Following several years of intensive planning, the Community Psychiatry Training Program at OHSU was started in 1973. In 1987, the name of this program was changed to the Public Psychiatry Training Program (PPTP) to emphasize the training experience in state institutions as well as community mental health programs.

Residents are required to spend three months at Oregon State Hospital in Salem during PGY-2 and six months half-time on community psychiatry during PGY-3. Electives are also available in PGY-4 for more specialized training in public psychiatry.

During PGY-2, two residents at a time are assigned to Oregon State Hospital for their three-month rotation. They are assigned to a special teaching unit at OSH, which helps them learn to function in a state hospital and in an enriched educational atmosphere. They are supervised at OSH by on-site faculty, as well as by faculty from OHSU who travel there regularly. On-site seminars on institutional psychiatry and the care of the chronic patient also take place during this rotation.

The PPTP has developed ongoing training agreements with most of the county mental health programs in Oregon. Residents may choose from among these the one that best fits their needs. During their six-month, half-time community rotation during PGY-3, two days per week are spent at the community placement and a half day per week at OHSU for seminars and additional supervision. All residents are required to negotiate a specific contract with the agency in which they are placed. These contract negotiations take place during the first few weeks of community placement and are put in writing. They are designed to meet the educational objectives of the program, as well as the needs of the resident and the community agency. Considerable flexibility is possible in the specific details of the contract, but residents are allowed to spend no more than 50 percent of their time in direct clinical services. They are also required to spend two hours per week working with children, adolescents, or their families; two hours per week with the chronically mentally ill; two hours per month in administrative activities; and to have an experience in forensic psychiatry as a mental health investigator for involuntary commitment or a mental health examiner for the court.

The clinical experience in community psychiatry is supported by a weekly multi-disciplinary seminar on public psychiatry, as well as by clinical and administrative supervision on-site in the community and back in the Department of Psychiatry at OHSU.

Special electives in public psychiatry are also offered in PGY-4. These include additional community or state hospital rotations, as well as geriatric, forensic, transcultural, community support, child and adolescent, administrative, and research experiences. All electives are closely supervised and offer a range of clinical and didactic experiences.