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Bradley Hospital gets funds to train doctors in children's psychiatry

Providence Journal (RI) - 3/24/2015

March 23--EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Capping a legislative battle that began more than a decade ago, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed on Monday morning announced federal funds to help train psychiatry residents at Bradley Hospital, one of the nation's leading psychiatric hospitals for children and adolescents.

Twenty-five residents in two training programs will benefit from the funds, set at $168,354 but expected to rise to as much as $300,000 annually, according to Whitehouse. Rhode Island and the nation face a shortage of doctors who specialize in the treatment of young people who live with mental illness.

In a media conference at the hospital, Whitehouse said the funding represents more than a resource to help train residents.

"It's an equally important statement that children's behavioral health is just as significant as children's physical health," Whitehouse said.

Reed recounted the day in 2002 that Dr. Gregory K. Fritz, Bradley Academic Director, told him that the federal Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Payment Program provided training funds for residents and fellows at general children's hospitals -- but not children's hospitals specializing in mental illness and cognitive disorders.

That "seemed to me to be absolutely absurd," Reed said. Thus began to fight to expand eligibility -- a fight that Whitehouse in recent years joined.

Fritz said the expansion championed by the senators should help in the campaign against stigma. "Stigma still does exist," he said. "I have to congratulate our senators for going in the face of what still is some powerful stigma and 'anti forces' that don't think this is the highest priority."

Bradley is a teaching affiliate of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

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