Richard Belitsky, MD

Dr. Richard Belitsky is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and the Interim Program Director of the Yale Psychiatry Residency Program. He is noted for his work in medical education at both the undergraduate (medical student) and graduate (resident) levels. Named the School of Medicine’s deputy dean for education in 2006, Dr. Belitsky is concerned with curriculum development, particularly with respect to the methods and challenges involved in teaching medical students in the areas of patient-centered medical interviewing, the biopsychosocial model, social history and counseling patients for behavior change. He is also interested in the development of professional identity in medical education. In addition, he is interested in the delivery of mental health services in prisons and jails, with particular attention to suicide in correctional facilities. Belitsky holds a B.A. from the University of Florida, Gainesville, and an M.D. from the University of Florida School of Medicine. He came to Yale in 1979 as a resident in psychiatry and continued on as a fellow in forensic psychiatry and chief resident/instructor in the Department of Psychiatry. He joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1983, when he also became unit chief of the Inpatient Services Division of the Connecticut Mental Health Center. He served as the director of the division 1988-1989. He was the medical director of the Yale Psychiatric Institute 1991-1997. At the School of Medicine, Belitsky served as the residency program director in the Department of Psychiatry from 1996-2006 and as the Interim residency program director from 2001-present. He became the deputy chair for education in 2001, serving in that role until he was promoted to deputy dean for education. He has earned numerous professional honors at Yale, including the Stephen Fleck M.D. Faculty Award as Exemplary Physician and Teacher, the Charles W. Bohmfalk Teaching Prize and the Francis Gilman Blake Award (for the member of the faculty at the School of Medicine designated by the senior class as the most outstanding teacher of the medical sciences) in both 1998 and 2000.