North Carolina’s mental health system is being renewed, with an emphasis on quality clinical care provided by a professional workforce. This is good news for those who live with, or are at risk for, severe and persistent mental illness. As with any change, there is much work to do.
The UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health was established in 2009 to bring the expertise of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to bear on the challenges facing North Carolina’s mental health system.
Building on two well-respected clinical programs within the Department of Psychiatry – STEP (the Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program) and OASIS (Outreach and Support Intervention Services), and with support from the Duke Endowment and the state of North Carolina, the Center integrates mental health know-how across the UNC-Chapel Hill campus to:
Our diverse and growing Center is active on many fronts, including clinical care, research, education, and policy development. Our Center is also building broad collaborations with those we serve, including our patients, their families, providers, state agencies, and advocacy groups. Together, we can reinvigorate that system and deliver on the promise that quality care provides.
I invite you to explore our website to see who we are, what we are up to, and what we hope to accomplish. We all look forward to working with you to improve the lives of people with mental illness in North Carolina. For more information, or if there is anything I can help with, please feel free to contact me.
John Gilmore, MD
Director
Although many people with mental illness are artists, musicians, writers, or otherwise gifted individuals (famous or not), they have those talents in spite of the illness, not because of it. Some people don't discover their talent, or have the time to develop it, until they become ill. But chances are they would have been creative even if they had not become ill. This doesn't mean their work is unaffected by their illness; because how prolific the work is, the themes it covers, or the media chosen may, in fact, be affected by the illness. But the myth that mental illness is the gateway to creativity doesn't hold up under scientific scrutiny.
Founded in January 2009, the Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health is part of the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Addressing quality of care and workforce development issues in North Carolina's mental health system, the Center and its clinical programs are supported by a three-year grant from The Duke Endowment, as well as Cross Area Services Program (CASP)
funds. The program operates in conjunction with multiple university, state, and community-based partners.
© 2010 UNC CMH
Website development by Communication Matters