In July, Sam Houston State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine will launch a new psychiatry residency program, a specialty that COM Dean Dr. Thomas Mohr said is “desperately needed.”
“While our medical school is really created to help expand access to primary care … even though it is not primary care, psychiatry is massively underserved,” Mohr said.
Diving in deeper
The new residency is a partnership between the college, Huntsville Memorial Hospital and Tri-County Behavioral Healthcare, which serves Montgomery, Walker and Liberty counties. The four-year program will accept four residents per year, and hit capacity at 16 residents.
TCBH Executive Director Evan Roberson said the program provides residents the opportunity to train in community psychiatry, as opposed to more academic or private, for-profit environments.
“What I’m really interested in seeing is folks who have a passion for the outpatient work we do, working with these complex individuals and specifically, working in our rural clinics,” Roberson said.
In Montgomery County, the number of psychiatrists per 100,000 people is 7.4, while that figure is 2.6 and 2.2 in Walker and Liberty counties, respectively, according to the Texas Health Professions Resource Center.
What else?
Residency Program Director Dr. Iqnoor Bains said during the first year of the four-year program, residents will be doing medicine and inpatient psychiatry. In the second year, residents will be exposed to different subspecialties, while the third year includes outpatient psychiatry. In the fourth year of the program, the residents will be junior attending physicians.
“This is going to be a really positive step and it’s going to have a big impact in helping alleviate the mental health needs in our community,” Bains said.
“>