Expanding Psychiatric Care in West Virginia
The psychiatry residency program within the Marshall Joan C . Edwards Department of Psychiatry serves as a center for psychiatric education . Launched in 2014 , it has trained 24 psychiatric residents .
“ We have been fortunate to recruit our own trainees to service the need for psychiatry services in West Virginia and the surrounding region ,” says Suzanne Holroyd , professor and chair of the Joan C . Edwards Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine .
Psychiatric residents aid in providing essential services to those in underserved areas . Holroyd ’ s department has provided psychiatry services to the Lakin , Manchin and Hopemont longterm care facilities and also operates an outpatient department that provides services such as child and adolescent psychiatry , a geriatric psychiatry and dementia clinic , psychological testing and other specialty clinics .
“ We also are beginning to provide psychological services at Southern Highlands in Princeton , and soon we will be providing psychiatric services at the Huntington VA Medical Center ,” Holroyd says . “ We also have a budding research program and currently participate in a national multi-site study looking at vagus nerve stimulators in adults with treatment-resistant depression or bipolar depression .”
Holroyd is currently looking to start another psychiatry residency program in Point Pleasant , a community that currently has no full-time psychiatrists . In conjunction with River ’ s Health Hospital and Holzer Hospital , the program would eventually be able to provide the county with 16 residents . The department has already been visited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and will know whether it has been accredited in 2024 .
It was in 2014 that Holroyd joined Marshall ’ s Department of Psychiatry as chair and began working to develop its academic psychiatry department . Originally , that department had only two psychiatrists and a few psychologists , but with Holroyd ’ s help , it has now expanded to 11 full-time psychiatrists and eight doctoral-level psychologists .
Holroyd also created Marshall ’ s psychiatry residency program and is in the process of developing another Marshall psychiatry residency program in Point Pleasant , WV .
“ We have been fortunate to recruit our own trainees to service the need for psychiatry services in West Virginia and the surrounding region . In addition , we also
have a psychology internship program to train psychologists to provide critically needed services to this area ,” she says .
Holroyd enjoys mentoring and works directly with the resident trainees , fellows in her geriatric psychiatry fellowship and faculty in the academic psychiatry department .
“ I love to teach , and I love to see new faculty develop that passion as well ,” Holroyd says .
The growth of the department has opened the door for many more West Virginians to seek assistance with their mental health . The faculty and residents staff the Mildred Mitchell Bateman Hospital , one of only two West Virginia ’ s state psychiatric hospitals , run an inpatient service at St . Mary ’ s Medical Center and provide many different services such as therapy , psychological testing and specialty clinics throughout the state .
Throughout her career , Holroyd says her greatest challenge has been working full-time while also being an involved mother to three children . However , her work has allowed her the opportunity to pursue a meaningful and successful career while never having to miss the important moments in her children ’ s lives .
She also says her determination and the support of people in the state inspire her to keep going .
“ I have been so welcomed and had so much support on our mission to develop and expand mental health services in West Virginia that I want to stay and keep our work going . •
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