Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health

John H. Gilmore, MD, Director
Barbara Smith, LCSW, Co-Director

The Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health is a new program that is working to create partnerships between the state, academia, and community programs to address quality of care and workforce development issues in North Carolina's public mental health system.

The Center and its clinical programs are currently supported by a three year grant from The Duke Endowment and Cross Area Services Program (CASP) funds from the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.

Our University partners include the Department of Psychology, the School of Social Work, the School of Nursing, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Public Health, and the Division of Rehabilitation Counseling Psychology. Our community partners include Orange-Person-Chatham Local Management Entity, Caramore Community, Inc., Cross Disability Services, Inc., and Club Nova.

Objectives:

• Focus University expertise on the critical need in North Carolina for better mental health treatment and services through service provision, training, and community education
• Inform State mental health care policy
• Foster sustained recovery from mental illness through identification, prevention and treatment, with a focus on psychotic disorders and other severe mental illnesses
• Train mental health professionals in interdisciplinary models of care
• Conduct research with a focus on meaningful consumer outcomes
• Clinical Programs
• Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program, consisting of a specialized inpatient unit at UNC Neurosciences Hospital, an outpatient clinic at UNC, and a new community clinic in Carrboro, NC
• OASIS, a specialized outpatient treatment program for adolescents and young adults with early psychosis at our Carrboro Clinic
• Current projects include development of:
• Evidence-based, cost-effective guidelines for psychopharmacologic and psychosocial treatment
• Standardized Community Support that is grounded in evidence-based approaches
• Health maintenance and side effect monitoring; integration with primary care
• Training programs for UNC students and providers throughout the state
• Telemedicine/Telepsychiatry