Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship

An intensive clinical experience designed to train the future leaders in geriatric psychiatry.

Breadcrumb

Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship

An intensive clinical experience designed to train the future leaders in geriatric psychiatry.

The Brown University Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior’s Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program is an intensive clinical experience designed to equip future practitioners with all the skills needed for the practice of geriatric psychiatry and to train the future leaders in geriatric psychiatry. The program is an ACGME approved 12-month fellowship.

During the training year, fellows divide their time in a variety of clinical settings including rotations with multidisciplinary staff in a wide range of hospital and community settings including: The Geriatric Inpatient Unit, Consultation-Liaison service, VA outpatient geriatric psychiatry clinic, Movement disorders clinic, nursing homes, home based health care, outpatient geriatric medicine and neuropathology. There are opportunities for electives in TMS and ECT as well. We provided supervised clinical teaching at the following sites: Butler Hospital, The Miriam Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence Veterans Administration Hospital and Kent Hospital.

Faculty members include board-certified geriatric psychiatrists who are devoted to excellent supervision and teaching during all rotations. In addition, the program offers a comprehensive didactic series in conjunction with Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Brown. Didactics cover topics related to significant aspects of geriatric care in the areas of medicine and psychiatry.

We also offer are wide range of opportunities for teaching within the clinical environment. Many of our fellows with work with medical students and other trainees with The Warren Alpert Medical School.  

Faculty

Leadership

  • Laura Stanton, MD

    Laura A. Stanton, MD

    Director, Brown University Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program
    Research Profile

    Laura A. Stanton, MD, is the clinical director of outpatient geriatric psychiatry at The Miriam Hospital and the director of the geriatric psychiatry fellowship program at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She also evaluates and treats geriatric patients at the Brown University Health Cancer Institute. Dr. Stanton’s research interests include depression and the aging brain, nursing home violence and psychosis in the elderly. Her work on these subjects has been published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. She is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry and the Rhode Island Psychiatric Society.

  • Dr Surti photo

    Ghulam Mustafa Surti, MD

    Associate Director, Brown University Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program
    Research Profile

    Dr. Surti is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Butler Hospital. Previously he was the Unit Chief of the Kent Unit at Butler Hospital, and served as the President of the Butler Hospital Staff Association. Dr. Surti is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Surti graduated from the Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan, and completed his psychiatry residency at the University of Illinois in Chicago.  He then completed 1 year of training in geriatric psychiatry through the Brown University Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Training Program at Butler Hospital graduating in June 1999.  Dr. Surti is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) in both Psychiatry and Psychiatry with Added Qualifications in Geriatric Psychiatry. He serves on numerous Butler Hospital and Care New England committees. He is actively involved as a teacher at all levels of training in the Brown University Medical School and graduate programs.  His clinical work is based at Butler Hospital  Dr. Surti is also a contributor to many research studies related to aging and Alzheimer’s at Butler Hospital.  He was recipient of the 2017 Robert J. Westlake, MD Award for Physician Excellence, Butler Hospital, and a past recipient of The Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015) from The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Faculty

Applicants

How to Apply

Requirements

  1. Successful completion of a General Psychiatry Residency Program
  2. Eligible for a Full Medical License in the State of Rhode Island

Documentation Needed

  1. A copy of your current curriculum vitae (resume)
  2. A personal statement
  3. A copy of your ECFMG or FLEX certificate (if applicable)
  4. A copy of your Visa and/or U.S. citizenship document (notarized)
  5. A letter from the Dean of your Medical School (notarized)
  6. A letter from the Residency Training Program Director where you completed your general psychiatry training
  7. Three additional letters of recommendation
  8. A copy of your current medical license
  9. A completed Brown University application form

The form can be downloaded and completed in Adobe Reader (cannot save) or Adobe Acrobat (can save it).

Once completed please fax or mail to the geriatric psychiatry fellowship.

Seminar and Rotation Schedules

The rotations are divided into three 4 month blocks with a morning and afternoon activity. The outpatient and nursing home rotations are longitudinal experiences. The Geriatric Fellowship emphasis learning and teaching as illustrated by the two half days of didactics. The rotation schedule can be modified to meet individual fellow's needs, and electives can be added and modified. For example, some fellows have opted to do a neuromodulation (ECT, TMS, and VNS) rotation, a movement disorders clinic and/or a substance disorder rotation. There is no call obligations.

  Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
AM Clinical/inpatient

Clinical/inpatient

 Clinical/inpatient Didactics VA Clinic
PM Clinical/inpatient Outpatient TMH (RIH Memory Disorders 1st Tuesday) Clinical/inpatient Clinical/inpatient VA Clinic

The Brown University Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Psychiatry Programs have combined lectures. Below is a downloadable list of seminars. The lecture series includes two hours led by Geriatric Medicine and one hour by Geriatric Psychiatry. The geriatric medicine and psychiatry fellows rotate making presentations (journal club, case presentations, and interdisciplinary case) in addition to faculty didactics.

The Geriatric Psychiatry seminar consists of both didactic and reading materials in which the residents review the aging process as it relates to:

  • mental health
  • principals of evaluation and diagnosis in the elderly
  • phenomenology and diagnosis of disorders in late life
  • cultural issues and epidemiology of mental illness in the aged
  • treatment, medical legal, ethical and financial issues in the aging
  • case conferences
  • journal club

Affiliated Hospitals

Geriatric Psychiatry at Butler Hospital 

Butler Hospital has a state of the art 20-bed inpatient geriatric psychiatry unit. The Senior Treatment Unit provides care and support for adults ages 65 and over who have a variety of psychiatric conditions. These conditions include memory disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, depression, anxiety, and other cognitive disorders that may cause behavioral difficulties.

The Memory and Aging Program The Memory & Aging Program provides multi-disciplinary evaluation and treatment to patients with known or suspected memory and other cognitive problems. The treatment staff includes neurologists, neuropsychologists, geriatric psychiatrists, and nurses. The clinic is involved in ongoing trials of new medications, other interventions, and assessments for memory loss and behavioral problems associated with Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and mild cognitive impairment due to aging.

The Movement Disorders Program focuses on the physical and behavioral challenges caused by movement disorders like Parkinson's disease.

Geriatric Psychiatry at Lifespan: The Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital 

The Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital provide a wide range of integrated geriatric psychiatric services.

The Miriam Hospital's geriatric psychiatry outpatient services include psychiatric evaluations, medication management, and psychotherapy, including a focus on dementia caregiver issues, stress management and grief counseling. The Neuropsychology Program is a clinical specialty service located at both Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. The program offers neuropsychological evaluation of memory and other cognitive functions on both an inpatient and outpatient basis. The Consultation Psychiatry service addresses the mental health issues of hospitalized patients in the context of their medical condition and overall health. Consultation is provided by multidisciplinary teams.

The Nursing Home Psychiatry Consultation Program, staffed by an expert team from The Miriam Hospital, provides psychiatric services for residents of nursing homes and assisted-living or long-term care facilities in Rhode Island. This program is comprised of a multidisciplinary team that includes board-certified geriatric psychiatrists and psychiatric clinical nurse specialists with expertise in psychiatry and gerontology.

Geriatric Psychiatry at the Providence Veterans Administration Medical Center

Geriatric psychiatric services are provided by board certified geriatric psychiatrists. Geriatric fellows have opportunities to have rotations at the Providence Veterans Administration Medical Center centered around outpatient assessment and treatment among older veterans with a wide range of psychiatric disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorders. In addition, fellows rotate through the geriatric medicine clinic.

Kent Hospital

Kent Hospital is a 359-bed hospital and the second-largest single site hospital in the state. Located in Warwick, RI, it is a primary teaching affiliate of Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the home site for residency training programs in emergency medicine, family medicine and internal medicine, and fellowship training programs in gastroenterology and hyperbaric medicine in addition to geriatric psychiatry. Fellows will rotate in palliative care and geriatric medicine at Kent.

Fellows

Please review the Geriatric Fellowship Handbook

Helpful Links

State of Rhode Island

Professional Organizations

Licensing and Accreditation

Patient Advocacy

Contact

Brown University Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship
Butler Hospital
345 Blackstone Boulevard
Providence, RI 02906

Phone: (401) 455-6421
Fax: (401) 455-6566 

Program Coordinator
Ema Costa
Email: ecosta@butler.org

Training Director
Laura A. Stanton, MD
Email: laura_stanton@brown.edu