Psychiatric Research Institute
Psychiatric Research Institute on the UAMS Campus in Little Rock
The Psychiatric Research Institute opened in 2008 and serves as the “home base” for the psychiatry residency. This is where residents meet for weekly didactics and lunches. PRI features several different clinical experiences for students and residents. There are three inpatient units – a general adult acute inpatient unit, a women’s unit, and the Child Diagnostic Unit, which is one of only a handful of its type in the nation. The Interventional Psychiatry program offers a range of treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as well as intravenous ketamine and intranasal esketamine. The ECT service performs an average of 10-15 treatments daily, and residents assist in the ECT treatments of their inpatients.
In addition to the inpatient and procedural services, there is a number of outpatient services offered at PRI. We have a general psychiatric outpatient clinic called the Walker Family Clinic, through which residents rotate in this clinic during their PGY-3 year. Residents spend time in their PGY-2 year in the Center for Addiction Services and Treatment, which includes a methadone/buprenorphine program. There are also opportunities to work with the Women’s Mental Health Program, which specializes in the treatment of mental health issues during and after pregnancy. Both of these programs also conduct ongoing research that residents can assist with if interested. PRI is also home to the Brain Imaging Research Center and houses an f-MRI machine. There are a number of research studies going on at any given time, and residents have the opportunity to interact with research faculty and assist with existing projects, or develop a project of their own, through the Resident Academic Track.
Arkansas State Hospital
Arkansas State Hospital in Little Rock
The Arkansas State Hospital is conveniently located within walking distance of PRI. It serves the most severely and persistently mentally ill patients in the state, and is the only hospital of its kind in Arkansas. ASH has several general adult inpatient units, as well as two adolescent units (one general unit and one adolescent sex offender unit), and several forensic units. This is also the home for the UAMS Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship. Residents will spend three months in their PGY-1 year on Unit A, which is a general acute inpatient unit. Here, they care for chronically ill and treatment resistant patients, and gain experience in civil and forensic commitment procedures for mentally ill patients. This rotation also provides a unique opportunity to observe and testify in civil commitment cases in the mental health court. In addition to these rotations, there is a weekly psychopharmacology conference, which is a grand rounds-style lecture series that PGY-3s participate in as lecturers, and all residents are encouraged to attend.
Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System
John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock
The Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System consists of two hospitals – one in Little Rock, which houses medical, surgical, and emergency departments, and one in North Little Rock, which is home to both inpatient and outpatient psychiatry services in addition to other outpatient and rehabilitative units. The Little Rock VA is conveniently attached to UAMS by a sky walk. At this facility, on-call residents see acute psychiatric patients in the emergency room, PGY-1s do their neurology medicine rotations and the PGY-2s work on the consult-liaison service, where they are also exposed to ECT and ketamine infusion procedures. At the North Little Rock VA, residents work on the general inpatient unit (3K) and the inpatient geriatric unit (1H) during their PGY-2 year. There are also several addiction services available to veterans, and residents work in the anti-craving clinic to prescribe medications to assist with addiction rehabilitation. Residents also spend time in their PGY-3 year in the general outpatient psychiatry clinic, as well as MHICM (Mental Health Intensive Case Management), which serves severely mentally ill veterans in the community.
Centers for Youth & Families
The Centers for Youth & Families, where our residents spend time in their PGY-3 year as part of their outpatient experience, provides counseling services for children, teens, and adults who are experiencing emotional or behavioral problems. Patients can receive individual, family, and group therapies, as well as, case management, psychiatric consultation, evaluation, and medication management. Centers for Youth & Families serves such groups as socially and emotionally challenged and at-risk youth, children with learning differences, runaway and homeless youth, expecting and new parents, pregnant and parenting teens, Hispanic young parents, foster families and victims of human trafficking. Residents play an important part in the medication management of a variety of patients from the Little Rock area. They manage a spectrum of illness severity and provide care to patients from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock
Arkansas Children’s Hospital is nationally ranked for the care they provide for pediatric patients. It is also the primary training site for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship, but general residents also spend considerable time here in their PGY-2 year gaining experience in C&A Psychiatry. The Child Study Center, the outpatient clinic, moved to a brand new building in August 2016. Residents treat children between the ages of 3-17 and gain experience in a number of psychiatric disorders affecting children. Additionally, residents rotate on the consult-liaison service for the main hospital. While ACH does not have an inpatient psychiatric unit, residents have the opportunity to evaluate emergent patients in the ER and refer them to other hospitals in the area as needed. ACH is conveniently located about three miles from UAMS, right off I-630.