Psychiatry
Introduction
The Department of Psych is a small but dynamic department on this campus. In addition to its clerkship program, the department supports the residency training programs of other academic departments in order to provide training and experience in the recognition and management of psychological distress and psychiatric illness. Recently reorganized, the Department of Psychiatry offers direct clinical services to the community through the Division of Clinical Psychology. The faculty in the Division of Clinical psychology provide a diverse array of services in a caring, confidential, and collegial environment, with special expertise in the areas of marital and family counseling, cognitive and behavioral therapy, employee assistance programs, and educational diagnostic assessments in children. Psychiatric services are provided through association with the TPMHMR. The partnership between the practices of public sector and academic psychiatry allows an excellent training experience for students in Community Psychiatry. In addition, it provides opportunity for studies (i.e., services research) that support the delivery of evidence-based clinical practices and inform public policy in assuring the care and well-being of persons with serious and persistent mental illness.
The provision of a six-week Psychiatry Clerkship for third year medical students attending Texas Tech University School of Medicine is the department's highest priority. Our clinical faculty consists of some of the most dedicated, talented, and highly regarded psychiatrists in the Amarillo area. The third year student rotation includes an 18-hour lecture series as well as clinical rotations at the Veteran's Administration (under the supervision of Dr. Gwen Fagala), the Texas Panhandle Mental Health Authority (under the supervision of Dr. Michael Jenkins), and the Psychiatric Pavilion at Northwest Texas Hospital (under the supervision of Drs. Mustafa Hussain and Murali Veeramachaneni). In addition, students who rotate with Dr. Veeramachaneni receive experience in child psychiatry. Several volunteer faculty contribute to clerkship through the lecture series. Students may elect, in their fourth year of medical school education, to select a one-month elective at the TPMHMR (with Dr. Jenkins) or at the Veteran's Administration Hospital (with Dr. Fagala). Other electives, in research and in End of Life care, are currently under development.
Research initiatives conducted by Department of Psychiatry faculty reflect their diverse interests and the value that the department places on collaboration with other departments, disciplines, and schools. The main focus of research activities is to identify and participate in studies that have a tangible benefit for the people that we serve and for the community in which we live.