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Geriatric Psychiatry

Clinical Senior Elective for Psychiatry Residents

Elective: Geriatric Psychiatry Elective for Residents

Place: Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, 700 Gordon Street, Whitby, ON L1N 5S9
Inquiries: Dr. Arany Shanmugalingam 905.668.5881 ext. 6218
Supervisors: Dr. Robyn Waxman, Dr. Arany Shanmugalingam, Dr. Sarah Elmi

The Geriatric Psychiatry Program includes a 23-bed inpatient dementia unit, a 25-bed general geriatric psychiatry unit, a 20-bed geriatric transitional inpatient unit, an ambulatory outpatient program with group therapy, and outreach service programs into homes and long term care facilities.  Many of our supervisors also provide ECT and rTMS service at the hospital.

Electives can be tailored to students' learning needs. In particular, students can gain experience with a very strong inter-professional model of care which is patient-focused and follows the recovery model. We have a large specialized program and therefore have patients with a wide variety of diagnoses at varying stages of illness, and often see more complex and unique presentations. In addition to learning first line treatment approaches, the students at Ontario Shores will have significant exposure to the treatment of refractory patients.

Electives can be of varying lengths and foci, and some examples of suggested elective experiences are as follows:

  1. Experience in Managing the Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Dementia: a 1-4-week elective in the assessment and management of the dementia patient. Students will gain exposure to the use of clinical practice guidelines developed for this population and a variety of non-pharmacologic and pharmacologic approaches to care.
  2. Geriatric Mood Disorder elective: a 1-2 day elective at a clinic that focuses on the assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders in the elderly. Involvement in a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy group for patients over age 65 with mood disorders may be available as well.

Available to: Residents in Psychiatry from PGY 3-5 as well as Geriatric Psychiatry subspecialty residents

Geriatric Subspecialty Program core and electives: Subspecialty residents have the opportunity to complete their training at OS.

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