UAMS Psychiatry Opens Inpatient Teaching Unit for Children

By todd

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LITTLE ROCK – The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has opened a new inpatient teaching psychiatric unit in partnership with Methodist Behavioral Hospital in Maumelle to offer the latest treatments for children and adolescents needing psychiatric care as well as provide a training unit for men­tal health professionals in Arkansas.


 


The 16-bed unit provides developmentally appropriate care for children who must be treated on an inpatient basis. Ben Nimmo, M.D., is director of the unit and a faculty member in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division of the Department of Psychiatry in the UAMS College of Medicine.


 


“For about 10 years, Arkansas has been without a teaching unit for inpatient child psychiatry,” said Lynn Taylor, M.D., director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division. “The teaching environment in the unit at Methodist Behavioral Hospital makes use of the latest research and technology, and in turn, offers excellent psychiatric care for the children being treated.”


 


Methodist Behavioral Hospital is a subsidiary of the United Methodist Children’s Home with over 100 years experience treating the children of Arkansas. This partnership represents UAMS’ first acute inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric services since the late 1990s.


 


“We are extremely excited to have a UAMS teaching program in our hospital,” said Jennifer Lang, Ph.D. administrator of Methodist Behavioral Hospital. “Methodist recognizes the quality and excellence associated with the UAMS name and is pleased with the collaborative efforts from the UAMS Department of Psychiatry. This partnership is a winning combination for future quality programming.”   


 


UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,320 students and 690 medical residents. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with almost 9,000 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the VA Medical Center. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4.3 billion a year.