history & mission

The Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program (HLPRTP), which began in 1994, combines the strengths of the major Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals in the Harvard Medical Center area. It is accredited by the ACGME and accepts fifteen residents each year into the four-year program. HLPRTP is the result of years of planning and development by scores of Harvard faculty members whose goal was to create a program that prepares future leaders of psychiatry. The leaders of this program recognize that psychiatry and all of health care have changed considerably in recent years and will change dramatically in the coming years. While tomorrow's leaders must be steeped in the traditions of psychiatry, they must also be sophisticated about recent advances in the basic and clinical sciences. In order to be prepared to provide optimal care for patients with serious psychiatric illnesses, they must be exposed to treatment settings that have not been a part of more traditional programs but are the sites where many of our patients will be treated in the next decades. Moreover, they must master the treatment modalities that will be of most help to our patients in both traditional and new treatment settings. Finally, all residents should be encouraged to see themselves as contributors to our field and be provided with a broad range of research and other scholarly opportunities as well as mentorship in their areas of interest. The innovative, forward-thinking design of this program was recognized by the American College of Psychiatrists with its Award for Creativity in Psychiatric Education.

Harvard Longwood represents collaboration between five distinguished institutions---Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and The Boston Children's Hospital, all of which have been involved in residency education for generations. With this unique combination of settings, we offer sophisticated and comprehensive training, and the opportunity to care for a great diversity of patients. Residents learn state-of-the-art, evidenced-based treatment approaches. In addition, they learn about the social and economic contexts of mental health care delivery through our innovative curriculum and through clinical experiences that range from homeless outreach programs in the community to highly technologically sophisticated clinical units in our nation's finest quaternary care hospitals. Finally, our innovative four-year research mentorship program brings research faculty and residents together beginning in the PGY1 year, and provides the time and support for residents to pursue their scholarly and research interests throughout their residency years. In these ways, Harvard Longwood combines academic rigor, clinical sophistication and scientific excellence with a commitment to improving the mental health care available to persons with psychiatric illnesses wherever they are found.