As mental health care continues to undergo changes in North Carolina, the Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health remains committed to improving quality of care and developing a skilled work force of community psychiatrists. In working toward those goals, the center has created a fellowship that will train psychiatrists to be local and national leaders in community mental health. “The development of this fellowship is consistent with the mental health reform effort,” says Brian Sheitman, the program director. “A key component of care is having a trained work force.”
The program provides dedicated time for administrative activities and supervised scholarly projects while exposing fellows to policy formation within the state mental health system. Fellows also have the opportunity to take an active role in administration at community mental health sites in the region, including learning about how mental health care is provided in primary care settings.
Robin Reed, a fourth-year resident also working toward a master’s degree in public health, is the program’s first fellow. “The fellowship affords opportunities for individuals to expand upon their current interests and develop new interests,” she says. For Reed (left), the program will complement the clinical training she has received during her residency. “There is an emphasis on developing administrative skills to improve care in efficient and cost-effective ways,” she says. Over the next two years, Reed will further explore her interests in health policy and population health while developing and implementing a substance abuse program at El Futuro, a Latino mental health organization in the Durham and Chapel Hill area.
Development of the fellowship has been a two-year collaborative process among Sheitman, Reed, Bebe Smith, John Gilmore, Karon Dawkins and David Rubinow. Ultimately, Sheitman hopes graduates of the program will become advocates for community mental health and will be equipped and empowered to implement reforms that will improve outcomes for patient populations. “We want to teach people that they can and should question how things are done and acquire the skills to effect change,” Sheitman says.
To learn more about this fellowship, visit UNC Psychiatry or e-mail Dr. Brian Sheitman at Brian_Sheitman@med.unc.edu
The 22nd annual Walk for Hope drew more than 3,000 participants and raised more than $500,000 for psychiatric research at the University of North Carolina.
