Dr. Ashok Bharucha, MD

Expert Publications

• Predictors of nursing facility admission: a 12-year epidemiological study in the United States.
• Motivations for physician-assisted suicide.
• Why now? Timing and circumstances of hastened deaths.
• Psychotherapy in long-term care: A review.
• Family member involvement in hastened death.
• Intelligent video monitoring to improve safety of older persons.
• Prevalence of behavioral symptoms: comparison of the minimum data set assessments with research instruments.
• Resident-to-resident aggression in long-term care facilities: insights from focus groups of nursing home residents and staff.
• In-home monitoring of persons with dementia: ethical guidelines for technology research and development.
• Late-life suicide: a review.

Media Releases

Get to know Psychiatrist Dr. Ashok Bharucha, who serves patients in Pennsylvania.

Regarded as thoughtful and attentive, Dr. Bharucha is a seasoned adult and geriatric psychiatrist with over 30 years of clinical, research, administrative, and teaching experience. He currently operates a private practice, Transformations: Adult and Geriatric Psychiatry, PC, conveniently located in South Abington Township, Pennsylvania.

As the lead professional at Transformations: Adult and Geriatric Psychiatry, PC, Dr. Barucha aims to establish a collaborative therapeutic relationship with every patient that not only enhances their sense of well-being but also furthers their aspirations for achieving their full potential. He approaches his work from an existential and humanistic standpoint, allowing clients to narrate their singular stories that reveal their hopes, passions, and dreams.

Born in India, Dr. Bharucha was raised in the United States for most of his childhood. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry and German, Cum Laude, with departmental honors in German from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He then went on to earn his medical degree from the Penn State College of Medicine in 1992. 

Furthering his training, he completed his postgraduate work at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital (four months, geriatric and addiction psychiatry), Massachusetts General Hospital (two months, neurology), and Mount Auburn Hospital (6 months, medical internship).

Following this initial postgraduate period, Dr. Bharucha completed his residency in adult psychiatry at McLean Hospital from 1993 until 1996, and his fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at the University of Washington School of Medicine, under Richard Veith, from 1996 until 1997.

Most recently, in 2017, Dr. Bharucha earned his Master of Arts degree from Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont. 

Board-certified in psychiatry, he is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). The ABPN is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to promoting high quality patient care for the public through the initial and continuing certification of psychiatrists and neurologists.

An experienced dementia and late-life disorders specialist, Dr. Bharucha is highly-trained in adult and geriatric psychiatry, as well as in the management of conditions at the interface of neurology, medicine, and psychiatry. He pursues the best outcomes for patients through a combination of pharmacology (psychoactive medications) and psychotherapy (talk therapy).

With more than 30 years in the psychiatric field, including over ten years as a senior psychiatric medicine practitioner, his clinical experience includes stretches as an adult and geriatric psychiatrist at such organizations as Generations Geriatric Mental Health, Eliot Hospital (2015 – present).

His experience in academia includes several professorial appointments within various institutions, including serving as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (2002 – present).

Maintaining long-standing memberships in a number of scientific and professional societies, Dr. Bharucha is a member of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Geriatrics Society, the American Medical Directors’ Association, the American Neuropsychiatric Association, the International Psychogeriatric Association, and the Gerontological Society of America.

Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behavior, cognition, and perceptions. Psychiatrists evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. They conduct thorough psychiatric evaluations, develop treatment plans, prescribe medication, and evaluate treatment results.

Throughout his extensive career, Dr. Bharucha has earned several academic and professional honors, including Fellowship with the American Psychoanalytic Association (1996-1997); An Ethics Committee Chairmanship at the Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester (1999); Three Golden Apple Teacher of the Year Award Nominations at WPIC between 2001 and 2003; Golden Apple Teacher of the Year Award at WPIC in 2002; Golden Apple Psychiatry Teacher of the Year Award at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (2002); Excellence in Education Award in the Small Group Facilitator Category at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (2004); and Outstanding Mentor nomination at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was also named one of America’s Top Physicians by the Consumers’ Research Council of America each year from 2007 to the present, and Best Doctors in America honors between 2009 and 2010.

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