UAMS Opens Psychiatric Inpatient Unit to Serve Women
| LITTLE ROCK – An inpatient unit devoted solely to women with serious mental health needs such as trauma, depression and anxiety is opening at the Psychiatric Research Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
A subspecialty of this 10-bed unit will be devoted to women who are pregnant or recently gave birth. The unit will open on March 8, timed to coincide with International Women’s Day.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, women are nearly twice as likely as men to suffer from major depression. They are three times as likely to attempt suicide, and they experience anxiety disorders two to three times more often than men.
“Since our women’s mental health program opened last year with patients from all over Arkansas and around the nation, we have made great strides toward helping women overcome some overwhelming problems,” said G. Richard Smith, M.D., director of the Psychiatric Research Institute and chairman of the UAMS Department of Psychiatry.
“This new unit will allow us to better serve these patients and others in a comfortable, safe, and attractive environment where our staff and physicians all specialize in the treatment of women,” Smith said. “UAMS has always been a leader in individualized care. This is one more step toward providing the kind of care women deserve and can receive only here at the Psychiatric Research Institute.”
For more information about the women’s unit, call (501) 526-8100.
UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. Named best Little Rock metropolitan area hospital by U.S. News & World Report, it is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has more than 2,800 students and 775 medical residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,000 physicians and other professionals who provide care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com.