By the fourth year, residents are able to take on substantial clinical, administrative, teaching and consulting responsibilities. Interested residents also have the opportunity to participate in conferences that prepare them for later jobs in hospital or public mental health administration, or to undertake a clinical research project. Established in the 1920's by Wisconsin psychiatrist Ernest Bullard, Chestnut Lodge became world-renowned for its psychodynamic therapies for schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders. Never Promised You a Rose Garden, about her treatment by Frieda Fromm-Reichman. Today Chestnut Lodge is a model system for multi-tiered, community treatment of serious and persistent mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe personality disorders.
Programs provide treatment both for children and adults.
An important recent innovation has been the collaboration is has pioneered between its system of privately funded psychiatric care and the public psychiatry services of Maryland. While integrating new treatment methods and models for psychiatric services, Chestnut has continued to prioritize psychiatric research and training for all mental health disciplines. Chestnut Lodge funds training for GW medical students and a senior GW psychiatry resident who seeks specialization in the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and severe personality disorders. With its four neighborhood centers in Washington and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, Whitman Walker is the largest provider of such services in the Washington metropolitan area. Whitman-Walker Clinic also operates the AIDS Information Line for the District of Columbia.