Higher Graduate Diploma Program in Clinical Medical Sciences (Geriatric Psychiatry)

The mission of this program is to train psychiatrists to become experts in Geriatric Psychiatry—a specialized medical field dedicated to geriatric mental health and psychiatric care. This discipline demands both broad and in-depth expertise to keep pace with rapid academic advancements, while remaining highly responsive to the context of Thai society. Graduates from this subspecialty fellowship program are expected to possess the following core qualifications:

• Clinical Expertise and Patient Care: Demonstrate comprehensive, context-appropriate clinical knowledge and competencies in Geriatric Psychiatry. Provide patient-centered, holistic, safe, and effective care with compassion, operating independently without the need for supervision.
• Professionalism and Interpersonal Skills: Maintain high standards of professional behavior and ethics. Demonstrate appropriate conduct, excellent communication skills, and positive interpersonal relationships with patients, families, and colleagues across multidisciplinary teams.
• Academic Leadership and Research: Possess research capabilities to generate new scientific knowledge, display academic leadership, and demonstrate effective management and collaborative teamwork.
• Social Responsibility and Ethics: Practice with integrity, social accountability, and strict adherence to psychiatric codes of ethics and professional standards.
• Personal Development and Systems-Based Practice: Demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning, maintain personal well-being and balance, and understand the national healthcare system, quality improvement processes, efficient healthcare resource utilization, and health promotion.

Psychiatrists who complete the subspecialty training in Geriatric Psychiatry must demonstrate minimum qualifications, knowledge, and capabilities across the following six core competencies:

1. Patient Care

• Clinical Skills: Possess expertise in interviewing, physical examination, Mental Status Examination (MSE), and the application of essential assessment tools to screen, evaluate, diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate elderly patients, including those with co-occurring physical illnesses or psychiatric comorbidities, in accordance with academic standards and evidence-based medicine.
• Prevention and Mental Health Promotion: Demonstrate knowledge and skills in disease prevention and mental health promotion in the elderly population.
• Holistic and Patient-Centered Care: Deliver holistic, patient-centered care with an emphasis on rational, effective, and safe medication use.

2. Medical Knowledge and Skills

• Possess fundamental knowledge in mental health, psychology, medical sciences, and social sciences necessary for geriatric psychiatric practice.
• Demonstrate up-to-date, evidence-based knowledge of geriatric psychiatry tailored to various clinical contexts.
• Possess standard psychiatric practice skills appropriate to the operational context.
• Maintain complete, accurate, and consistent medical record documentation.

3. Interpersonal and Communication Skills

• Clinical Case Presentation: Effectively present patient data and discuss clinical problems.
• Academic Advising and Training: Transfer knowledge and skills, provide consultations, and offer guidance in geriatric psychiatry to doctors, medical students, and healthcare professionals.
• Patient and Family Communication: Communicate accurate clinical information to patients and families effectively, with compassion, respect for patient autonomy, and human dignity.
• Interprofessional Relationships: Demonstrate good interpersonal skills and collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary team members at all levels.

4. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

• Research and Critical Appraisal: Critically appraise academic literature and conduct medical and public health research.
• Critical Thinking: Demonstrate clinical critical thinking and apply evidence-based medicine in practice.
• Self-Directed Learning: Continuously learn, refine skills, and build professional expertise through self-directed clinical practice in geriatric psychiatry.

5. Professionalism

• Ethics and Attitudes: Maintain moral and ethical standards, demonstrating positive attitudes toward patients, families, colleagues, interprofessional team members, and the community.
• Self-Reflection and Management: Possess self-reflection skills for personal development and manage clinical/situational challenges appropriately.
• Continuous Professional Development: Demonstrate commitment to lifelong learning to sustain and enhance professional knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors in geriatric psychiatry, responding to evolving patient and societal needs.
• Responsibility and Altruism: Demonstrate accountability for assigned tasks and prioritize the public interest.

6. Systems-Based Practice

Understand the national healthcare system, quality improvement frameworks, and optimal healthcare resource utilization. Clinical practice must adhere to the following principles:

• Contextual Alignment: Align practice with Thailand’s healthcare system, clinical quality improvement standards, legal/judicial frameworks, and socio-cultural contexts for the elderly.
• Patient Rights and Safety: Prioritize patient safety and uphold patient rights.
• Cost-Conscious Medicine: Demonstrate awareness of cost-conscious medical practice and adapt geriatric psychiatric care appropriately within the public health context, while adhering to professional standards.