Psychologists Play a Valuable Role In Training and Treatment
By Jennifer S. Kleiner, Ph.D.
The field of psychology is vast and diverse. Within the context of an academic medical school, psychologists truly conform to the traditional academic model, demonstrating excellence in clinical care, education, research, and leadership. At UAMS, the psychology faculty serve critical roles in the delivery of evidence-based clinical care, conduct cutting-edge research, and provide exceptional education to a variety of learner groups. As director of the Psychology Division within the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute, I have the unique role of driving the vision of our division. A primary focus is to highlight the exceptional work of our faculty and to grow our ranks to meet the current and future demands of the UAMS health care system. While this is no small task, it is a challenge I readily embrace. I am well poised to see emerging needs and recognize the unique and varied contributions that our psychologists already make across the Psychiatric Research Institute, the institution and the entire state of Arkansas.
Psychologists provide clinical care across a variety of patient populations, spanning multidisciplinary consultation within and across specialties, conduct diagnostic assessment to inform differential diagnosis, and implement state of the science, evidence-based treatments to treat a multitude of psychiatric and medical conditions. Psychologists elevate the level of care that patients receive across many different settings within UAMS and beyond. At the Child Study Center (CSC), psychologists provide nationally recognized treatment for children who have experienced trauma and other mental health disorders. Thanks to the expertise of Glenn Mesman, Ph.D., Joy Pemberton, Ph.D., and Sufna John, Ph.D., our youngest Arkansans are able to receive treatment specifically designed to help children and their families recover from the wide-reaching impact of childhood trauma, making UAMS the destination of choice for high-level clinical care. Moving forward, our recent hiring of Elissa Dougherty, Ph.D., will expand our adolescent treatment services. Our psychologists also serve a critical role for high-acuity patients being evaluated in the Child Diagnostic Unit. In this setting, and under the direction of Dr. Pemberton, Psychology serves a critical role in the multidisciplinary team model by conducting extensive psychological assessment to inform differential diagnosis and guide treatment planning.
One year ago, PRI saw the opening of our Center for Trauma Prevention, Recovery and Innovation, led to fruition under the direction of Betty Everett, Ph.D., and co-directed by Sacha McBain, Ph.D., which was highlighted in a previous edition of Mind Matters. Drs. Everett and McBain have catapulted the expansion of evidence-based treatment delivery to patients with single and complex trauma histories by training other clinicians in treatment delivery, providing clinical focus and structure, and expanding awareness across the Institution. At the Walker Family Clinic, the Neuropsychology Service delivers consultation services to patients with a variety of neurologic, medical, psychiatric, and other conditions by delivering objective assessment of brain functioning. Jennifer Gess, Ph.D., and I are two of a small number of board-certified neuropsychologists in Arkansas, providing critical consultation services to UAMS as well as the state at large. Our neuropsychology team provides comprehensive assessment to contribute to differential diagnosis, delineate functional abilities, and provide individualized recommendations to improve patients’ functionality. Neuropsychology will see expansion with the hiring of Chrystal Fullen, Ph.D., who will develop a new program delivering cognitive rehabilitation services to a variety of patient populations who have been empirically shown to benefit from such.
Psychologists have long been known for their expertise and advocacy for individuals with serious mental illness. This is embodied perhaps no better than by Lisa Evans, Ph.D. Under her direction, UAMS has seen the implementation of the Pulaski County Regional Crisis Stabilization Unit, whose mission is to serve patients in a mental health crisis, many of whom would otherwise become justice-system involved. The program is designed to reduce high-cost service utilization, including the emergency department, via immediate triage and quick stabilization of crises with specialized psychiatric care.
