Division of Geriatric Psychiatry

The Mission of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, as part of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine, is to develop and maintain an environment in which education and research are integrated with exemplary patient care.

UCLA has been a national leader in geriatric psychiatry since 1977, when we opened the first University-hospital based geriatric psychiatry inpatient unit (3-South) in the USA. That unit was soon joined by an intensive outpatient program (the GDTS) and several outreach programs in the community. We also had one of the first National Institute of Mental Health-funded Fellowship programs in Geriatric Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology. Our first Fellow was Gary Small, M.D., who began his training in 1981, and we have trained scores of others since, many of whom have gone on successful careers in academia and the public and private sectors. Division status was conferred in 1998, and we continue to provide training for general psychiatry residents, medical students, and Fellows in geriatric psychiatry and clinical psychology. Division faculty also treat patients in a number of venues, and conduct cutting-edge research in the key mental disorders of old age.