New programs begun in the last two years at UCLA include a resident-faculty group focused on community psychiatry, as well as health-system and community mentorships. There are also new clinical electives for psychiatry residents at the Los Angeles County Jail and the county’s Office of Diversion and Reentry. The Diversion office was created by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 2015 to develop and implement alternatives to the criminal justice system for people with mental illness and substance-use disorders.
Spurred in part by their students, several members of the health-system’s psychiatry faculty are now working to help people who are homeless get better mental health care and permanent housing. The faculty have partnered with law enforcement, the criminal justice system, legislators, advocates and social service providers.
“Our increased training in social determinants of health and other courses to help train students in public psychiatric care are the results of requests and efforts by the residents themselves,” said Enrico Castillo, UCLA’s associate director of residency education at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. “What used to be six hours of classes in public psychiatry has expanded to over 20, which span four subject areas: criminal justice, homelessness, global mental health (with an eye toward refugees and immigrants) and peer support services.”
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