About the UMass Department of Psychiatry

With our leading clinical services, research, and education programs, the UMass Department of Psychiatry is combating mental illness and addiction on a regional, national and global scale.

The Department is:

• One of the largest departments of psychiatry in the United States, with some 380 faculty members and approximately 2,000 staff members
• The largest provider of psychiatric care in Central Massachusetts
• A model for public and private-sector psychiatry partnerships in the United States
• At the cutting edge of health care reform and community based interventions
• Working to improve mental health multi-culturally and globally through academic relationships in Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Russia, and other countries
• The only designated National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans site in New England and one of only three in the country

We are guiding the development of progressive public health policies; providing state-of-the-art, recovery-driven patient care; fostering innovation through research; training students and practitioners; and building community engagement in an effort to enhance the mental health of citizens in Massachusetts and beyond.

We seek to develop, evaluate and integrate new discoveries and improved treatment techniques into community practice and everyday care.

Clinical Services Across the Life Span: the department provides treatment to children and adults as a partner of UMass Memorial Health Care – the largest health care system in Central and Western Massachusetts – and Community HealthLink. The system includes five hospitals (UMass Memorial Medical Center; Clinton Hospital; HealthAlliance Hospital; Marlborough Hospital; and Wing Memorial Hospital); hospice and behavioral health programs; and community-based physician practices.

System-wide for 2011, outpatient services for mental health and substance abuse issues were provided to more than 202,000 individuals, and there were nearly 24,000 emergency services visits.

The department operates Adult Mental Health Unit 8 East and the 26-bed Psychiatric Treatment and Recovery Clinic in Worcester, and supports the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital.

Working with youth and their families, we provide comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services to children and adolescents. Our dedicated clinicians evaluate young people and offer a variety of evidence-based interventions across a full array of conditions, including: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Autism and other developmental disabilities with behavioral features; Mood; Anxiety; Psychotic Disorders; and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Our innovative research, using neuroimaging, genetics and other emerging tools, is focused on the nature and causes of a range of afflictions – including depression, schizophrenia, and autism spectrum disorders.

Leading research centers and specialty areas include: Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute and the Center for Comparative Neuroimaging; Center for Mental Health Services Research; Child and Adolescent Neurodevelopmental Initiative and Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders; UMMS Depression Center & Center for Psychopharmacological Research & Treatment; Center of Excellence in Addiction (with Addiction Research Program); the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center; and Child Trauma Training Center.

Education and training programs are geared toward medical students, interns, residents, fellows and post docs in psychiatry, psychology and other disciplines. The department provides a medical school curriculum; residency training; fellowships in five areas including addiction psychiatry and forensic psychiatry; psychology internships; graduate nursing education; master of public health electives in the Graduate School; and the National Neuroscience and Mental Health Summer Internship Program for high school students.

To help advance new mental health care and disease prevention methodologies, the department provides many Continuing Medical Education activities – not only a Grand Rounds series but also large conferences, training programs and seminars by several of the department’s divisions, including Public Sector Psychiatry; Law and Psychiatry/Forensic; Addictions; Mood Disorders; Child & Adolescent: and the Shriver Center.

The Department of Psychiatry is committed to global health, and its faculty members participate in research and education projects around the world. In January 2013, the department began its first official collaboration with a mental health center abroad – Shanghai Mental Health Center in China. And the department for several years has been hosting distinguished visitors from other countries – enabling the cross-cultural exchange of methods, ideas and knowledge.

The department is headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts, with locations throughout the Commonwealth and partnerships at institutions across the globe.

Contact: PsychiatryDept@umassmed.edu