UNC Health Appalachian, part of Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health, has established a rural psychiatric residency program that aims to expand the pipeline of physicians trained to serve rural and underserved communities.
The program, created through a grant from the North Carolina General Assembly, will be developed alongside Asheville, N.C.-based Mountain Area Health Education Center’s Boone Rural Family Medicine Residency Program, a partnership between UNC Health Appalachian and MAHEC, according to a Feb. 25 news release from the system.
The program is designed to be flexible and offers reduced training time requirements, expanded partnerships and four grant types to support program development and expand existing programs.
“Psychiatry and behavioral health providers remain in short supply across western North Carolina,” John Nicholls, MD, chair of the MAHEC department of psychiatry and behavioral health, said in the release. “Our new rural psychiatry residency program helps address that gap by training talented mental health professionals who are committed to this region. Our goal is to train them exceptionally well, and to inspire them to build their careers right here in the communities we serve.”
Funding is supported by an investment from the UNC system and the North Carolina General Assembly in partnership with UNC Health, Greenville, N.C.-based ECU Health, Area Health Education Centers and UNC System health affairs programs.
A second development grant will support the creation of a rural general surgery residency program.
The residency offers three years of training and has graduated 13 family physicians, including nine who practice in rural North Carolina. More than 900 physicians, pharmacists and dentists have completed MAHEC residency and fellowship programs as of June 2025, according to the release.
