Welcome from our Program Director

Thank you for your interest in the Baptist Health-University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences GME (BH-UAMS) Psychiatry Residency Program. We have come a long way
in a short span, we obtained a complement increase and have just graduated our first class of residents. Our residents have been very enterprising and have excelled in
scholarly activities with 18 peer-reviewed papers and several conference presentations in the last two years. Most recently, a team of our residents lead by Dr. Holly Agud, our
associate program director, have won the prestigious ACGME Back to Bedside grant. In a project named “Minds Matter”, they are tackling stigma related to psychiatry consults. Furthermore, we have made several enhancements to our educational and clinical experiences collaboratively with our residents. I am particularly thrilled about the
Collaborative Care and Telehealth rotations starting in January 2025.

It’s an exciting time to train in psychiatry. Evidence-base in psychiatric treatment has increased exponentially in the last decade. Newer antidepressants have shortened the
onset of therapeutic action by targeting different neurotransmitters. Exciting somatic treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation have broadened the field of
interventional psychiatry. Newer pragmatic psychotherapies have shown great results in meeting emerging challenges. I have a personal commitment to train our residents to be active consumers of available evidence-base to make informed decisions to enhance their community psychiatry practice. We are offering all of that in our clinical programs
here with our Spravato clinic, the rTMS clinic, and the focus on brief psychotherapy training by Dr. Kang, a Menninger clinic trained faculty.

I am glad you are considering psychiatry as a career since there is an enormous need for psychiatrists today. Arkansas has greater shortages of psychiatrists than the national
average and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the shortage. The increase in telehealth in mental health is addressing some of the shortage but rural Arkansans need
further expansion of these services. Our program is committed to teaching competencies in delivering high quality mental health care over telehealth both in the areas of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. Our residency is committed to ensuring residents develop all required skills and contribute to the community we serve. Our individualized approach to clinical training, with an emphasis on wellness and experiential learning in patient safety and quality improvement, aims at ensuring the highest level of exposure to all sides of psychiatry.

Our Psychiatry Residents will join a thriving group of residents from the other residency programs in the BH-UAMS GME initiative: internal medicine, family medicine, and the transitional year programs. They will also have academic resources of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and UAMS. Our combined faculty have many
years of experience in private practice, rural practice, academics, and administration. Our mission is to offer our community, and the state of Arkansas, well-trained and well-
rounded psychiatrists who are committed to caring for patients of all needs and to working well with other mental health professionals and integrated behavioral health settings.

Our hope is to retain psychiatrists in Arkansas after they have completed their residency and any other further sub-specialty training. You will discover just like I did over a
decade ago, that Arkansas is a well-kept secret with the right balance between work and quality of life. We have paid particular emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion
in our workforce and a quick glance at our resident and faculty body is a testament to our belief that our physician body should reflect the patient population we serve. We
have also been successful in training our residents to tailor treatment options based on social determinants of health in our patient population. We are pleased you are
considering Baptist Health-UAMS Psychiatry Program for your training and we look forward to reviewing your application through ERAS.

Prasad R. Padala, M.D., M.S., FACHE

Program Director, Baptist Health-UAMS Psychiatry Residency
Professor of Psychiatry and Geriatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)

 

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