Subspecialty Training in Psychiatry

UBC Psychiatry Subspecialty training is provided in a variety of clinical sites and in diverse populations, offering innovative approaches to mental health care delivery.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Welcome to the UBC Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Subspecialty Training Program

PROGRAM DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UBC has an excellent clinical and academic program and a strong commitment to teaching. The Division and Department Heads work closely with the CAP Program Committee. Our enthusiastic faculty have a broad range of expertise in child psychiatric disorders, psychotherapy, and research.

Training to become a child psychiatrist takes two years and occurs in the PGY5 and PGY6 year with entry into the CAP program at the start of the PGY5 year.  With permission from the relevant CAP program directors, residents may pursue electives at other programs during their training.

The UBC Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program is a distributed site program with primary training locations in Vancouver, Surrey, Victoria, and Prince George. Residents may choose their primary training sites after matching to UBC CAP and often elect to rotate at other sites flexibly during their two years. Each training site has unique strengths with dedicated and enthusiastic supervisors who provide a wide variety of training opportunities.

We pride ourselves on being a flexible program that responds to each resident’s career goals and individual needs while ensuring that every resident has a well-rounded and rich training. At UBC, we believe you have spent enough time in general training on meeting requirements; now is the time to sculpt your education in the way most relevant to you.

Specific strengths include a diverse range of clinical experiences and specialized training opportunities across BC:

CAP Orientation Resident Social at Granville Island on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UBC has an excellent clinical and academic program and a strong commitment to teaching. The Division and Department Heads work closely with the CAP Program Committee. Our enthusiastic faculty have a broad range of expertise in child psychiatric disorders, psychotherapy, and research.

The UBC Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program (CAP) is an RCSPC accredited program that follows the RCPSC training requirements in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. There are four distributed sites across BC. Clinical training occurs in hospitals and community settings in Vancouver, Surrey, Vancouver Island (Victoria), and Prince George.

Training to become a child psychiatrist takes two years and occurs in the PGY5 and PGY6 year with entry into the CAP program at the start of the PGY5 year. Entry may occur in the PGY6 year if the Resident has already completed one year of child psychiatry training in a RCSPC accredited CAP program. Some residents choose to complete PGY5 rotations in the institution of their general psychiatry training.

Academic Curriculum

The academic curriculum has been modified with the implementation of Competency By Design. The residency program is divided into 4 stages: Transition to Discipline, Foundations, Core (of Discipline) and Transition to Practice. 

The academic program is designed to meet the standards of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. 

Our curriculum runs in both the PGY5 and PGY6 years.  During PGY5, there is a full academic day on Thursdays covering Transition to Discipline, Foundations and Core topics such as; DSM5 disorders, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, ethics, research, patient experience, professionalism, advocacy and special areas. Flex time is provided weekly from 3-5pm. During the PGY6 year, academic half-days occur half a day weekly. The PGY6 curriculum continues to round out core topics in CAP while adding Transition to Practice topics such as dealing with adverse events, media relations, billing and setting up practice. Academic days may be attended by developmental pediatrics residents, psychology residents, and psychiatry fellows, an inter-disciplinary experience that has been highly rated by all participants.

Clinical Training Sites

Vancouver – British Columbia Children’s Hospital (BCCH) – 4500 Oak St, Vancouver, BC V6H 3N1There are a number of inpatient and outpatient clinics and services at BCCH. There are child, adolescent, crisis, and eating disorder inpatient units, as well as a consultation-liaison service. The outpatient clinic consists of the Teaching/General Psychiatry, Infant, Mood and Anxiety, ADHD, Neuropsychiatry, Reproductive Psychiatry, Outpatient C-L and Gender Clinics. There is a province-wide multi-disciplinary indirect consultation service at BCCH (COMPASS) as well as telehealth program (TOPS). Both can be accessed fully remotely from any other training site. The psychotherapy program is very strong and runs a family therapy clinic as well as provides supervision for different psychotherapy modalities. There are a large number of group psychotherapies for children/youth and families at BCCH as well.

Surrey – Surrey Memorial Hospital – 13750 96 Ave, Surrey, BC V3V 1Z2: There are two inpatient psychiatric services that provide tertiary psychiatric assessments and treatment to children and adolescents throughout the Fraser Health Authority.   One is a short stay crisis stabilization unit and one is a longer stay ward for diagnostic clarification and treatment.  On call opportunities are also available: they serve both our emergency room and medical wards. The Outpatient Department consists of an Infant Clinic, General Teaching Clinic, Family Therapy Clinic, Eating Disorders Clinic, Youth Concurrent Disorders Clinic, Short Term Assessment and Treatment Clinic for youth in crisis, the Transition Team, for youth coming out of the Emergency Department or in patient wards, as well the Adolescent Day Treatment Program Teaching.   The outpatient clinics cover different geographic regions including Fraser North (Burnaby, Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows), Fraser South (Surrey, Langley), and Fraser East (Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Hope).

