What is the PCFA?

The Psychiatric Clinical Faculty Association (PCFA) is a 501(c)(3) California corporation based in Los Angeles, California. The organization is dedicated to teaching the art and science of psychiatry to trainees at the Semel Institute at UCLA.  Membership consists of UCLA clinical professors who volunteer their time and energies to teach medical students and residents across a variety of settings, including clinical supervision, on-site staffing, seminars, lectures and mentoring.

PCFA contributes expertise to the clinical curriculum of the residency training programs and provides funds for residency activities. It also serves its members by representing them in the university and by providing ongoing educational activities.

MISSION STATEMENT

Please click each statement for additional information.

❯ Foster the goals of the organization as a whole

  1. To promote and enhance the education in clinical psychiatry of all UCLA psychiatric residents, medical students and other health science trainees.

  2. To represent the interests of the UCLA psychiatric clinical faculty in areas relating to our professional activities within the university.

  3. To support the efforts of the administration and full-time faculty members in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in advancing scientific knowledge, instilling professional standards and improving the mental health of our patients and the public at large.

  4. To participate actively in teaching and preserving those components of professional identity that involve the doctor-patient and the psychotherapeutic relationship.

❯ Promote current implementation strategies

  1. The Shirley Hatos Rogawski and Twenty-First Century Psychiatry Prizes: Now $2,500 each, these awards are given annually to the psychiatry residents who write the best scholarly papers on topics relevant to the advancement of psychiatry.

  2. The Distinguished Psychiatrist Seminar Series: For many years we have sponsored lectures for departmental trainees and faculty by nationally-renowned figures, including Drs. James Masterson, Glenn Gabbard, Ethel Person, Robert Michels. Otto Kernberg, Robert Neborsky, Lenore Terr, Vamik Volkan, Roy Menninger, Russell Meares, Richard Green, Peter Kramer and Allen Frances.

  3. The Psychotherapy Training Program: Members of the PCFA. provide participatory learning experiences in the psychotherapeutic process to psychiatric residents. Funds collected are managed by the PCFA Executive Committee and allocated on behalf of the Psychiatric Residency Training Program towards residents’ training activities.

  4. The Clinical Faculty Database: The PCFA wholeheartedly supports the administratively challenging goal of creating a comprehensive computer database which facilitates clinical teaching and supervision by keeping better track of the professional interests, activities and accomplishments of the clinical faculty.

  5. Departmental Committee Participation: The PCFA sends representatives to promote its mission on the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Steering Committee, the Volunteer Clinical Faculty Academic Appointments and Advancements Committee, the Residency Oversite Committee and the Child Psychiatry Training Advisory Committee.

  6. Distinguished Clinical Faculty Recognition: Clinical faculty with thirty to forty years of outstanding teaching are being selected, one per month, to meet with the residents for an hour to discuss any topic of their choice. Those clinical faculty members are then being honored with special certificates at the Annual Meeting. In addition, we are, from time to time, honoring the lifetime achievement of certain outstanding faculty members.

  7. PCFA Annual Meeting: The clinical faculty meets each year to award prizes, to receive updates from the department and the training directors and to discuss issues pertinent to its mission.

  8. Monthly meetings of the PCFA Executive Committee and Quarterly PCFA Board Meetings: The officers of the PCFA and members of the Executive Committee meet regularly on the first Wednesday of the month to hear reports from representatives on departmental committees, to develop and coordinate all mission-oriented activities, and to manage the budget, which consists of voluntary contributions collected from PCFA members, income from the Psychotherapy Training Program, Doran and Terzian book fund donations, the Lipschultz Fund and potential philanthropic donations. The full Board meets quarterly.

  9. Other implementations: through our widespread involvement in supervision, lectures, seminars and workshops for trainees at all levels, we continue to seek improved ways to accomplish our mission as we “vote with our feet” for the highest standards of balanced clinical education in psychiatry.

❯ Continue pursuing recent strategies

  1. Optimization of existing computer-based technology
  2. Internet-based Information Services
  3. Resident participation on the Executive Committee