MIRECC / CoE

The South Central MIRECC was funded in 1998 and encompasses all or parts of four states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The Center has anchor sites at three medical centers in Houston, Little Rock, and New Orleans. It is closely aligned with the VISN 16 Mental Health Product Line, which oversees the delivery of mental health care and the facility Mental Health Directors.

Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) provides health care to more than 120,000 Veterans in southeast Texas. This state-of-the-art health care facility offers primary, secondary and tertiary care on a 118-acre campus with 319 inpatient beds, a 40-bed Spinal Cord Injury Center and a 120-bed transitional care unit for long-term care. Approximately 3,500 health care professionals work at MEDVAMC providing high quality care and services.

MEDVAMC is widely recognized as a leader in training and educating health care providers through affiliations with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and 85 other education and research institutions. The South Central MIRECC office in Houston works closely with the MEDVAMC Mental Health Service Line and the HSR&D Center for Utilization and Quality of Care Studies. The Houston HSR&D Center of Excellence houses over 30 research investigators and 150 research staff from disciplines including medicine, psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, and statistics/methodology.

Houston Site Leader

Lilian Dindo, PhD
Lilian.Dindo@bcm.edu

Houston Anchor Site Administrative Officer

Kendall R. Moore
Kendall.Moore2@va.gov

Program Site Assistant

Sarah Pollard
Sarah.Pollard@va.gov

Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) is a large and complex VA Healthcare System that is academically affiliated with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). CAVHS is located in a metropolitan area of approximately 580,000 people and draws from a primary service area of 275,000 Veterans. CAVHS provides medical, surgical, psychiatric, rehabilitation, and nursing home services, as well as a wide variety of outpatient, specialty and primary care programs.

CAVHS offers a wide range of clinical training opportunities in mental health and serves as a training site for numerous clinical training programs based jointly at CAVHS/UAMS. In addition to serving as an anchor site for the South Central MIRECC, CAVHS is also home to the HSR&D Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research (CeMHOR) and the VA Behvavioral Health Quality Enhancement Research  Initiative program. CAVHS also maintains a close relationship with the UAMS Division of Health Services Research at the Psychiatric Research Institute and the UAMS Translational Research Institute.

Little Rock Site Leader

Jeffrey Pyne, MD
pynejeffreym@uams.edu

South Central MIRECC Administrative Officer

Kristin Ward
Kristin.Ward2@va.gov

Budget Analyst

Dale Perkins
Wendell.Perkins@va.gov

Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System (SLVHCS) provides quality, compassionate, safe health care to Veteran patients throughout 23 parishes in southeast Louisiana. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans VAMC was devastated. SLVHCS reorganized to meet the needs of Veterans and now consists of eight community-based clinics located in New Orleans, Slidell, Hammond, St. John Parish, Houma, Franklin, Bogalusa and Baton Rouge. Ninety percent of patients live within 30 minutes of primary and mental health services. Specialty care is available through the New Orleans and Baton Rouge clinics and inpatient services are coordinated through community facilities and other VA medical centers. Programs are available for special needs populations including those with Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder and spinal cord injury.

New Orleans Site Leader

C. Laurel Franklin, PhD
Laurel.Franklin@va.gov

Program Site Assistant

Ashley Corte
Ashley.Corte2@va.gov