STEP Community Mental Health Clinic Opens

Under the leadership of John Gilmore, MD, and Bebe Smith, LCSW, the UNC Department of Psychiatry has created a Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health, which incorporates resources from schools and departments across the University and expands collaborative relationships with existing community programs, including Club Nova and Caramore. The Clinic also expands training opportunities for graduate students from nursing, social work and psychology, who already receive training in the STEP clinic at UNC.

STEP has had a long association with the local community mental health system and has always strived to be responsive to the latter’s needs. After the recent closing of a local community mental health center, STEP resources were overwhelmed by the additional patients, so the program applied for and successfully raised funds to create a community clinic. The Mental Health Trust Fund provided $100,000 and the North Carolina legislature designated an additional $200,000 to expand STEP.

New STEP staff include Brian Sheitman, MD, former clinical director at Dorothea Dix Hospital, Dr. Sheitman will provide outpatient psychiatry services in the new community clinic. He also serves as medical director of the STEP inpatient unit at the Neurosciences Hospital in Chapel Hill.

Shane Rau, MD, PhD, works in the Clinical Research Unit at Dorothea Dix Hospital and will work with the new STEP community clinic.

Jenny Edwards, LCSW, will serve as Associate Director of Outpatient Services for STEP.

Besides an enhanced ability to provide state of the art clinical care, Drs. Sheitman and Rau are excited about the prospect of acquiring “practice-based evidence” to further the research mission of our program.

Contact Information:

200 N. Greensboro St., Suite C-6B
Carr Mill Mall
Carrboro, NC 27510
(919) 942-7363