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U.VA. PSYCHIATRY RESIDENTS TO HELP RURAL COMMUNITIES

Virginia communities in need of more mental health services will soon get help. Psychiatry residents from the University of Virginia Medical School and three other Virginia training programs will have increased exposure to community mental health and a chance to work in underserved communities through a new state-funded program.

The focus is to improve access to care for the chronically mentally ill in locations that do not have enough psychiatric services, said Dr. Edward Kantor, assistant professor of psychiatry and co-director of residency training at U.Va.

The Public and Community Psychiatry Scholarship Program was initiated by Governor Gilmore. It is funded by Virginia's Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services (DMHMRSAS). The state will designate communities to be served.

DMHMRSAS has allotted a stipend for up to four U.Va. residents each year for training in community psychiatry in exchange for their commitment to work in an underserved Virginia community after graduation. The grant also provides partial salary support over three years to fund Kantor's direction of the U.Va. program.

To complement residents' supervised clinical work, the project will develop a curriculum of lectures and seminars on models of community care and medical management of the chronically ill.

Kantor also will build a stronger public health focus into the general psychiatry curriculum.

The public and private sectors in psychiatry used to operate independently, he said. However, with the deinstitutionalization of many of the chronically mentally ill over the past 25 years, more patients are served by both sectors. Community agencies and academic medical centers now care for patients who used to reside in state hospitals. Nevertheless, most funding for training psychiatrists is administered through hospitals. This program recognizes the shift to community care and hopes to develop the interest, experience and skills psychiatry trainees need to function effectively in this new system.

This summer, Kantor is receiving assistance from two medical students participating in a summer research program sponsored by the U.Va. School of Medicine. One of the interns, David C. Lieb, is organizing an advisory group of community agency representatives and psychiatric professionals to help oversee the program's direction.

Most medical students do lab science. This program gives us and the residents a chance to learn how public medicine works from the administrative and financial perspective as well, Lieb, a second year student, said.

The program includes the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.

August 15, 2000