Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from UNC Psychiatry, Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC.
The UNC Department of Psychiatry is committed to excellence in our missions of clinical service, teaching, and research, and we are national leaders in each of these domains.
10/28/2025
The Walk for Hope funds groundbreaking mental illness research projects that explore the biological, neurological and genetic bases of mental illness and forge paths to improved diagnosis and treatment. The Foundation of Hope is and has been an amazing partner to our department for years and we're so grateful for their support of our research!
10/23/2025
UNC Youth Behavioral Health Hospital (YBH) is a 54-bed, 24-hour, locked psychiatric facility located in Butner, North Carolina. UNC YBH is dedicated to providing a safe, inclusive space for diverse youth in psychiatric crisis. Call (919) 338-8500 to learn more.
10/22/2025
UNC Child Psychiatry fellows train in a supervised and supportive environment. Our faculty members are approachable and readily available for mentorship, consultation, and research collaboration. Our training provides fellows with a balanced, broad-based biological, psychological, and social foundation in their approach to children and families with mental illness.
Dr. Gaynes is a psychiatrist, health services researcher, and educator whose work focuses on translating best quality mental health evidence to apply to low resource health care settings. His research focus is in the development and implementation of research to study mental illness, with an emphasis on clinical trials and health services research. He is nationally and internationally recognized for his clinical and research efforts on integrating mental health and primary care and translating evidence-based psychiatric care into real-world psychiatric and primary care practices, with a special focus on disseminating evidence-based psychiatric interventions in HIV settings in low- and middle-income countries. Currently, he is PI for the Malawian Program for Mental Health Research Training (WARMHEART, D43MH124130, NIMH/Fogarty Gaynes PI) and for the VITAL study adapting the Friendship Bench counseling intervention to improve mental health and HIV care engagement outcomes among people living with HIV who inject drugs in Vietnam (1 R34 DA051933-01, NIDA Gaynes PI). He also serves as the Scale-Up Study Core Director for the SHARP trial comparing different implementation strategies for the integration of depression treatment into non-communicable diseases care in Malawi involving lay Friendship Bench counselors (U19 MH100970, Pence PI) and consults on the PeriScope pilot trial of integration of lay FB counseling with HIV care engagement support for perinatal women in Malawi (R34 MH116806, Pence PI). Additionally, he serves as Co-Director of the educational and grant writing training core of NC TRACS (UNC’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards program).
10/17/2025
Improving mental health through service is the goal of Dr. Laura Klinger's new $4 million grant from NIH's Autism Data Science Initiative (ADSI)
Dr. Adam Miller and his team are now trying to understand how early suicidal thoughts and behaviors emerge in kids. Their findings, published in the Journal of American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, show that 34% of children reported passive suicidal ideation (thoughts of dying), and 33% reported active suicidal ideation (specific plan to take one’s life).
The Foundation of Hope funds groundbreaking mental illness research projects that explore the biological, neurological and genetic bases of mental illness and forge paths to improved diagnosis and treatment. The Foundation of Hope is and has been an amazing partner to our department for years and we're so grateful for their support of our research!
10/14/2025
Rain or shine, we show up to support mental health research at the Walk for Hope! The Foundation of Hope funds groundbreaking mental illness research projects that explore the biological, neurological and genetic bases of mental illness and forge paths to improved diagnosis and treatment.
Each year, thousands of participants come together at the Angus Barn in Raleigh to walk or run a 5K route to show solidarity for family, friends and community members living with a mental illness. Team UNC Psychiatry was 172 people strong this year and raised over $21,108 to advance mental health research.
Today is a reminder that mental health is just as important as physical health. Whether you're thriving, struggling, or somewhere in between—your feelings are valid, and you are not alone.
Let’s break the stigma. Let’s talk openly. Let’s support one another.
Check in with yourself. Check in with your people. Seek help if you need it—there is strength in reaching out.
10/07/2025
Research in the McElligott lab focuses on the circuits and plasticity that underlie the development and manifestation of psychiatric illness, specifically disorders on the affective spectrum including: alcohol use disorders, drug abuse and anxiety disorders. The lab has expertise in studying neurotransmission from the level of signaling in individual cells through behavior utilizing a variety of techniques including: whole-cell electrophysiology, in vivo and ex vivo fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, circuit manipulations (optogenetics, chemogenetics, caspase ablation), and behavioral assays.
One of the focuses of the Besheer Lab is to understand the neurobiology underlying the subjective/interoceptive effects of alcohol and alcohol drinking and relapse. In particular we are interested in understanding how episodes of stress can impact interoceptive sensitivity to alcohol and alcohol drinking and relapse, with a focus on the mechanistic involvement of the glutamatergic system.
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The UNC Department of Psychiatry is committed to excellence in our missions: clinical service, teaching, and research, and we are national leaders in each of these domains. We strive to embrace diversity, equity and inclusive excellence through our actions, our policies and our culture. Whether you are looking for information about patient care, education and training, clinical and neuroscience research, or our community-based efforts, I welcome your interest in our exceptional department.
Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry
Patient Services
Our providers deliver expert, compassionate clinical care to all of our patients – from the youngest children to the oldest adults, spanning the ethnic, socioeconomic and educational spectrum. Multiple inpatient units and outpatient clinics at a variety of locations throughout the Triangle offer comprehensive care and specialized treatment options for all psychiatric disorders. Our multidisciplinary teams actively collaborate and consult with other departments within the UNC School of Medicine and physicians, patients, and families throughout North Carolina and the Southeast.
Education
Psychiatry is a challenging yet rewarding discipline, and our residency and fellowship training programs continually expand and adapt to meet a host of changing needs. We provide a clinical training experience that effectively integrates psychiatric theory and practice with knowledge of psychodynamic principles, neurobiology, and pharmacology. We ensure that each trainee is extensively versed in a variety of behavioral, cognitive, and social approaches and treatment options, and in understanding the scientific and research methods that underpin our specialty. Our comprehensive training programs are among the most respected in the country, and graduates of our programs are competent physicians appropriately grounded in the understanding and treatment of psychiatric illnesses that go on to assume positions of leadership in academia (including several current Chairs of major departments of psychiatry), public service, private practice, and other areas of the private sector.
Research
UNC Psychiatry researchers stand at the forefront of cutting-edge translational psychiatric research, exploring the underlying mechanisms of human behavior and mental illness to inform new treatments and improve clinical practices. The depth and range of our clinical research programs enables us to offer many patients access to specialized care and state-of-the-art treatments that not only can improve their lives but also contribute to the betterment of the mental health of generations to come.
Provider Wellness
Medicine is facing an era of rapid and continuous change in nearly every way: payment models, technology, standards for clinical practice, and consumer driven healthcare. To prevent burnout syndrome and assist providers who are navigating this incredibly stressful environment, UNC has adopted the Quadruple Aim: a focus on enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving provider work life. Our Department’s innovative, supportive wellness programs offer novel approaches that integrate wellness as a critical metric to combat provider burnout throughout the institution.
