Program Contacts

---

Important Information

Information sessions are being held in the Fall of 2025 (October/November).  Candidates will have the opportunity to learn about the Psychiatry Residency Program (London and Windsor), ask questions, and meet our residents and program directors.

For the CaRMS Town Hall Event registration and additional details about our program, please click here.

---

Return of Service

 This program has a return of service obligation attached to it.  Please review the provincial criteria for more information:  https://www.carms.ca/match/r-1-main-residency-match/eligibility-criteria/ontario/

---

General Instructions

Program application language: English

Western University will offer Psychiatry residency positions at two separate sites: 

Windsor campus - 4 spots (3 CMG / 1 IMG)

London campus - 9 spots (6 CMG / 3 IMG)

Organizationally, both sites are part of one program and CaRMS interviews for both sites will be conducted together.  However, there is a separate application for each site.  You may apply to one or both sites.

• Royal College accredited program (Accredited with 2-year follow-up) and subspecialty programs in Psychogeriatrics and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

• Interprovincial electives can be taken in the PGY-1, PGY-4, and PGY-5 years.

• International electives can be taken in the PGY-4 and PGY-5 years.

• Ratio of residents to faculty is very favourable.  Residents can expect to have 1:1 supervision on most rotations with supervisors who are dedicated to medical education.

• The size of the Windsor program allows for more direct supervision yet provides residents with exposure to the full breadth of psychiatric practice available in larger settings.

• The number of residents in the program fosters a sense of community and camaraderie within the resident body.

• There are no mandatory rural rotations, but we fully support and encourage the rural experience with support from Distributed Education Network (DEN) and Ontario Psychiatric Postgraduate Education Network (OPPEN).

• We provide residents with access to electronic medical information resources.

• Program strongly supports resident social activities.

The size of the program allows individual attention and regular one-to-one contact between faculty and residents.  The number of residents also facilitates cohesiveness.  Residents in psychiatry at Western come from medical schools across the country and around the world, adding richness and diversity to the group.

Residents take a very active and substantive role in the continuous quality improvement of the program.  Significant flexibility is offered in the selection of their rotations.

New residents coming to Windsor typically have no difficulty locating affordable accommodation in the city of Windsor.  Windsor remains a wonderful city for young families.

Medical work abounds in the area and the area is known for its centrality and ease of access to multiple U.S. and world cities.  Additional information about Windsor can be found at www.visitwindsoressex.com

---

Supporting Documentation / Information

---

Review Process

Applications submitted after file review has opened on March 17, 2026

Supporting documents (excluding letters of reference) that arrive after file review has opened  on  March 17, 2026

Letters of reference that arrive after the unmasking date on March 17, 2026

We will NOT accept any documents sent directly to our office.  We will only consider references and supporting documents submitted to the CaRMS site.

Selection Criteria

Our program is seeking candidates who have excellent interpersonal skills, good clinical judgment, high ethical and professional standards, and a geniune interest in psychiatry.  Selection is based on the dossier you submit, as well as the interviews on CaRMS day.  The interview segment is mandatory.  The strength of the applicants' academic record and demonstrated interest in psychiatry, as represented by the Medical Student Performance Record, medical school transcript, the personal letter, letters of reference, and the interview all factor into into the ranking of candidates.  A candidate's experience overcoming adversity and their connection with a parcitular community, where relevant.  We usually give selection preference to candidates who have graduated from medical school within the past 3 years.

Program goals

The Department of Psychiatry at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University is committed to providing residents with a comprehensive training program that will prepare them to be exceptional psychiatrists in whatever practice setting they choose.  We aim to provide residents with a mulifaceted and balanced educational experience that emphasizes biological, pychological, and sociocultural aspects of psychiatry practice and prepares them for lifelong learning.  Flexiblity is prioritized so the residents can customize their residency experience to suit their clinical and academic interests.  We endeavor to foster the growth and development of our residents so that they can be the psychiatrists they strive to be while meeting the needs of our patients and society.

Selection process goals

The Department of Psychiatry at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University emphasizes a culture of collaboration, excellence and compassion.  Our mission is to produce outstanding psychiatrists to serve the community, to contribute to academic endeavours and to advance the field of psychiatry.  We seek candidates who are curious to learn about the human mind and who are compassionate in the face of the suffering of others.  Demonstrated pursuit of excellence in medicine through learning clinical skills, teaching and research is essential to successful candidates.  Our program aims to have a group of residents with a diversity of skills, background experiences and interests that rounds out and strengthens our program.

