Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Recruitment: Crisis or Opportunity?

The increasing number of elderly patients with psychiatric disorders has led to a shortage of psychiatrists with specialty training in geriatric psychiatry. Despite the emergence of a critical mass of faculty and a steady growth in the number of fellowship training programs, increasing subspecialization in general psychiatry, a dwindling fellowship applicant pool, ageism, and financial concerns have contributed to a potential recruitment crisis. The author discusses such problems and describes strategies to solve them, including providing role models, developing award programs and affinity groups, securing program funding, sharing resources, refining program focus, balancing practice patterns, assisting in practice transitions, and marketing aggressively.