Primary Care Health Psychology Fellowship

The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) offers a Primary Care Health Psychology Fellowship that recognizes the importance of integrating health and behavior.  This fellowship is offered through the Department of Family Medicine for individuals who have completed a residency in psychology. Based on a cognitive-behavioral orientation, this program strongly emphasizes a scientist-practitioner model.  By demonstrating the capacity of psychologists to be behavioral science experts and important change agents within health care settings, this program is designed to optimally prepare early career psychologists for positions in an academic health care center.  fellows have the opportunity to develop their clinical, research, and administrative skills within an academic health care setting.  A strong emphasis is placed on fellows learning to become effective members of trans-disciplinary primary care teams.

The fellowship seeks to train psychologists in the specialty area of Health Psychology within a primary care setting. Fellows have a well-rounded experience in research, teaching, and clinical practice. The fellowship offers numerous clinical training experiences that can be generalized to a variety of settings, but focuses in depth on treating patients who experience acute/chronic health complaints that often present in primary care settings. Fellows work with hypertension, diabetes, obesity, insomnia, chronic pain, endocrine disorders, etc. In addition, fellows have opportunities to manage a variety of Axis I and II disorders that are often co-morbid with these health complaints.  The program seeks to provide fellows with a breadth of experiences in diagnoses while providing in-depth training on brief interventions and short-term therapy. Fellows are expected to engage in research and are provided with opportunities to collaborate on existing projects and initiate original research. They also supervise and teach medical residents and students in a variety of topic areas such as communication and interview skills, recognition of Axis I and II disorders, physician impairment/wellness, etc. Fellows are prepared to pursue positions within, but not limited to, academic medical centers, hospitals/medical centers, and primary care clinics.