File review process

Evaluation criteria :

Elective criteria

Interview process

Interview evaluation criteria :

Information gathered outside of CaRMS application

Specifically, we may consider:
Social interaction during program related events
Communication with program administration
Social media
Unsolicited reference letters
Unsolicited email references
Unsolicited verbal information on a candidate's prior performance
Unsolicited feedback from colleagues and co-workers

Ranking process

The behavior(s) exhibited below during the interview process may prevent an applicant from being ranked by our program :
Unprofessional or inappropriate behavior   
Did not attend interview   
Interview performance was not competitive   

---

Program Highlights

• Royal College accredited program.

• One block of orientation prior to the onset of service.  This is unique to our program.

• Favourable faculty to resident ratio, allowing for 1:1 supervision for residents.

• Excellent research supervisors and facilities.

• Resident Research Track.

• Royal College subspecialty training opportunities in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry.  The PGY-5 year can be used as the first year of subspecialty training.

• International electives available for senior residents.

• No mandatory rural rotations although rural rotations are fully supported and encouraged through DEN and OPPEN.

• National leader in resident preparation for Royal College OSCE exams.

• Graded call experience.

• Residents take on a very active role in the continuous quality improvement of the program with resident representation on most departmental committees.

• Very favourable cost of living and attractive lifestyle opportunities in the City of Windsor.

• As a relatively new program, you have a chance to help pioneer Psychiatry Residency training in the City of Windsor.

---

Program Curriculum

This residency program is for 5 years.

Program length of training does not exceed the Royal College or College of Family Physicians of Canada standard.

TEACHING SITES

All of the hospitals in Windsor are affiliated with Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.  Windsor excels in education and patient care.

Toldo Neurobehavioural Institute, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare:

• Inpatient and Outpatient treatments
• Mood disorders
• Schizophrenia and Psychotic disorders
• Dual Diagnosis
• Geriatric
• Concurrent Disorders
• ECT
• Consult Liaison

Windsor Regional Hospital: Ouellete Campus and Metropolitan Campus

• ER Psychiatry/On-Call
• Consult Liaison
• Inpatient
• Mental Health Assessment Unit

Maryvale:

• Child & Adolescent treatment centre

All of these facilities provide very comprehensive exposure to all aspects of Psychiatry and Medicine.

CURRICULUM

The educational needs of psychiatry trainees are paramount in Windsor.  The training program meets all Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) certification requirements.

YEAR 1

All programs in Windsor commence on July 1st.

The PGY-1 curriculum is designed to provide a superb introduction to the Department of Psychiatry and the areas of medicine relevant to a career in psychiatry.

The Psychiatry residency training program in Windsor has a very innovative block-long orientation program offered during July that is unique across the entire country.  It provides new residents with an extended period of time to grow accustomed to the city, as well as time to tour the many community agencies partnered with the hospital.

The PGY-2 to PGY-5 curriculum has been devised to fulfill current Royal College requirements.

• PGY-2: General Adult Psychiatry rotations (inpatient and outpatient)

• PGY-3: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry rotations

• PGY-4 and PGY-5: required rotations in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Shared Care, and Complex Care & Rehabilitation

The PGY-4 and PGY-5 years also include time for selective and electives rotations.

Throughout the PGY-2 to PGY-5 years, there are longitudinal learning experiences in Psychotherapy (CBT, DBT, Psychodynamic, Group, Supportive, Motivational Interviewing), Addictions, and Research.

ELECTIVES / SELECTIVES

Rotation selection is determined primarily by the particular interests and career goals of the individual residents and enables residents to undertake the broadest possible experience before making final career decisions.

Electives are available in collaborative (shared) mental health care services, community clinic consultations in and outside of Windsor, research projects, psychotherapy, psychogeriatrics, psychoses, mood and anxiety disorders, rural psychiatry, consultation-liaison, eating disorders, concurrent disorders, emergency psychiatry, and a growing number of other options.

PSYCHOTHERAPY

Training is conducted throughout the years of residency and includes formal seminars, individual and group supervision, interviewing skills seminars, and psychotherapy workshops.

Skilled supervision in many modalities is available, including CBT, DBT, Psychodynamic, Group, Supportive, and Motivational Interviewing.   

Protected time is provided throughout the PGY-2 to PGY-5 years in order to complete practical psychotherapy training hours.

CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY

The Department of Psychiatry in Windsor offers an excellent experience in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is very active with a wide range of experiences available in a variety of settings including inpatient, day treatment, outpatient, and telepsychiatry programs. 

Residents will have the opportunity to work in hospitals, children's mental health agencies, schools and other community agencies. Opportunities are also available in centres in London.

Training is available in a variety of therapies including family, group, individual, play, behaviour management, cognitive behavioural, interpersonal, dialectical behavioural, and psychopharmacology.

Many research opportunities are available in areas such as pervasive developmental disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, psychotropic medications, and psychotherapeutic interventions.

Formal subspecialty training is available for those residents interested in pursuing a career in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY

Geriatric Psychiatry is multi-disciplinary and has links with family medicine, geriatric medicine/physical rehabilitation, and neurology.  There is a regional geriatric psychiatry program, a geriatric community outreach program, an active geriatric consultation-liaison service, and significant opportunities for research.

Formal subspecialty training is available for those residents interested in pursuing a career in Geriatric Psychiatry.

RESEARCH

Residents are participating in research as part of their training, consistent with the Royal College training recommendations.

Training in research is provided as part of the teaching modules in the program.

The department has active research programs under the guidance of Dr. Priya Sharma who is a well-known researcher in multiple areas of psychopharmacology and will provide supervision and training in research.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Thursdays are devoted for educational purposes and residents are excused from clinical duties for scheduled educational activities.  Educational time is either a half day or full day depending on year of training.

Didactic teaching of core material is an important part of our training experience and has been integrated into the residents’ clinical schedule.

During the PGY-2 to PGY-4 years, core modules are taught, covering the topics of adult, child and adolescent, psychotherapy, and geriatric psychiatry.  The modules also include essential topics in forensic, social, administrative psychiatry, epidemiology, and research methodology.

Interviewing skills are emphasized throughout the four years of psychiatry specific training.  Interviewing sessions are geared towards preparation for the Standardized Assessment of a Clinical Encounter (STACER) examinations.  Successful completion of the STACER examination is required for Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certification.

Evaluation using the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) method is part of the spring Royal College examinations.  OSCE skills are also emphasized throughout the four years of psychiatry specific training at Western with monthly sessions utilizing what is probably the most extensive and formalized OSCE resource of any psychiatry residency training program in Canada.

Monthly resident facilitated evidence-based practice sessions are tutored by an expert in the field and Critically Appraised Topics (CATs) are prepared by the resident facilitator for each session which is then converted for web-based use by all psychiatry trainees at Western.

Western psychiatry residents have a very high success rate at Royal College examinations.

ON-CALL DUTIES

On-call will be coordinated through Windsor Regional Hospital.  On-call in Windsor is shared with the medical students in clerkship to provide a clinical teaching opportunity for the residents.  Senior residents are also provided with the opportunity to supervise and mentor junior residents while on call.

At this point, residents are not expected to stay in the hospital overnight and most on call duties are completed by 11:00 PM in the evening.

Consultant back-up will always be available.

---

Training Sites

Training Sites

All of the hospitals in Windsor are associated with Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and excel in education and patient care.

Teaching Hospitals

Windsor is in the midst of planning for and producing a super hospital but in the meantime we have three campuses.

Windsor Regional Hospital Ouellete: This site has 68 beds and offers a full range of medical services and psychiatric services. 

Metropolitan campus does not have any acute psychiatry beds but does provide consultation-liaison and may be a part of the resident's educational experience. 

Toldo Neurobehavioural Institute at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Tayfour Campus: Campus has a tertiary facility with 49 beds as well as a range of outpatient services for acute and chronic psychiatric disorders as well as developmental disabilities and dual diagnosis.

 

Additional Teaching Hospitals

The Windsor program is relatively new.  It is small, very intimate, and one of the great advantages of Windsor is the contact with the preceptors. 

It is an exciting time to be starting in Windsor and opportunities abound for a future in a very livable and very stable community.

---

Additional Information

The size of the Western University Psychiatry Residency Program allows for individual attention and regular one on one contact between residents and faculty - and yet, it is large enough to offer exposure to a wide variety of subspecialties and world class research opportunities.

The number of residents also facilitates cohesiveness.  Residents in psychiatry at Western come from medical schools across the country and around the world adding richness and diversity to the group. 

The training program offers a broad and exceptional range of learning opportunities including outstanding preparation for the Royal College exams and subspecialty opportunities.

All information contained is subject to change until such time as the rank order lists are filed.

Please ensure you review information on a regular basis.