Health psychology, a field that centers on the provision of brief interventions to improve health related outcomes, is a focus area for expansion. Brief and targeted health psychology assessment and interventions can enhance medical outcomes, address mental health problems related to medical illness, and reduce downstream medical costs. Within the Women’s Mental Health Program, Michael Cucciare, Ph.D., delivers a multitude of services to care for perinatal women with mental health disorders. Ming Hwei Yek, Psy.D, a health psychologist with specialized training in conducting pre-surgical organ transplantation evaluations, recently joined the faculty in October of 2020. Dr. Yek is the first of a new generation of psychologists focused on the provision of empirically validated behavioral health treatments to patients with complex medical conditions. As I write this, I am currently recruiting for multiple health psychologists, including one to embed within UAMS’ newly established Cardiology Service Line to provide pre-surgical evaluations for heart and lung transplantation as well as other procedures, and to provide consultation and brief intervention to other cardio-involved patients to reduce down-stream medical comorbidities and emergency room visits.
The Neuroscience Service Line has also been targeted for our recruitment efforts to provide consultation and intervention services to the Interventional Pain team as well as several other specialties. Additionally, we are currently recruiting for a psychologist to serve within the Internal Medicine Service Line to join the multidisciplinary team within High Impact Health Clinic as well as to collaborate on a model to treat individuals with serious medical comorbidities throughout the state.
Not only are our psychologists exceptional clinicians, but we are also recognized as research leaders, making valuable scientific contributions that improve our understanding of the human mind and behavior and make real-time improvements in patient care. This is aptly demonstrated by our faculty, all of whom make scholarly contributions to the field. In particular, members of our junior faculty have done exceptional work in obtaining competitive grant funding for their research activities. Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D., is a National Institute on Drug Abuse funded career development awardee whose research examines intersections between trauma, mental health, substance use, and involvement with the criminal system. Dr. John also obtained competitive internal funding for a career award to support her research focused on implementation science. Dr. McBain is pursuing research in prevention and early intervention for PTSD.
Education is a pillar of the academic mission, and our psychologists are leaders in the delivery of education and information to a variety of learner groups. Since 1961, UAMS has been the home to a nationally competitive, American Psychological Association-accredited pre-doctoral clinical internship program that trains the next generations of psychologists in the provision of services reaching across the lifespan. Under the direction of Dr. Gess, in conjunction with Dr. Mesman, our Psychology faculty collaborate as a team to train interns who are specializing in child, adult (health, Serious Mental Illness and Trauma), and neuropsychology. Our program not only educates interns and fellows within the field of psychology itself, but we also educate a variety of other learner groups that span across disciplines within UAMS, including faculty, residents, and medical students through rounds and didactic lectures.
Under the umbrella of ARBEST, our child psychologists, Benjamin Sigel, Ph.D., and Karin Vanderzee, Ph.D., deliver nationally recognized training to other clinicians and health-care providers to further expand the state’s capacity to treat trauma. Our psychologists are routinely called upon to educate the broader community such as providing timely and critical information to clinicians and patients in coping with stress and anxiety during the COVID pandemic.
Dr. Smith often says not only have psychologists have earned a reputation for being expert clinicians, but we are also known for our exceptional leadership skills. Across a variety of settings, most of the psychologists within the Psychology Division hold leadership positions and are tapped to fill a variety of leadership roles across settings such as implementing and leading large scale clinical programs, serving on national committees focused on improving clinical and educational opportunities, and holding state appointed positions and advisory board positions.
Over the last three-plus years that I have had the opportunity to serve as Division Director, I have proudly made it my mission to expound the expertise that our psychologists have and to further expand upon the impact that our field makes on the UAMS community and beyond. It is evident our Psychology faculty provide state of the science clinical care to a vast array of patient populations, making UAMS a destination hub for expert clinical diagnosis and treatment. We leverage our clinical knowledge and our training backgrounds to in turn educate the next generations of psychologists through our clinical programs. We also dedicate our time to educating our colleagues and the community. These areas of excellence drive us to be leaders at all levels. Because of the important and varied roles we serve, psychology services have been in increasingly more demand. We have seen unprecedented growth for our division during the last three years. In the last 12 months alone we have hired multiple new faculty members and I have implemented an aggressive recruitment strategy to further extend our bench. Through the steadfast support of PRI leadership, the future will no doubt bring further expansion of the Psychology Division.
Jennifer S. Kleiner, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the UAMS Department of Psychiatry and director of the Psychiatric Research Institute’s Psychology Division.