About

James E. Bedford, MD is the lead child psychiatrist of UNC Youth Behavioral Health and the medical director of 4YBH, the inpatient psychiatric unit for pediatric patients with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, or a related neurodevelopmental disability. He is Co-Director of the UNC Program on Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry and a psychiatric consultant at Murdoch Developmental Center. As a specialist in high-quality psychiatric assessment and treatment of people with developmental disabilities and other neuropsychiatric concerns, Dr. Bedford emphasizes strengths, neurodiversity, and maximizing meaning, dignity, and independence. Prior to his work starting the YBH program, he was an attending psychiatrist at the UNC Crisis Stabilization Unit for seven years. His medical school and general psychiatry training was at UNC and his child psychiatry fellowship was at the University of California–Davis MIND Institute. Across settings Dr. Bedford is actively involved in psychiatry resident education, with experience directing a number of didactic courses and supervising and mentoring trainees at a variety of levels. His current research involvement includes an interdisciplinary study investigating a parent advocacy intervention for adolescents and young adults with IDD. As an elected delegate to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Assembly of Regional Organizations, he is actively involved in public policy advocacy.