Psychiatry Residency
Welcome
We are pleased that you are interested in becoming a psychiatrist and are considering our program. Research has shown that mental health is essential to an individual’s overall health and productivity. Mental health is the fountainhead of an individual’s daily function. Without good mental health daily thinking, communication, learning, and resilience become impaired. Psychiatry applies medical, cultural, and psychosocial knowledge to the treatment of patients in a manner that brings hope and improvement to the person’s overall health and quality of life.
Our residency is an emerging and growing program at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, School of Medicine. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited our program in 2015. The residency features a scientific yet humanistic process of cumulative experience and development. We are proud of our dedicated medical school faculty and coordinating staff who have a track record of teaching, program development, clinical experience, and research. The program features institutional partners and mentors across departments and schools including psychology, neuroscience, public health, social work, and research.
We are equally honored to partner with institutions across the region who provide critical mental health services to children, adolescents, adults, elders, and families across this four-county region. Our community faculty has met the challenge of pioneering a new program with skill, empathy, and enthusiasm which furthermore provides a welcoming community of mentors to our residents.
Mission Statement
At UTRGV our mission is to train psychiatric residents to provide excellent and high-quality health care to all, especially the underserved populations within the Rio Grande Valley. The experience is designed to produce knowledgeable and skilled psychiatrists who are passionate about caring for children, adolescents, adults, elders, and families as clinicians, teachers, researchers, and advocates.
This program aims to produce knowledgeable and skilled psychiatrists who:
- have a solid foundation in clinical, educational, administrative and scholarly aspects of practice;
- are compassionate and altruistic;
- are ethical and professional;
- prioritize collaboration and advocacy;
- are interested in working with a range of populations, including the underserved;
- are skilled at independent, self-initiated, creative analytic thinking and problem solving;
- use technology and other resources to effectively support and enhance psychiatric practice;
- aspire to lead in the field of psychiatry.
Diana Chapa, MD
Chair and Program Director
David Valdez, MD
Associate Program Director
Ivette C. Torres, BA, CCRP
GME Program Coordinator