents

Our community of residents is the heart and soul of our program. We see our residency not only as a communal forum for learning but also as the spring board for each resident’s individual professional growth. We care about the well-being of our residents, and do our best to ensure they are heard and respected. Residents learn together through small work groups and, as they become more senior, in sharing their knowledge by teaching junior residents. Ultimately, we hope to foster a bond between residents that will continue long after their training days in San Mateo are over.

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Our Faculty

Core Faculty

G. Adam Crits, MD: Clinical work: Medical Chief, North County Mental Health clinic, SMC. Medical Training: Medical College of Virginia–MD; UC Irvine Medical Center – Psychiatry Residency. Scholarly/ Clinical Interests: Public psychiatry and substance use disorders.

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Resident and Alumni Comments

“San Mateo County’s residency program for psychiatry is uniquely designed to create an environment where those committed to the public sector, health equity, and career development can excel. From the curriculum, to the top notch faculty, wide breadth of exposure to various training settings, and ability to pursue professional interests, San Mateo’s program allowed me the diversity of thought and experience to not just become a good psychiatrist, but to grow professionally in ways that often only occur after residency training.”

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Fellowships

The San Mateo County BHRS Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship 
Program Director: Mike Kelly, MD

Contact: Michael.Kelly1@dsh.ca.gov

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Living in the Bay Area


San Mateo County is located on the San Francisco Peninsula. It borders San Francisco and is a few minutes north of Stanford University. To the east is the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean is to the west. The San Francisco International Airport is in San Mateo County. A ridge of mountains along the eastern edge of the peninsula separates the more heavily populated eastern slopes from the redwood forests, farmlands, and beaches of the Pacific coastline.