General Psychiatry Residency

Welcome to the MHMMC General Psychiatry residency program website. Our program combines the intellectual and physical resources of an academic teaching hospital with the patient base and public health commitment of a large community hospital and community mental health center. We see a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses in multiple settings. We are fortunate to have a medical-psychiatry inpatient unit, one of only 48 in the country, and a busy consultation-liaison service which offers excellent training experience in the problems of the medically ill with psychiatric problems, and geriatric psychiatry.

Our residents also have inpatient experiences at MaineHealth Spring Harbor Hospital (MHSHH), our free-standing psychiatry hospital, in adult psychiatry, adolescent psychiatry, and on the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Service at MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. The latter two experiences provide our general residents with exposure to our child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship.

Outpatient training is equally rich with our residents learning in Portland’s outpatient VA clinic, providing consultation to their IM, FM and OB-GYN colleagues in their primary care clinics, and functioning as the leaders in developing mental healthcare delivery at MHMMC’s new homeless clinic. These experiences buttress residents’ primary outpatient learning in MHMMC’s adult outpatient clinic, which serves essentially as a community mental health center. It is here that our residents become expert not only in diagnosing mental illness, and employing the latest psychopharmacologic treatments, but also become facile with effective psychotherapeutic techniques. Residents will learn CBT, group, supportive, and DBT techniques, but will also receive superb training in Family Therapy, and psychodynamic therapy, including one of the nation’s strongest exposures to mentalization based treatment (MBT).

Our training faculty is dedicated to excellent teaching and clinical care, and bring a range of experiences and knowledge from across the country. Many of our graduates go on to nationally-ranked fellowship programs in child psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, forensics, psychodynamic therapy, and geriatric psychiatry. All graduates are prepared for careers in the broad spectrum of psychiatry, including community-based practice, hospital practice, academics, and research.

Daniel Grant Price, MD
Program Director, Psychiatry Residency

One out of our five general psychiatry residency slots is designated as a five-year General Psychiatry/Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Integrated (Integrated Track) training slot. Interested applicants should designate in their application that they are interested in applying for the General Psychiatry Residency, the Integrated Track position, or both programs.

The first three years of the training program are similar to the General Psychiatry program, although the resident may substitute some or all of their 4 months of Family Medicine or Internal Medicine with Pediatrics in the PGY-1. All general psychiatry residents have the opportunity to rotate on the Adolescent Inpatient Unit at Spring Harbor Hospital in the PGY-1 year and on the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison Service at MaineHealth Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital during the PGY-2.

Child & Adolescent Psychiatry mentors and supervisors are identified early in training, connecting the resident to both training programs. There are many shared learning opportunities that exist, including a shared summer didactic series for PGY-3 residents and child fellows, and a year-long Family Therapy Seminar during the academic year. After completion of the first 3 years of residency in good standing, the resident transitions for their PGY-4 and PGY-5 into the child fellowship program.

This program appeals to applicants who already know that they wish to pursue child training and offers the advantage of not having to apply, interview, and go through two separate Match processes. Many of our residents are eager to put down roots in greater Portland, and appreciate the comfort of knowing where they will be for their five years of training.

We also recognize that many incoming residents do not know whether or not they would like to pursue fellowship training, and we offer ample opportunities for exploration and mentorship during the residency. In addition to the integrated training slot, residents in good standing are encouraged to apply for the child fellowship to enter as a PGY-4 or PGY-5 and would go through the ERAS Match process to do so.

For The Match you may rank the Integrated Track in the Match using a unique NRMP Program Code: 1236400C1. You may rank our Integrated Track alone, or rank the General Psychiatry Residency alone (using the NRMP Program Code 1236400C0), or rank both programs.

The ACGME-accredited MHMMC Psychiatry Rural Training Track Program combines the benefits of our general residency program with outpatient rotations in beautiful, coastal Maine.

In many ways, the track is an expansion of our current program. Residents will participate in inpatient and subspecialty rotations in Portland, then transition to work in rural settings such as Damariscotta, Rockport, and Belfast, Maine. Residents will work side by side with residents in the general program for much of the first two years, and will continue to have didactic sessions via telehealth technology as one resident group for all four years.

MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital physicians participate in faculty development curriculum to prepare them to teach residents. They also spend time in Portland, learning our routines and methods for bedside teaching and outpatient precepting. The faculty are considered one group and rural faculty have representation on education-related committees. In short, the program combines the subspecialty resources of an academic hospital with experience of treating a rural population.

Residents will treat a wide range of psychiatric conditions across multiple settings. There are unique opportunities in the first two years to work on a medical and geriatric psychiatry unit; a busy consultation-liaison service; and child and adolescent inpatient units; including a developmental disorders unit, of which there are only a few in the nation.

Residents will work in several different MaineHealth Behavioral Health offices, seeing patients of all ages and with varied diagnoses. All residents are required to complete a quality improvement project during their residency, and rural track residents will complete this in an aspect of rural psychiatric care. As residents learn about the nuances of working and living in a small community, they will be building a higher-level perspective about health care systems. Our program will prepare residents to work in rural areas in the future, and to advocate for the necessary resources needed to build equitable care.

Residents will complete the program prepared to take a variety of next steps including community rural practice, in addition to fellowship, academic practice or research. We hope to inspire new psychiatrists to both expand and innovate treatment in a rural setting, and to learn, alongside us, the most effective ways of achieving that goal.

Our residents hail from many different undergraduate institutions, including:

• Bowdoin College
• Carroll College
• Colby College
• Colorado College
• Connecticut College
• Marist College
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Skidmore College
• University of Maine
• Wesleyan University
• Williams College

Our residents have elected to train at MHMMC for diverse reasons, including:

• “The supportive and collaborative learning environment”
• “A Boston-quality program in my home state”
• “Friendly coworkers and supervisors and location”
• “Diversity of clinical experience and psychotherapy focus in a small, scenic and livable city”
• “The climate, the ocean and the collegiality of the hospital and residency”
• “Excellent faculty and staff to work with who display genuine interest in the well-being of both patients and those who care for them.”
• “A small program with a supportive learning environment”
• “The 3 P's: People, Portland, and P6”
• “The emphasis placed on education and life-long learning, the integration of psychotherapy modalities and the variety of clinical experiences”
• “Great mentorship, diverse psychiatric pathology, the inpatient developmental disorders unit, and a child & adolescent psychiatry fellowship”
• “To give back to Maine”
• “Friendly and supportive faculty and staff”
• “Focus on psychotherapy training”
• “The residency atmosphere”
• “The balance of education and clinical duties plus the wonderful people”
• “To be close to family”

Favorite Places in Maine:

• Acadia National Park
• Bar Harbor
• Baxter State Park
• Casco Bay Ferry
• Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
• Dobra Tea
• Higgins Beach
• Katahdin
• Mackworth Island
• Monhegan Island
• Muscongus Bay
• Portland
• Rosie’s on Fore Street
• Sugarloaf

The Department of Medical Education at MHMMC is committed to actively pursuing and welcoming a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds. We believe that doing so will improve the academic environment, drive innovation, and enhance our ability to provide compassionate and patient-centered care to our patients and their families.

Our responsibility is to ensure a safe, inclusive culture, aligned with MaineHealth Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion policies, where each person has recognized value. We are committed to fostering a collaborative, respectful, and equitable environment where our learners, faculty, and teams can thrive in an ever-changing global community.

The General Psychiatry Residency program aims for the recruitment and retention of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Learn more about DEI at the MHMMC graduate medical education program.

Learn about the history, culture, and community life in Portland, Maine.