Prince George – University Hospital of Northern British Columbia (UHNBC) – 1475 Edmonton St, Prince George, BC V2M 1S2In Prince George, inpatient services for child psychiatry include APAU, Pediatrics, and a few other medical units. APAU is for mental health assessments and treatment of adolescents for Prince George and the region. The outpatient mental health services include Childhood Development Center, Eating Disorders, Private Office, School-based mental health, Foundry and Intersect Youth and Family Services. Many PG residents train locally in mentalization-based psychotherapy.

Vancouver Island – Ledger/Anscomb and Victoria General Hospital – 1 Hospital Way, Victoria, BC V8Z 6R5The inpatient child and adolescent facilities in Victoria are located at Victoria General Hospital for the acute management of patients presenting with psychiatric issues and Ledger for those patients who require more than several days of inpatient hospitalization. There are a variety of outpatient experiences that are continuing to evolve over time. The primary outpatient experiences are at Anscomb, EPI (early psychosis intervention) and the Child and Youth Mental Health Teams. There is a day treatment program and DBT program at Anscomb. There is also an Island-based virtual care clinic and a neuropsychiatry outpatient practice.

Vacation Days and Leaves

Residents are entitled to 2 weeks of vacation (10 working days) every 6 months, 5 days educational leave every 12 months and 2 flex days every 12 months.

Residents are entitled to a day(s) in lieu if they are scheduled to start work on a statuary holiday. Day(s) in lieu must be arranged within 12 months on the day it is earned.

Residents must submit their vacation requests using the vacation form to the Education Coordinator by email.

Training Experiences

Royal College Certified Specialists supervise all training. Training experiences are planned to ensure necessary exposure to clinical experiences to meet training requirements in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and to leverage observation opportunities for Entrustable Professional Activities at each stage.

A wide variety of training experiences are offered along with flexibility in organizing rotations longitudinally or in blocks. We also support the creation of new electives to meet your career goals. We have information about all required, recommended and elective rotations in our Training Experiences Catalog. NB: “Training Experiences” refers to adequate experience in a given area, not necessarily a full clinical rotation.

While UBC offers flexibility in rotation choice, Royal College (RC) Required CAP clinical training experiences for all CAP programs include the following:

  • Emergency Psychiatry/ Crisis response services
  • Inpatient (min. 3 months at UBC; choice of child, adolescent, general, short-stay and general unit(s))
  • Outpatient (min. 3 months at UBC; choice of general, subspecialty, hospital, community options)
  • Community mental health (many options)
  • Rural or underserved communities or populations (many options)
  • Consultation-Liaison

To meet training requirements, UBC CAP residents are also recommended to complete the following recommended rotation(s):

  • Infant Mental Health

There are opportunities to complete electives in many areas such as:

  • OCD Summer Camp, OCD Clinic and treatment groups
  • Mind Body Together Group (for pediatric somatization)
  • Private Practice
  • Day Treatment
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Infant Mental Health
  • COMPASS (indirect consultation to providers provincially and some direct assessments to Northern/Rural areas)
  • University/College Student Health
  • Ambulatory Subspecialty Clinics (Infant, OCD, Neuropsychiatry, ADHD, Telehealth (TOPS), Mood and Anxiety, Gender, Consultation-Liaison)
  • Youth Forensics
  • Social pediatrics/ RICHER program
  • Reproductive Psychiatry
  • Early Psychosis Intervention
  • Medical Education, Leadership, Advocacy, QI
  • Substance use assessment and treatment (SURF, Foundry)
  • School consultation
  • Residential Treatment (Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre)
  • Many more!!

Psychotherapy Training

All CAP residents are required to complete training is Family Therapy, Parental Skill Development and one other psychotherapeutic modality. UBC offers extensive psychotherapy opportunities and supervision by multidisciplinary experts.

Family Therapy: options for co-therapy and/or indirect supervision with video review for a minimum of one case over 6 months. Residents may participate in family therapy clinic rounds or group supervision with resident colleagues.

Parental Skill Development: options for behavioral treatment for disruptive behavior (group or parent-coaching), Circle of Security Parenting, Parent components of CBT or DBT groups and more.

Other psychotherapy options: IPT-A, DBT (full or partial), CBT for OCD, selective mutism treatment, play therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, mind-body together group (somatization), mentalization-based therapy, TF-CBT, motivational interviewing, program support to pursue outside training as appropriate.

