Geriatric Psychiatry

Welcome to the Geriatric Psychiatry Subspecialty Program at Queen’s University.

Program Overview:

We offer a 2-year Royal College (RC) accredited residency program. The program adheres to the Royal College Competence by Design Model (CBD) for geriatric psychiatry. The curriculum is organized around four graduated stages of training defined by the RC’s competence continuum including 1) Transition to Discipline, 2) Foundations of Discipline, 3) Core of Discipline, and 4) Transition to Practice. The stage-specific organization of the curriculum ensures that residents have an increasing level of professional responsibility as they demonstrate entrustment of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs).

Our program is notable as the first geriatric psychiatry program in the country to have implemented a competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum and training program since 2018. In July 2021 all geriatric psychiatry programs were transitioned to CBD, the Royal College framework of CBME. At Queen’s, we piloted the Royal College geriatric psychiatry EPAs in the 2020 academic year which has allowed us to trouble shoot challenges with the online educational platform, refine assessments, strategically design the rotation schedule in order to best achieve the EPAs, incorporate resident input, and engage in continuous quality improvement of the program.

Training is carried out at four sites in the Kingston area, each of which has a site director to help facilitate the residents’ learning activities. Rotations consist of clinical training experiences in various settings within geriatric psychiatry, which include inpatient, outpatient, outreach (home, retirement home, and long-term care), consultation-liaison, and shared care; geriatric medicine, and other medical and psychiatry electives based upon the resident’s interests (for example palliative care, sleep medicine, addictions, neurology etc.).

Some strengths of our program include the opportunity for the residents to work with richly collaborative multidisciplinary teams across different clinical settings; exposure to outreach visits in both urban and rural settings; and a close collaboration with our acute care hospitals, which also includes the Behaviour Supports Transition Unit. The division of geriatric psychiatry also has close ties and regular educational events with our geriatric medicine colleagues which lays a fertile ground for collaboration in education and research. Our division is academically orientated and there are numerous opportunities for the residents to engage in research in diverse areas including educational and clinical research, as well as several teaching opportunities at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. Training is tailored to suit the residents’ learning objectives, with protected time to meet the residents’ educational needs in addition to their clinical activities within the framework of the Royal College training requirements.

Academic time is also protected on off-service rotations.

The residents have access to a budget for educational resources and conferences.

The program director has an open-door policy in addition to formally meeting with the residents on a regularly-scheduled basis. There is an emphasis on resident wellness and safety, which is a topic discussed at each RPC and individually with residents as well. Each resident is assigned an academic advisor who meets with the resident regularly to monitor progress, review their electronic portfolio and mentor the resident to ensure their success in CBD.

The division of geriatric psychiatry is comprised of a very strong faculty complement with a national reputation for excellence in research and pioneering development in the field of geriatric psychiatry. Our faculty is actively involved in our national organization, the Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry (CAGP) as well as the CAGP online review course. Several of our residents have been supported by our faculty in research projects and have been recipients of the CAGP trainee awards. Our faculty members also play an active role in the Royal College Geriatric Psychiatry Specialty Committee.

A rich curriculum has been developed using the CBD framework that incorporates the new Royal College accreditation standards, geriatric psychiatry clinical training experiences, as well as CanMEDs roles at a subspecialist level. Faculty from various departments and divisions facilitate academic sessions, and the geriatric psychiatry faculty members participate actively in these sessions as well, leading to rich academic discussions.

Dr. Maria Hussain

Dr. Maria Hussain, MD, FRCPC
Geriatric Psychiatry Subspecialty Program Director

Learn more about Geriatric Psychiatry at Queen's University.

Application Process for 2025 Enrollment:

The geriatric psychiatry programs have joined the Medicine Subspecialty Match (MSM) via CaRMS, and applications will be accepted via the CaRMS portal. Please refer to the deadlines via the following link: (Please note that the geriatric psychiatry program description will not be available until July 11, 2024)

MSM (First Iteration) — Applicant Timeline - CaRMS

Our program accepts CMGs and IMGs currently enrolled in a Canadian general psychiatry residency program.

IMG applicants accepted into programs in Ontario have return of service (ROS) requirements mandated by the ministry. Please refer to the following link for details: www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/hhrsd/physicians/ros.aspx#IMG

Contact information:

For further questions or information about the program, please contact:

Dr. Maria Hussain, Program Director, at:

mh144@queensu.ca

Mr. Cortney Longfield, Program Administrator, at:

cortney.longfield@queensu.ca

Residents

Dr. Nimrit Bath is a current PGY-6 Geriatric Psychiatry subspecialty resident at Queen’s University. She completed her general psychiatry training at Queen’s as well and her medical schooling at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in Dublin, Ireland. Nimrit’s interests include leadership, advocacy, and medical education; she is currently the President of Resident Doctors of Canada (RDoC) and was previously involved in numerous leadership roles at the departmental, organizational, provincial, and national level in both Canada and Ireland. In her spare time, Nimrit enjoys hot yoga, reading vintage mystery novels, and playing board games with her family.

Dr. Raed Alawami is from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. He graduated from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University and completed his General Psychiatry residency in Saudi Arabia. During his residency, he developed an interest in geriatric psychiatry as a subspecialty, finding it to be an area of great interest, particularly due to its growth as a field.

Raed is passionate about quality improvement and leadership.

In his spare time, he enjoys reading,discovering new destinations, playing paddle tennis.

Learn more about Geriatric Psychiatry at Queen's University.

Application Process for 2025 Enrollment:

Residents

Geriatric Faculty

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