2023-24 Welcome Message for Trainees, Faculty

Dear psychiatry residents, fellows, and psychology trainees,

On behalf of our training team, I would like to welcome all new and returning trainees to the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UC Davis! This is a very exciting time in the department and School of Medicine. Each year, our new teams of learners bring with them an invigorating energy for patient care, education, and academic activities in service to our patients and our community. Our educator team is looking forward to working with you during your training here at UC Davis.

As you all know, the pandemic had a profound impact on the mental health of our patients and our community. This is a critical time to grow the mental workforce; that is, to train future psychiatrists, psychologists, and allied mental health professionals across professions to improve health outcomes and access to care for our patients. I am very grateful to our learning community for your teamwork, creativity, and collaborative spirit.

We have an exciting year planned across the departmental training programs. We will continue to implement the education strategic plan which was developed by a thoughtful team of faculty and trainees from across departmental programs. We are expanding learning opportunities in a variety of content areas and training sites, including interventional psychiatry, addiction medicine, geriatric psychiatry, and primary care psychiatry.

As part of this process, we are working to redesign and integrate the clinical and didactics curricula using evidence-based, high-impact teaching methods. This includes more asynchronous learning opportunities and an increased focus on self-directed learning. A special thanks to Belinda Bandstra, M.D. for her incredible leadership of this GME education re-design. Bandstra is working closely with the other program directors and the newly appointed core faculty and subject matter experts on this effort.

Our training team remains committed to a learning environment which promotes safety, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across settings. We also work together to confront racism within ourselves, our communities, and our institutions.

I would like to thank our outstanding program directors for their leadership and commitment to our learners, and Christine Bertini and the training office team for their dedication our learners. Lastly, a special thanks to our department chair, Helen Kales, M.D., and Jerry Elder (Chief Administrative Officer) for their leadership and outstanding support to our training programs.

With appreciation,

Lorin M. Scher, M.D., FACLP
Professor and Vice-Chair for Education
Roy T. Brophy Endowed Chair
Director, Integrated Behavioral Health Services