Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM NOVEMBER 20-26, 2019 UCW 11 Cape Fear Valley Health System has received a $1 million Duke Endowment grant to help grow its new psychiatry residency program. Launched in 2018, the program's mis- sion is to train new psychiatrists, who will hopefully practice in more rural areas of the state. e nation's rural communities are struggling to attract new psychiatric specialists as older physicians retire out of the workforce. Samuel Fleishman, M.D., is Cape Fear Valley's chief medical officer. He said there are entire counties in the health system's six-county coverage area that do not have local psy- chiatrists. "e need for behavioral healthcare and psychiatrists has al- ways been a big issue for our region," he said. "Our psychiatrists have long been challenged with an overwhelm- ing community need." e Duke Endowment grant will help offset the program's start-up costs for the first three years. e program launched with just four residents but will have 16 by 2020. at number will grow to 24 in 2022 when a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship is added. e program's residents train by provid- ing psychiatric care at Cape Fear Val- ley Health inpatient and outpatient facilities. "ese residents help take care of those suffering from mental illness and substance abuse in our community," said Scott Klenzak, M.D., Cape Fear Valley's psychiatry residency program director. Lin Hollowell, Director of e Duke Endowment's Health Care program area, said funding programs like Cape Fear Valley's is important because the need for psychiatrists will only grow in coming years. "e shortage of psychiatrists is particu- larly dire in rural regions," he said. "e program at Cape Fear Valley Health will expand access to quality care for people in need and lay the groundwork for providing important services in the future." Cape Fear Valley CEO Mike Na- gowski said he is grateful the Duke Endowment chose to invest in Cape Fear Valley's fledgling residency pro- gram and its mission. "We are so excited about this new partnership," Nagowski said. "e Duke Endowment understands the importance of the psychiatry resi- dency program to our region, as well as the funding challenges that come with starting these kinds of pro- grams." Based in Charlotte, the Duke Endowment has distributed more than $3.6 billion in grants since its creation in 1924 by industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke. e private foundation's mission is to strengthen North Carolina and South Carolina communities by nurturing children, promoting health, educat- ing minds and enriching spirits. Cape Fear Valley Health is a 950- bed health system serving a region of more than 800,000 people in South- eastern North Carolina. e not-for- profit system is the state's eighth- largest health system and made up of 7,000 team members and 850 physicians, eight hospitals, and more than 60 primary care and specialty clinics. Cape Fear Valley Health offers residencies in emergency medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry and general surgery as well as a transitional year internship in affiliation with the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at Campbell University. For more information, visit www.Cape- FearValley.com. Local hospital system wins big by JEFF THOMPSON NEWS There are entire counties in the health system's six-county coverage area that do not have local psychiatrists.