The core values and priorities of the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology reflect the influences of an emphasis on balance between our core missions and a spirit striving for excellence.
Our departmental culture values collegiality and we take tremendous pride in our programs and departmental and individual accomplishments. The Department has a balanced commitment to knowledge discovery, research, teaching excellence, and high-quality clinical care by capitalizing on the resources, primary of which, are our faculty and many colleagues across the UAB community, the United States and countries all over the world.
Our portfolio of faculty present a balanced group of primary researchers and clinical educators who work in collaboration with each other and other basic science and clinical departments within the Heersink School of Medicine and other UAB Departments. Our research portfolio is on a trajectory of progressive growth, even in this challenging funding climate. Our department also proudly sponsors H1B Visas for faculty.
Our research priorities are reflected in our divisions and major programs, as illustrated on our website. Examples include, ongoing research that is focused on both laboratory and clinical studies targeting psychiatric and other brain disorders. These research programs are generally of a translational nature, and include basic and clinical studies focused on schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder, neurodegenerative disorders, substance abuse, and psychiatric disorders of childhood and the elderly.
Our Department is committed through its research activities to enhance our understanding of psychiatric disorders to benefit patients with these serious illnesses. The Department encourages interactions between laboratory research and clinical areas to facilitate bidirectional flow of information and translational integration of research findings, with the goal of developing innovative and novel clinical interventions.
The psychiatry training programs including, Psychiatry residency and psychology internship programs, specialty fellowship programs, and post-doctoral research fellowships, attract talented individuals who are among the most sought after applicants in the country. We maintain a healthy balance between fostering future academic leaders and developing researched focused clinical investigators as well as primary clinically focused psychiatrists and psychologists for the state and region.
Our Department, based at the UAB Medical Center (UABMC) in Birmingham, Alabama, is a provider of psychiatric clinical care for Alabama and the region. In addition, the Department has partnerships with the Alabama Department of Mental Health providing community based programs as well as specialized drug treatment programs. Our clinical philosophy combines evidence based care and a focus on the patient. As noted, our clinical services are broad in scope and include inpatient service provided in a 90 bed psychiatric facility, ambulatory care provided in multiple locations, a community mental health center and substance abuse programs focused on care for the impaired professional, and programs aimed at the criminal justice system population.