UF opens academic mental health center in Vero Beach
The University of Florida will celebrate the grand opening of the UF Center for Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine in Vero Beach with a butterfly release today and a public open house Saturday.
The center, a collaborative effort between the UF College of Medicine and the Robert F. and Eleonora W. McCabe Foundation and its partners, is a community-based treatment center and teaching facility staffed by UF clinicians and fellows providing state-of-the-art academic outpatient evaluation and treatment.
"There is an overwhelming need for psychiatric services in the state of Florida, where recent reports rank us 49th out of 50 states," said Mark S. Gold, M.D., Dizney distinguished professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at the UF College of Medicine. "This lack of access to care was brought to our attention by Ellie and Bob McCabe, and through their initiative, the University of Florida has begun to attract and will continue to recruit nationally recognized psychiatry and addiction leaders to benefit the people of the Treasure Coast."
As longtime Vero Beach residents, the McCabes have focused their foundation's philanthropic efforts on mental health care in Indian River County since 2001. The foundation's $2 million gift to UF last June established the Robert F. and Eleonora W. McCabe clinical eminent scholar in psychiatry and community mental health at the UF College of Medicine. Wayne Creelman, M.D., was named the McCabe scholar and oversees the UF center.
Inspired by the McCabes' commitment to establish an academic mental health center in the county, area philanthropists and their families joined the effort by contributing an additional $2.3 million over the next four years to support the Vero Beach-based center.
"This is a unique example of how charitable contributions from just a few can benefit an entire community," said UF President Bernie Machen, who will attend a grand-opening ceremony at the new center today. "At the University of Florida we look for creative approaches to meet the needs of the residents of Florida and to provide excellent educational opportunities for our students. This center will do both."
UF's Vero Beach center includes full-time faculty specializing in adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, psychology, psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. It also will serve as a primary site for the academic training of addiction medicine physicians, child and adolescent psychiatrists and other mental health professionals as well as offer periodic continuing medical education for local physicians.
"We are developing a potential model for other communities throughout the state and nation that have the same drive and desire to impact the availability of mental health care in their communities," Gold said.
The grand opening and butterfly release at the UF Center for Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine will take place at 4 p.m. today (March 27.) The center will hold an open house from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Saturday for area psychologists, counselors and the public. Tours of the facility and refreshments will be provided. The UF center is located at 840 37th Place, Suite 2, across the street from the Indian River Medical Center.