The University will open a new psychiatry residency program for the College of Community Health Sciences.
Set to welcome its first class in June 2026, the UA Tuscaloosa Psychiatry Residency Program will train future psychiatrists in a state that has long struggled with poor mental health care.
Dr. Richard Friend, dean of the College of Community Health Sciences, said that the effort to establish the residency began five years ago, but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress as CCHS focused on meeting immediate healthcare needs. He said that in recent years, growing demand for mental health services has pushed the process forward quickly.
“Our state has the lowest ratio of mental health providers per capita,” he said. “The state has a higher suicide rate than the national average and high rates of depression and substance abuse.”
The four-year program, operated by CCHS, is designed to produce board-eligible psychiatrists who will train in urban and rural settings, preparing them to meet the growing demand for psychiatric care in West Alabama and beyond.
The program will have up to six residents per year. Its goal is to lay the foundation for improving mental health care in Alabama, which currently ranks 50th in mental health provider availability.
“We are excited to offer this residency because it will help address a critical need for more psychiatrists in our community, the state and region, as well as for the students, faculty and staff of The University of Alabama,” Friend said.
Dr. James Reeves, the program’s residency director, said Alabama’s shortage of psychiatrists has caused “various mental health groups to contract out and provide services with psychiatrists outside Tuscaloosa,” adding that the lack of local providers often leads to higher costs and less effective services.
To address this, the program is designed to provide residents with hands-on training in diverse practice settings, equipping them to meet West Alabama’s growing mental health needs.
Residents will complete rotations at key mental health providers, including DCH Health System, Indian Rivers Behavioral Health and Project Horseshoe Farm.
Reeves explained that these sites were selected for their “robust programs with a diverse population of patients and providers,” offering residents an “excellent training experience.”
The program’s goal is to provide top-tier education and encourage residents to continue working in West Alabama after graduation, helping to fill the area’s ongoing shortage of psychiatrists.
“Once they graduate, we hope they can take staff psychiatry positions with these groups or other agencies in and around Tuscaloosa, like Bryce Hospital, Taylor-Hardin, the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center or rural areas in West Alabama,” Reeves said.
Friend said the program aligns with CCHS’s broader mission of expanding “healthcare access for our patients and for people throughout the communities of Alabama.”
He added that the residency will create new opportunities for collaboration among medical students, family medicine residents, and psychiatry residents and offer “new learning opportunities they don’t have now,” leading to “more collaborative and innovative care for patients.”
Reeves said the program’s success will be measured by board certification rates, exam performance, and how it compares to national averages. Another key measure will be the number of residents who take staff psychiatry positions in West Alabama or elsewhere in the state.
“We hope to attract medical students who are invested in the care of fellow Alabamians,” he said, noting that the focus early on will be ensuring quality training for the first few classes.
“We will see how the first several years go before we think about expanding,” he said. “The first class graduates in June 2030, so our focus now is to ensure we provide this class and those that start each year with the best training possible.”
