International medical graduates and a career as a geriatric psychiatrist

In this symposium we will define who is an International Medical Graduate (IMG) and discuss the role of the IMGs in care of older adults with psychiatric illness in United States. We will enumerate the unique challenges faced by IMGs while training and working in the United States. We will describe strategies that will enable IMGs to integrate into the mainstream geriatric psychiatry workforce. We will review the roles of IMGs as private practitioners, educators, as academicians and as researchers. We will also discuss how organizations like the AAGP can play a greater role in attracting larger number of IMGs to join the geriatric psychiatry workforce and also the AAGP. Greater number of geriatric psychiatrists will enable improved access to care for the older adults with mental illness. It will also maintain the success of AAGP in being the only national organization that safeguards the interest of the geriatric psychiatry clinician in the United States.