Arkansas Attorney General Provides $600,000 Grant to Support Women’s Mental Health Fellowship

By Tim Taylor

LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has received a $600,000 grant from Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin to support a women’s mental health fellowship in an effort to address the impact of the opioid epidemic on women and to help reduce the state’s maternal mortality rate.

The grant will be used to train a new generation of psychiatrists in the treatment of women with opioid use disorder and other psychiatric conditions, specifically during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

The Women’s Mental Health Program, based in the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute, has the state’s only three psychiatrists specializing in women’s mental health. The program recorded 3,758 patient visits between January 2023 and August 2024, 40% of which were for substance use disorders.

Arkansas Attorney General Provides $600,000 Grant to Support Women’s Mental Health Fellowship

Jessica Coker, M.D., serves as the medical director of the Psychiatric Research Unit’s inpatient units.