PROCESS FOR APPLICATION

Important Dates | 2025

  • July 10th, 2025, 9:00am PST – CaRMS Online Opens for Applicants
  • August 18th, 2025, 18:00pm PST – Reference Submission
  • August 19th, 2025, 9:00am PST – Application Deadline – Applications and all required documents must be submitted.
  • August 29th, 2025 – Interview Invitations Extended to Applicants
  • September 10th, 2025 and possibly September 11th, 2025 morning – Interviews
  • October 9th, 2025, 12:00pm PST – Applicants rank order lists deadline
  • October 22nd, 2025, 9:00am PST – MATCH Day

Eligibility for Residency Program in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP)

At this time, the UBC Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) ONLY accepts residents through our Selections process. We will be participating in the CaRMS Match in 2025. CAP Program is a 2 year accredited subspecialty training program. Please see below criteria for eligibility.

Criteria:

The candidate’s application package will include:

Note: At least one reference letter should be from a child and adolescent psychiatrist with knowledge of your recent clinical work. 

The CAP Program Director will also contact your General Psychiatry Program Director or Associate Program Director by email and/or phone. The questions asked are standardized for every applicant, and an applicant isn’t negatively impacted if their PD is not available/not willing to provide a response. 

Reference letters must follow specific guidelines. To review the guidelines, please click on the link below:

SELECTION OF CANDIDATES 

We are looking for the following qualities from applicants:

  • Clinical and communication skills
  • Sense of responsibility and maturity
  • Self-appraisal and Psychological mindedness
  • Interpersonal relatedness
  • Adaptability and open-mindedness
  • Social mindedness and awareness
  • Motivation to enter child psychiatry
  • Diversity of experience
  • Notable personal achievements
  • Research, Teaching, Advocacy and Leadership
  • Interest in serving the population of British Columbia

Forensic Psychiatry

Welcome to the UBC Forensic Psychiatry Subspecialty Training Program

Program Director: Dr. Kulwant Riar, Associate Program Director: Dr. Barinder Singh

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The University of British Columbia offers a one-year PGY6 Forensic Psychiatry Training Program. The program is accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and meets their training requirements in Forensic Psychiatry. Psychiatrists who successfully complete the training program will be eligible to write the Royal College certification examination in Forensic Psychiatry. This PGY6 training position is funded through the University of British Columbia under the terms of the Collective Agreement for PAR-BC Professional Association of Residents of British Columbia.

PROCESS FOR APPLICATION

Eligibility for Residency Program in Forensic Psychiatry Subspecialty

At this time, the UBC Forensic Psychiatry Subspecialty Program ONLY accepts residents through the CaRMS Medicine Subspecialty Match into the Subspecialty Training Program.

Criteria: 

Candidates will submit their application through the CaRMS portal. The application may include, but is not limited to:

SELECTION OF CANDIDATES

We are looking for the following qualities from applicants:

Geriatric Psychiatry

Welcome to the UBC Geriatric Psychiatry Subspecialty Training Program

Program Director: Dr. Ashok Krishnamoorthy

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

UBC was given official standing as a training site for Geriatric Psychiatry in 2012. This is a 24-month program to train residents in Geriatric Psychiatry to be able to write the Subspecialty Royal College Exam. Geriatric Psychiatry, a psychiatric subspecialty, focuses on the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of complex mental disorders uniquely occurring in late life.

Geriatric Psychiatry is focused on providing care for intensive need patients and their caregivers at the end of the life cycle, a time when many complex physical and mental health issues coalesce. Geriatric Psychiatry organizes service delivery of psychiatric care to the elderly in multidisciplinary teams and in locations that best serve the needs of this elderly population. Geriatric Psychiatry is engaged in advocacy and development of health policy and planning related to late life mental illness and mental health, caregiver and care provider support, and systems of care.

The goals of the program include creating a resident who is expected to be a competent specialist in Geriatric Psychiatry and capable of assuming a consultant’s role in the subspecialty. The residents must also acquire a working knowledge of the theoretical basis of the specialty and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Requirements for Geriatric Psychiatry Training.

The UBC Program follows the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons training requirements in Geriatric Psychiatry.

The Royal College requirements include 24 months of approved residency follows the Royal College CBME model and residents progress through four stages of Competency based training:

  • Transition to discipline
  • Foundations of discipline
  • Core of discipline
  • Transition to practice

Training is delivered across three sites

PROCESS FOR APPLICATION

Eligibility for Residency Program in Geriatric Psychiatry Subspecialty

Criteria: 

Candidates will submit their application through the CaRMS portal. The application may include, but is not limited to:

Reference letters must follow specific guidelines. To review the guidelines, please click on the link below:

SELECTION OF CANDIDATES

  • Motivation to enter the field of Geriatric Psychiatry
  • Knowledge about Geriatric Psychiatry as a career
  • Clinical and communication skills
  • Self-appraisal and Psychological mindedness
  • Interpersonal relatedness, social mindedness and awareness
  • Adaptability and open-mindedness
  • Sense of responsibility and maturity
  • Diversity of experience
  • Notable personal achievements
  • Research, Teaching, Advocacy and Leadership