The Silver Hill Academy for Research and Education (SHARE)

The mission of the Silver Hill Academy for Research and Education (SHARE) is to provide education for mental health providers regarding the best available treatment in the care of complex mental disorders and addiction, and to stimulate curiosity for ongoing, lifelong learning. We accomplish this through our vision of establishing lasting relationships with mental health providers interested in learning and advancing together the frontier of our field through continued scholarship.

SHARE has marched with great success toward its mission and vision in just a short time, and we are enthusiastic about our programming opportunities. Through our expanded training and continuing education programs, we have been able to reach clinicians around the nation and around the world.

We have expanded our reach through continuing medical education (CME) to physicians around the nation and to social workers and psychologists in Connecticut and New York. Through partnerships with other organizations, we have also created programming that provides continuing education for other disciplines.

Through this expansion, and the creation of unique programming, we have seen our participation rates grow rapidly.

Our audience for Grand Rounds educational presentations has grown from approximately 60 people to an average of 150, with peak audience size above 250. Participants now join from around the nation. Grand Rounds presentations are open to the public as well. Come join us! View our upcoming programming here.

We have also partnered with Project ECHO in several ways, including a virtual telementoring educational platform aimed at spreading knowledge for the treatment of diseases. It is in 118 nations and every U.S. state. We have partnered in several unique ways:

1. Virtual Grand Rounds

Silver Hill Hospital’s Virtual Grand Rounds are a no-cost opportunity to share knowledge and ideas with providers from all disciplines of mental health. They represent a unique learning experience in which providers earn continuing education credits and have an opportunity to learn from experts in the field with an opportunity for questions and a discussion during each presentation. We are excited and honored to welcome participants dialing in from around the nation.

2. The Silver Hill/Mentalizing Initiative ECHO focused on Patient Connection 

In conjunction with the Mentalizing Initiative in Los Angeles, we have created a unique pilot program based on the concepts of attachment, reflective functioning, and mentalization. This program features a 20-minute didactic, followed by a case, and then a facilitated discussion where participants online can join and share their thoughts and questions. We are seeing participation from clinicians in 15 states and multiple nations, including Canada and Mexico. Many clinicians are new to these ideas, though many are seasoned providers who are experts in these areas and are excited to have a community to join and discuss ideas and cases. We have received outstanding feedback from participants as well as tremendous gratitude for the creation of this program. 

3. The Project ECHO Behavioral Health Clinician Resilience Program

This is a program sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) through a competitive grant process. A hub team of experts in resilience from around the nation develop curriculum and lead discussions each week with clinicians focused on various aspects of resilience. Resilience champions from Silver Hill Hospital – Jeff Katzman, MD, Steve Xenakis, MD, Matt DeBernardis, and Sarah Heines – have been critical members of the hub team. Participants have come from 45 states and 18 nations.

The program is based on a model created by Jeff Katzman, MD, Steve Xenakis, MD, and Matt DeBernardis for Project ECHO working with first responders. During the pandemic, this program supported over 600 clinicians in a single call that taught resilience skills. The most recent HRSA program has reached over 1,500 providers from multiple fields and disciplines in medicine. The presentations teach resilience skills and are led by resilient organizations from hub team members as well as other national leaders. This has led to the development of a workbook currently in press and due out in August 2023. The book will be freely available around the world to help build resilience in the face of burnout facing health care providers.

Find below a chart with national participation by state in this program. Additionally, India is using the curriculum in the implementation of a similar resilience-focused program for over 300 providers. Details of the program were presented at the American Psychiatric Association in May 2023 and will be shared at the Meta-ECHO conference in Albuquerque in September 2023.

4. Internal Continuing Education Programs

Additionally, staff at Silver Hill can tune into educational programming to engage in lifelong learning through SHARE. These include case conferences through Argent and our neuropsychiatric program. At any time, approximately 15 learners participate to advance their learning and share knowledge and experience.

It has become competitive to become a learner at the doctoral level at Silver Hill. We receive applications from around the nation for the few spots available. The opportunities include:

1. Psychology Interns – two individuals work with us and the William Alanson White Institute for their final clinical year before receiving their PhD.
2. Psychology Post-Doctoral Fellows, we have advanced from one to three fellows. They have completed their internship and work at Silver Hill full-time immersed in various clinical and educational activities.
3. Psychiatry Residents – we have initiated a program whereby one senior Psychiatry resident who has completed medical school and three years of a four-year psychiatry residency from Yale will join us again for the year, augmenting the relationship with the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
4. Medical Students – we have launched a new program with the CUNY medical school for fourth-year medical students planning to become psychiatrists. Five have elected to spend a month at Silver Hill Hospital learning about the treatment of complex psychiatric conditions and addiction across an interdisciplinary system of care.
5. Social Work Interns – we have greatly expanded the number of social work interns with affiliations from esteemed institutions in New York and Connecticut.
6. Nursing Students – we have nursing students from the University of Bridgeport, Western Connecticut State University, Norwalk Community College, and Fairfield University.

Our trainees come together in a true learning community, sharing didactic and community building experiences together. This has had an unexpected and positive impact as many trainees have decided to stay on as staff at Silver Hill Hospital following training and therefore already know one another. Indeed, SHARE has become a pipeline for the growth in the number of providers and services at Silver Hill. Just this year, two psychiatrists and one psychologist will move from the status of trainee to full-time staff. The same is true of social worker interns who will be joining as critical clinical providers.

A component of SHARE is to engage in academic scholarship. Clinicians at Silver Hill Hospital have long been involved in publishing and presenting their work. SHARE provides a platform for disseminating this information and encouraging further scholarship through regularly scheduled writing groups to help clinicians communicate their unique work. Here is a link to articles, book chapters, books, and presentations from Silver Hill Hospital clinicians over the past few years. View Staff Publications and Presentations here.

Applications for post-doctoral fellowships must be received by December 15, 2023.  If interested in applying, please email Dr. Jeff Katzman at jkatzman@silverhillhospital.org for more information.

Do you have an idea of something you want to teach? Make a proposal, either for a Grand Rounds program, a workshop, or a lecture to our learners. Just fill out the form below and let us know about your program. We get many requests each year and cannot accommodate all of them, but we will get back to you!