From the Training Director:

P. Alex Mabe, Ph.D.

The Medical College of Georgia and the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center Psychology Residency was formed in 1982 and through the years our faculty has shared a deep commitment to our common missions of educating our future health care professionals, striving for compassionate and excellent clinical service, and advancing science.

This, the 25th year of our Psychology Residency Program, has truly been a remarkable year for us. As we celebrated this milestone in our training efforts, it was quite a thrill to see so many men and women across the country willing to travel here to celebrate and remember a program that had meant so much to them. I must admit that rejoining our alumni and colleagues from the past 25 years, I was truly gratified by the clear evidence of excellence that had been pursued and found by those who have trained with us. So many fine psychologists have left here and gone on to accomplished and meaningful careers in psychology. Yet even more wonderful was the clear evidence of the integrity and goodness in which they have lived their lives.

I believe that a key to our success has our faculty’s commitment to a curriculum that combines solid grounding in core clinical psychology skills with specialty training in the areas of medical psychology and health behavior care. Also, integral to our residency training have been joint educational and clinical service activities with primary care physicians, psychiatrists and other physician specialists, nurse practitioners, social workers, and other allied health professionals. Thus the impact of this synergy of multiple health care settings, interdisciplinary integration, and emphasis on medical psychology and health behavior care training has been predictable: The MCG-Charlie Norwood VAMC Consortium has had an enduring track record of producing outstanding professional psychologists who are well prepared and seek out careers that are directed toward integrated approaches to health care issues.

Another key to our success has been our commitment to the training of professional psychologists in serving underserved populations. In 2002, our program was one of thirteen pre-doctoral internships in the country to be awarded the inaugural Graduate Psychology Education grants funded by the U.S. Department of Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr). We, of course, were honored by this inaugural grant award and in 2004 and most recently in 2007, we again were awarded educational grants through HRSA/BHPr.

Since the inception of the HRSA/BHPr Graduate Psychology Education program the MCG – Charlie Norwood VAMC Psychology Residency program has been one among an elite group of psychology residency/internship programs to receive the competitive grant award for each of the GPE grant funding cycles. This federal grant support has enabled us to continue and enhance our efforts to provide training in service delivery for such underserved populations as individuals living with HIV/AIDS, children and their families, and individuals from rural counties. With the 2007 HRSA/BHPr grant award, we have launched an exciting initiative to partner with Project GREAT (Georgia Recovery-Based Educational Approach to Treatment) to immerse psychology and psychiatry faculty and residents in the Recovery model of mental health care and to assist Project GREAT in the dissemination of Recovery knowledge, skills, and attitudes throughout the community mental clinics in Georgia’s MHDDAD Region 2.

And finally, I would be remiss if I did not point out that our training program has been richly blessed by the enduring support of the Department of Veterans Affairs as we have endeavored to be a part of a fine tradition of caring for the men and women that had faithfully served our country in times of peace and war. This is certainly an exciting time for our residency program as we look forward to building on the successes and fine traditions of our past to realize the bright future we envision for psychologists as valued members of the health care team and leaders in state and national initiatives to transform health care into one that provides quality care and empowerment to those that we serve.

Sincerely,

P. Alex Mabe, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Psychology Residency Training

Program Organization