Leading psychiatry forward: A message from the chair at Tufts Medical Center
Our clinical services at Tufts Medical Center include consult-liaison psychiatry for inpatient, emergency room and primary care settings, an independent addiction consult-liaison psychiatry service, inpatient units for medically and psychiatrically complex adult patients, and emergency and outpatient services for all age groups, including children and adolescents. We also have vital training, teaching and clinical care partnerships with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, where our faculty staff one of two forensic psychiatric hospitals and a long-term inpatient public mental health facility.
Tufts Medical Center is the principal teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine, and our department serves as the primary academic home for the Department of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. In addition, the Tufts Medicine system includes an affiliated network of hospitals and physicians caring for thousands of patients each year at major medical centers in Massachusetts and Maine, while training hundreds of medical students, residents and fellows.
Psychiatry is in a unique period in its long history. The complex, often misunderstood and stigmatized illnesses we treat are beginning to yield to advances in clinical investigation, including genetics and neuroimaging. New treatments — psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacologic — are being assessed in clinical trials and effectiveness studies. There is growing recognition of the large illness burden psychiatric disorders impose on quality of life, disability, mortality and co-morbid medical conditions. Our faculty and trainees are engaged as public citizens as well, providing care and donating their time across our city and around the world. From China to Haiti, Serbia and Tanzania, Tufts psychiatry faculty bring their expertise and compassion to communities in need.
In today’s often tumultuous political and social climate, we remain mindful of the long history of systemic racism and discrimination affecting so many of our patients, trainees and faculty. We are devoted to serving our diverse and vibrant communities and committed to continuously evaluating and addressing these issues as we work toward ending health disparities.
This is a unique time to train in psychiatry, and we are honored to advocate for our patients, communities, trainees and the future of our field as a whole.
Brent Forester, MD
Dr. Francis S. Arkin Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine
Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Tufts Medical Center
