MedicalRecruiting.com operates a dedicated psychiatry recruiting division placing adult, child and adolescent, addiction, geriatric, forensic, and consultation-liaison psychiatrists across hospitals, community mental health centers, integrated behavioral health programs, telepsychiatry platforms, and private practices in all 50 states. Our psychiatry recruiters work on contingency and retained searches and offer locum tenens psychiatry coverage for inpatient units and outpatient clinics facing urgent gaps.
The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented mental health crisis layered on top of a longstanding psychiatrist shortage. HRSA data shows more than 150 million Americans live in federally designated mental health professional shortage areas, and the American Association of Medical Colleges projects a shortfall of 14,000–31,000 psychiatrists by 2033. Demand for psychiatric care has grown sharply since 2020 while psychiatry residency output has stayed essentially flat.
MedicalRecruiting.com runs a dedicated psychiatry recruiting practice that places adult, child and adolescent, addiction, geriatric, forensic, and consultation-liaison psychiatrists. We serve inpatient psychiatric hospitals, community mental health centers, integrated behavioral health programs in primary care, telepsychiatry platforms, and private practices across all 50 states.
Our psychiatry recruiters understand the practice-model decisions that drive candidate acceptance — telework percentage, panel size, on-call burden, integration with substance use treatment, and the use of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) on the care team. We use that fluency to identify candidates whose practice preferences match your program and to negotiate offers that hold up against the heavy counter-recruiting common in this market.
Psychiatry has fragmented into distinct subspecialties and practice models. Each has a different candidate pool, compensation expectation, and recruiting challenge:
Adult General Psychiatry — Outpatient and inpatient general adult psychiatry. The largest segment of psychiatry recruiting demand and the broadest candidate pool.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry — Subspecialty fellowship-trained child and adolescent psychiatrists. The most severe shortage in the entire physician workforce — fewer than 8,300 board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrists nationally against an estimated need of 47,000.
Addiction Psychiatry — Subspecialty psychiatrists managing substance use disorders, often integrated with MAT programs and residential treatment centers. Demand has surged with the opioid epidemic.
Geriatric Psychiatry — Subspecialty psychiatrists serving older adults, often in long-term care, memory care, and outpatient geriatric clinics. Demand growing rapidly with the aging population.
Forensic Psychiatry — Court-affiliated psychiatry, competency evaluations, correctional mental health, and expert witness work. Smaller but well-compensated niche.
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry — Hospital-based psychiatry embedded with medical and surgical services. Typically Monday–Friday with limited call.
Telepsychiatry — Fully remote or hybrid psychiatry positions, now a major recruiting category. Many psychiatrists prefer 100% telehealth practice; programs that resist telehealth face a much smaller candidate pool.
Our psychiatry recruiters work with a broad range of healthcare organizations across the country:
Inpatient Psychiatric Hospitals — Standalone psychiatric hospitals and behavioral health units within general hospitals — both adult and adolescent.
Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) — Federally Qualified Health Centers and CMHCs serving Medicaid and uninsured populations. Many positions are eligible for federal loan repayment via NHSC.
Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care — Health systems embedding psychiatrists in primary care practices via collaborative care models. A growing recruiting segment.
Telepsychiatry Platforms — National telepsychiatry employers and hybrid models offering 100% telework with full benefits.
Academic Medical Centers — University-affiliated psychiatry departments with combined clinical, teaching, and research responsibilities.
Correctional Mental Health Programs — State and federal correctional systems with significant unmet psychiatric care needs.
VA and Military Behavioral Health — Veterans Affairs and DoD positions with strong benefits, federal loan repayment, and mission-driven candidate appeal.
Our psychiatry recruiting process is designed for the specific realities of the psychiatry physician market — competitive counteroffers, long candidate timelines for some subspecialties, and the need for precise practice-environment matching.
Discovery and Position Profiling — We begin by understanding your call structure, patient volumes, team dynamics, compensation philosophy, and growth trajectory. A psychiatry position at a community hospital requires a fundamentally different candidate profile than one at a tertiary academic referral center.
Candidate Identification and Outreach — Our psychiatry candidate database includes active and passive candidates across every subspecialty and practice setting. We combine database matching with proactive outreach to psychiatry physicians whose training, procedure mix, and career trajectory align with your specific position. We do not simply post and wait — we recruit.
Qualification and Vetting — Every candidate we present has been personally interviewed by a recruiter who understands psychiatry as a specialty. We review training background, board status, procedure or panel volumes where applicable, licensure history, and malpractice history before presentation.
Offer Management and Negotiation — Our recruiters manage the offer process from initial conversation through signed contract — including productivity and call-structure negotiation, sign-on bonus structuring, relocation, and income guarantee periods during ramp-up.
Time-to-Fill — We set realistic timelines at search launch based on your subspecialty mix, market dynamics, and offer competitiveness. Most general psychiatry positions fill in 60–120 days; harder subspecialty searches can run 150–180 days.
Psychiatrist compensation has risen significantly since 2020. Current ranges by role:
General Adult Psychiatrists — Total compensation typically $280,000–$400,000 in employed positions. Telepsychiatry positions often pay $300,000–$420,000 with no commute and full schedule flexibility.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists — Total compensation typically $300,000–$450,000 reflecting acute shortage. Sign-on bonuses of $50,000–$100,000 are common.
Addiction Psychiatrists — Total compensation typically $290,000–$420,000, often with productivity bonuses tied to MAT panel growth.
Forensic Psychiatrists — Hourly forensic work and expert witness fees can push total compensation above $500,000 for established practitioners.
Telepsychiatry Premium — Programs requiring 100% on-site psychiatry are losing candidates to telehealth. Hybrid models (e.g., 2 days on-site, 3 days remote) recruit best in the current market.
For detailed compensation benchmarking, visit our physician salary comparison tool. For a strategic overview of the specialty, see psychiatry on our specialties hub.
General adult psychiatry positions typically fill in 60–120 days with an experienced recruiter. Child and adolescent psychiatry searches usually take 120–240 days due to the severe national shortage. Subspecialty searches (addiction, geriatric, forensic) typically run 90–180 days.
Yes — and we are realistic about the market. Fewer than 8,300 board-certified child psychiatrists exist nationally, so successful searches usually require highly competitive compensation, telehealth flexibility, and strong organizational mission. We help clients structure offers that win in this candidate-driven market.
Yes. Telepsychiatry is now a major share of our placements. We work with telepsychiatry-only platforms, hybrid programs (typically 1–2 days on-site), and traditional health systems exploring telehealth integration. Telework offerings dramatically expand the addressable candidate pool.
We offer contingency engagements (no upfront fee, billed only on a successful start — request a quote at /contact for a tailored proposal) and retained engagements for hard-to-fill subspecialty searches. Contact us to discuss the right model for your specific position.
Yes. Locum tenens psychiatry is a core service line. We provide bridge coverage for inpatient psychiatric units, outpatient clinics, telepsychiatry programs, and consultation-liaison services. Typical locum deployment timelines are 2–4 weeks.
We routinely recruit PMHNPs and behavioral health PAs through our nurse practitioner and physician assistant divisions. Many integrated care models pair a psychiatrist with 3–5 PMHNPs to expand panel capacity — we can help you build the entire team.