These contract negotiations take place during the first few weeks of community placement and are put in writing. They are designed to meet the educational objectives of the program, as well as the needs of the resident and the community agency. Considerable flexibility is possible in the specific details of the contract, but residents are allowed to spend no more than 50 percent of their time in direct clinical services. Special electives in public psychiatry are also offered in PGY-4. These include additional community or state hospital rotations, as well as geriatric, forensic, transcultural, community support, child and adolescent, administrative, and research experiences.
All electives are closely supervised and offer a range of clinical and didactic experiences.