This curriculum has been chosen as a model curriculum in family skills by the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training. The curriculum includes the theoretical basis of skills training from the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) Committee on the Family and the specific four year curriculum for general psychiatry residents at the U of Penn Psychiatry Department.

Today, with the rise in the popularity of psychopharmacology and the promise of biological interventions, there are fewer opportunities for family systems training within psychiatric residency programs. In order to receive family systems training, a psychiatrist may decide to enroll in an independent family training institute, such as the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York. However, there are still some psychiatric residency programs that consider learning to work with families to be an essential psychotherapeutic skill.

Physician burnout is increasingly discussed in the popular media and in residency programs. A little over a year into psychiatry residency, I have found that perspectives provided by anthropology have helped me in moments where I felt close to burnout.

I’m a fourth year medical student with a strong interest in working with the families of adults with SMI. I’ve been somewhat surprised to find that many within psychiatry are intrigued by my early interest in working with families. Perhaps this is because the literature suggests that mental health professionals do not value interactions with families enough to overcome the many obstacles to substantive interactions. Medical students often have more time than other clinicians to engage in extensive conversations with their patients’ families.