This 202-bed hospital, located across Hooper Drive from UAMS, serves as a statewide referral center and as Arkansas’ only state hospital.

Built in 1963, the facility when completed was awarded the “First Gulf States Regional Honor Award in Architecture”. As programming and therapeutic approaches to patients have progressed since then, the current facility has become inefficient and obsolete. A new state of the art one level state hospital, located adjacent to the current location, is in process of being constructed and should be completed by the Fall, 2007.

Residents are taught on an Adult Acute Care Unit which is a specialized “Training Unit”. Predoctoral psychology interns and graduate level social work students also train on that Unit. The Unit is staffed by some of our program’s most popular attending psychiatrists.

The hospital is comprised of 16 adolescent beds, 16 adolescent sex offender beds, 90 acute adult beds and 80 forensic beds. A newly approved Forensic Fellowship, based largely at ASH, is in its first year of existence. ASH also serves as a major rotation for Child/Adolescent Fellows from UAMS.

Staff members at ASH and the Arkansas Mental Health Research and Training Institute (AMHRTI) are faculty of the UAMS Department of Psychiatry and contribute actively to medical student and resident education supervision. They also participate in research initiatives, relevant to their patient population, with particular emphasis on identifying causative elements and treatments for more effective outcomes.

The Division of Behavioral Health Services, the parent organization of ASH, also has direct responsibility for the operation of the Arkansas Health Center, a 300 bed skilled nursing facility located in Benton and has contractual agreements with the 15 statewide community mental health centers and the 28 substance abuse centers.
The Division also is responsible for several grant programs.

Severe Barriers:
This is a screening assessment and referral program, which uses an assertive community management model to assist welfare recipients transition to employment status. The program identifies barriers which are then addressed through community resources.

Co-Occurring State Incentive Grant (COSIG):
This is a federally funded project which focuses on screening of all patients for mental illness and substance abuse based on a “no wrong door” philosophy. Wherever a patient presents, they will be screened and triaged from that point in the system. COSIG also has developed a co-occurring disorders training curriculum and works to educated providers throughout the community agencies.

For more information call (501) 686-9000.

UAMS Department of Psychiatry
4301 W. Markham # 554
Little Rock, AR 72205
501-526-8100
501-526-8199 (fax)
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