A focus on
learning

In addition to our support services, the Home Base Education Program provides a comprehensive and easily accessible source of information regarding readjustment issues associated with deployment related stress and traumatic brain injury for service members returning from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Educational materials are targeted at veterans, their family members and loved ones as well as to health care providers and the community.

 

The Home Base Education component will assess the educational needs of each group and use the combined resources of the MGH Psychiatry Academy, the MGH Academy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, to provide live and web-based educational offerings that are engaging, interactive and practical.

 

The MGH Psychiatry Academy and MGH Academy offer advanced teaching methods and interactive learning formats that focus on solving real-world challenges, while building new models of collaborative care (provider, service members, family, and community) enhancing resilience and self-management skills.

 

The mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD is to advance science and promote understanding of traumatic stress. It is a center of excellence for research and education on the prevention, understanding and treatment of deployment- and combat-related stress with a goal of helping U.S. veterans and others through these research and education efforts. The National Center currently consists of seven VA academic centers of excellence across the U.S., with headquarters in White River Junction, VT. Other divisions are located in Boston; West Haven, CT; Palo Alto, CA; and Honolulu, HI.

Robert J. Birnbaum, MD, Ph.D

Program Director, Education
Robert J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, is the Executive Director of Postgraduate Medical Education at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Since 2005, Dr. Birnbaum has served as director of the MGH Psychiatry Academy, which provides global education programs in psychiatry that include regional live symposia and web-based activities.

In 2008, Dr. Birnbaum spearheaded the expansion of the Psychiatry Academy to a hospital wide MGH Academy, encompassing virtually all therapeutic areas. The MGH Academy performs education and training that touches on a broad array of provider competencies, day-to-day clinical challenges, cutting-edge research advances, health care delivery issues and patient and family needs.

Dr. Birnbaum received his medical and research doctoral degrees from Boston University School of Medicine and Boston University’s Division of Graduate Medical and Dental Sciences. His postdoctoral work, at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, was in molecular neurobiology. His psychiatry residency training was completed at Massachusetts General Hospital, as was his chief residency in psychopharmacology. Dr. Birnbaum has published widely and has spoken nationally and internationally on various aspects of postgraduate medical education.

 

Amy Street, PhD

VA Coordinator
Dr. Street is a Clinical Psychologist with the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center for deployment- and combat-related stress, VA Boston Healthcare System and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Street has an active program of research investigating the causes and consequences of interpersonal victimization in veteran and civilian populations. Her research has received funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Street has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and invited book chapters on these topics. Dr. Street also serves as the Director of the Education and Training Division of the VA Office of Mental Health Services’ Military Sexual Trauma Support Team, a team funded to promote best practices in the treatment of veterans who experienced sexual trauma during their military service. Dr. Street is actively involved in the clinical treatment of female veterans suffering from trauma-related psychological disorders through VA Boston’s Women’s Stress Disorder Treatment Team.

Dr. Street received her B.A. in Psychology from Auburn University in 1993, her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia in 1996, and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia in 1998. She completed her internship in Clinical Psychology during the 1996 – 1997 academic year at the Boston Veterans Affairs Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine Predoctoral Internship Consortium in Boston, MA, and her postdoctoral fellowship focusing on posttraumatic stress disorder through Boston University School of Medicine and the VA Boston Healthcare System.