In This Issue: October 2020
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EDITORIAL
In This Issue: October 2020 Adam M. Brenner 1 Published online: 15 September 2020 # Academic Psychiatry 2020
The October 2020 issue of Academic Psychiatry will appear as we begin another application and recruitment season for general psychiatry residency programs. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, programs are preparing for a virtual environment, and students are worrying about how this unprecedented format will affect their prospects. In this context, some of the perennial stresses of the match process will be felt even more acutely. Readers involved in the residency application process will probably have already noticed a growing anxiety among applicants in recent years about the match. It is even more important then that we pay attention to those students who do not receive a spot in the initial match or Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP) process. Bailey et al. [1] report on a 10-year review of a program designed to help unmatched students, and the accompanying editorial by Balon et al. [2] discusses the resources available to these students, calls on academic departments to develop programs on their behalf, and considers how to best provide guidance to the individual. Another question is whether to disclose a history of psychiatric illness in an application to psychiatry residency [3]. This decision has always been a very thorny one, and Pheister et al.’s report “The Impact of Mental Illness Disclosure in Applying for Residency” [4] is a valuable contribution to our literature. Unfortunately, their data suggest that applicants may still pay more of a price for disclosing a psychiatric illness compared with a medical illness. The study was not powered to answer the question of whether this bias and its consequences may be less in psychiatry programs than in other specialties. Aggarwal et al. [5] discuss the implications of this study and others for the practical advice we might offer to applicants. The topic of mental health treatment—and its stigma—for students and health care professionals is also addressed in
* Adam M. Brenner [email protected] 1
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
Goldenberg and Wilkins’ [6] thoughtful reflection on the challenges to privacy and boundaries when a medical student becomes an inpatient on a teaching service. Goldberg et al. [7] also address some of the complex dynamics of treating a fellow professional, but they shift the focus to the realm of providing outpatient therapy for other therapists. We in academic psychiatry are often aware of the need to maintain a boundary, lest psychotherapy supervision shade into psychotherapy treatment of the trainee. But there is also a parallel tension— how to help a patient who is a therapist and whose material inevitably includes accounts of their work with their patients, without slipping into a posture of supervision. Because the tasks of managing the parallel developments of our professional and personal selves are inevitably intertwined, this job is complex and subtle! Alt
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