The future of academic psychiatry may be seriously jeopardized by recent
funding cutbacks at federal and state levels. Hospitals and departments of
psychiatry are having to function as businesses, and full-time faculty are
increasingly concerned with profits, with less time for teaching. Shrinking
departmental resources make it necessary for faculty to assume the new
responsibility--in addition to their administrative, educational, and
teaching roles--of generating large portions of their own salaries from
private patient care revenues. Residents' opportunities to work with
psychotherapy patients are being compromised by financial considerations.
Other actual or potential consequences of the fiscal dilemma include
decreased teaching of medical students and lessened scholarly
productivity.Abstract Teaser