Faculty and Staff updates
Robin Reed is co-investigator of grant to study diabetic outcomes
Robin Reed, MD, assistant professor in psychiatry and medical 
director for the Center’s Health Home, is co-investigator for a grant to study diabetic outcomes. Gary Cuddeback, PhD, MSW, MPH, assistant professor in social work and psychiatry, and Diane Berry, PhD, ANP-BC, FAANP, associate professor in nursing, are co-principal investigators for the $39,000 grant “Improving diabetes outcomes for persons with severe mental illness” from the UNC Center for Diabetes Translation Research to Reduce Health Disparities (CDTR). The study will test the feasibility and effectiveness of a diabetes self-management training intervention adapted for patients with severe mental illness who receive care in local mental health clinics.
Bainbridge joins the CTI program as team leader
Janice Bainbridge, MSW, LCSW, has joined the Center as the team 
leader of the Critical Time Intervention (CTI) program, which assists individuals in Orange and Chatham with severe mental illness to transition from institutions such as hospitals or prisons to the community. Nick Lemmon, MSW, LCSW-A, also came on board as a social worker for the program. Quickly making a difference in the community, the team recently received accolades for working with other community partners, and was also featured in an article in the online publication North Carolina Health News.
The program was developed as a collaboration of the Center and the UNC School of Social Work and is funded by a Kate B. Reynolds Trust grant.
Carrie Brown named medical director of the Wake ACT Team.
Carrie Brown, MD, clinical professor, has joined the Center as medical
director of the new Wake ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) Team. Housed at the new UNC STEP Community Clinic of Wake County on Falstaff Road in Raleigh, the team of mental health professionals provides 24/7 services for specific patients to assist them to live in the community. Services range from medications management to housing.
Mahadevan receives Hometown Hero Award
Thava Mahadevan, MS, director of operations at the Center, receive
d WCHL’s Hometown Hero Award April 16 for his work with the homeless in Orange County. The award recognizes extraordinary community work.
Brian Sheitman named medical director at WakeBrook
Brian Sheitman, MD, professor of psychiatry in the UNC Department of
Psychiatry and medical director at the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health, was named medical director at the WakeBrook Recovery Center, a crisis care center in Raleigh, earlier this year. WakeBrook, formerly operated by Wake County, is now operated by UNC Healthcare.
Sheitman joined UNC Psychiatry in 1996. He has held leadership roles at Dorothea Dix Hospital and served as medical director of the Center until the WakeBrook appointment. He continues to serve as a staff psychiatrist and will work closely with the Center as it establishes an outpatient clinic called UNC STEP Community Clinic-Wake County.
David Penn receives award
David Penn, PhD, Linda Wagner-Martin Distinguished Professor in UNC
Psychology and director of psychological services at the Center’s OASIS, received a 2013 Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award. The award recognizes educators who have inspired their former students to “create an organization which has demonstrably conferred a benefit on the community at large” or “establish on a lasting basis a concept, procedure, or movement of comparable benefit to the community at large.” He will receive the $25,000 award at a ceremony in Atlanta in November. Publications from the Center
Publications from the Center
Fredrik Jarskog, MD, research director, at the North Carolina Psychiatric 
Research Center, was lead author for “Metformin for weight loss and metabolic control in overweight outpatients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder,” published online in the July 2013 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry and in print September.
David Penn, PhD, director, Psychological Services at the Center’s OASIS, was co-author of: “Relationship between olfactory function and social cognition in euthymic bipolar patients,” published online in the June 2013 CNS Spectrums; “Psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia,” published in the March 2013 issue of Annual Review Clinical Psychology; “Metacognitive functioning in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis,” published online in the March 2013 issue of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy; and “Web-based cognitive–behavioral therapy for auditory hallucinations in persons with psychosis: a pilot study,” published in the February 2013 issue of Schizophrenia Research.
Diana Perkins, MD, medical director at OASIS, was co-author of 
“Web-based cognitive–behavioral therapy for auditory hallucinations in persons with psychosis: a pilot study,” published in the February 2013 issue of Schizophrenia Research.