Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry is the newest board-certified subspecialty in psychiatry. Consultation liaison psychiatry is the psychiatry of the medically ill. Specialists in this area provide consultation and continuing care in both inpatient and outpatient medical settings.

The subject matter of the field includes psychiatric aspects of medical illness, both its physiological effects and its psychological aspects, ranging from delirium to the emotional adaptation to the ill state. The subject matter also includes the medical aspects of psychiatric illness, ranging from side effects of psychiatric medications to the sequelae of anorexia.

Board certification requires completion of an ACGME-approved 12-month fellowship. Our program provides supervised clinical training in both inpatient hospital and outpatient clinics, based at the Yale-New Haven Hospital and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.

Direct clinical experience with sophisticated supervision is the primary forum for learning to care for patients in the Yale fellowship program. Adequate training involves knowledge and skill acquisition in direct patient care, often as a member of a multidisciplinary team.

In the process of training it is anticipated that each psychiatric fellow will acquire specialized clinical skills strongly grounded in a theoretical knowledge base, while learning to work effectively with allied mental health professionals. The advancement of qualities central to professional identity development, including a strong sense of patient responsibility, integrity, empathy and respect for patients, is emphasized.