In 2017, using state grant funds, the Duke Sickle Cell Center began contracting with Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences to embed behavioral health care within the center. Under the contract, every patient who visits the clinic is offered free behavioral health services, regardless of their income level, insurance coverage, or network limits.

On a typical day at Duke Regional Hospital, you might find pharmacist Amber Kapuganti, PharmD, BCPP, rounding with the behavioral health inpatient team, consulting with psychiatric emergency department providers, answering trainees’ medication questions, leading games to teach patients about medication safety and usage, and advocating for new medications to be added to the hospital’s formulary. Kapuganti is the hospital’s first dedicated behavioral health pharmacist.

The Comprehensive Adaptive Multisite Prevention of University Student Suicide (CAMPUS) trial aims to test more targeted, adaptive strategies to better treat the range of students experiencing suicidal ideation. Duke Psychiatry's Scott Compton, PhD, is the lead investigator for the Duke University arm of the study. Other participating institutions include Rutgers University, University of Nevada-Reno and University of Oregon.

Duke Psychiatry's Jeremy Grove, PhD, directs the psychology consult service on Duke Regional Hospital’s inpatient unit. He and two clinical psychology doctoral interns—Mohammed Alsubaie, MS, and Julia Chafkin, MA, LPA—provide one-on-one consults with patients and facilitate group sessions to help patients build skills to cope with challenges in their lives.

The UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS) was awarded $40 million over five years to continue raising the standard of care and increasing access to services for children and their families across the U.S. who have experienced trauma. The NCCTS is co-directed by Lisa Amaya-Jackson, MD, MPH, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke and Jenifer Maze, PhD, in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA.

As the new director of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences clerkship program, Cerrone Cohen, MD, an assistant professor in both psychiatry and behavioral sciences and family medicine and community health, recognizes the valuable opportunity the clerkship gives Duke University medical students, while also getting equally energized about the vital long-term role it can play in preparing students to help address the mental health crisis in the U.S.

Courtney Gardner, MSN, a pediatric nurse practitioner in Marion, North Carolina, has seen a tremendous increase in depression and anxiety among her patients in the past few years. However, there are very few pediatric mental health specialists in rural McDowell County or nearby counties — certainly not enough to meet demand. That’s why she is grateful for the support of NC-PAL, a telephone consultation and continuing education program for primary care providers who treat pediatric or perinatal patients with mental health concerns.

The $3.5 million award will adapt a cell-linker protein in humans that improves crosstalk between brain regions in hopes of rewiring circuits that go awry in psychiatric disorders. The NIH has recognized Dzirasa as one of just eight scholars for the 2022 Director’s Pioneer Award, which specifically funds promising and often paradigm-shifting projects by exceptional researchers.

The Office for Research & Innovation has awarded funding to eight, interdisciplinary projects as part of the inaugural Duke Science and Technology (DST) Launch Seed Grant Program. Duke Psychiatry assistant professor Yun Wang, PhD, was among the awardees.

Since 2020, the Developing Best Practices for Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning project team, led by team leaders Jan Holton, PhD, and Warren Kinghorn, MD, DTh, and project manager Stephanie Hargrove, PhD, has been exploring the ways that trauma impacts students’ experiences in higher education.