This contact fosters the development of skills in interdisciplinary communication. Forensic problems stimulate residents to become aware of the interrelationships of psychiatry and the law. An attending physician is also available for consultation with the psychiatry resident at all times, including evenings and weekends. Patients are presented at rounds attended by the supervising faculty, the residents on the service, the students on their clerkship and a psychiatric nurse specialist. Occasional attendees include a neuropsychologist and a representative from the graduate program in medical ethics.
Rounds serve an educational function and to organize and implement patient care.
The adult clinic is located in the Village at Vanderbilt. The patient population is typical of community mental health centers nationwide, and includes the chronically mentally ill, as well as the working poor with mental health needs who cannot afford private sector care. The Clinic is committed to providing excellence in clinical service in an academic atmosphere wherein training and research are ongoing concerns. To that end, VAC's objectives include the provision of exemplary clinical care within a managed care environment from a perspective that spans the life cycle, to support clinical and research training and to support multidisciplinary, collaborative research across clinical and basic sciences. The clinical services of the VAC have the capacity to provide graded levels of care as indicated by the individual patient's clinical severity, psychiatric comorbidity and medical complications.