CUTLERVILLE, Mich. — Some relief will finally come to Michiganders who are having frequent trouble accessing behavioral healthcare services, as 94% of Pine Rest's 2022 residency and fellowship graduates have chosen to work in the state.
That percentage of the 17-member graduating class of post-doctorate psychiatry have decided to accept corresponding positions in West Michigan. Pine Rest itself will be welcoming 65% of them. This "new wave" of psychiatrists will offer more and better access to those in need, alongside programs providing a national pipeline for talent during the state's "crisis-level" shortage.
The residency program is affiliated with the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and works to expand behavioral healthcare opportunities for students and officers training through experiences in inpatient hospital care, as well as a specially-designed outpatient psychiatry clinic, community mental health, residential, emergency psychiatry and more.
Though only established in 2014, the program expanded to increase the number of trainees each year and started psychiatry programs for specialties in child and adolescent, geriatric, forensic and addiction in 2018.
Just recently, Traverse City, one of the more alarming cities in the shortage, has been given a rural track to assist training psychiatrists in Northern Michigan.
A great reputation has preceded the program, ranking as one of the top two programs in Michigan, top 30% in the Midwest and the nation for reputation by Doximity.
“So many Michiganders, our friends and neighbors, have experienced the struggle of finding a behavioral health provider in their time of crisis - particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. The fact that so many of Pine Rest’s psychiatry residents and fellows have committed to living and working in Michigan is good news for all of us who live and work here,” said Mark Eastburg, President and CEO at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services. “The Pine Rest team is passionate about improving access to behavioral healthcare and the psychiatry residency and fellowship programs are one of dozens of strategies we are working on because it impacts the people we know and love."
Pine Rest is the single largest behavioral health provider in Michigan and the third-largest in the country.
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