Regional Health Systems celebrates first graduating class of psychiatry residency program

Many gathered at St. Elijah Event Center in Merrillville on Wednesday, June 17, as Regional Health Systems, a Regional Care Group member, celebrated a historic milestone. The organization, in partnership with Indiana University School of Medicine, honored the first graduating class of its psychiatry residency program during a special ceremony.

The event recognized psychiatric physicians who completed four years of specialized training and are now prepared to help out residents of Northwest Indiana and beyond. Dr. Kobie Douglas, chief medical officer and psychiatry residency program director, is proud to recognize this first cohort of the program and believes Northwest Indiana is a great place for them to continue beyond this graduation.

“These graduates came in and took a chance on Regional Health Systems and our team to help them pursue their career and continue their education,” Douglas said. “Now, four years later, they are going to go out into the world and be practicing psychiatrists. There’s a huge deficit in the area for psychiatrists, and this is a program that helps to address that need.”

Bill Trowbridge, CEO of Regional Care Group, credits individuals like Douglas who helped turn the idea of this program into a reality just under a decade ago.

“Dr. Douglas was the visionary here many years ago when those discussions first started, and now we’ve seen it come to fruition,” Trowbridge said. “There’s incredible pride, and this is an unbelievable accomplishment for the graduates, especially because this is the very first class to ever come in.”

The psychiatry residency program helps train new psychiatrists to better care for underserved populations and people with mental illness in Northwest Indiana. The residents in the program complete rotations in all areas of psychiatry, including inpatient psychiatry, addictions, child and adolescent mental health care, primary care and more. Douglas believes the program has well-prepared these graduates for what the next step is for each of them.

“Before coming into the program, they’ve had the training that any physician would have if they are going to go into fields like internal medicine, pediatrics, or obstetrics,” Douglas said. “After that, they went through their residency program, and that’s where they learned their specialty. They came here to Regional Health Systems, where they had an opportunity to learn about outpatient psychiatry, inpatient psychiatry, addictions medicine, psychotherapy, case management, and how to take care of the underserved.”

Additionally, partnerships have been a key part of making this program successful. This includes Lake County Corrections Juvenile Justice System, the court system, the Indiana University (IU) Northwest Athletic Program, Department of Child Services, area school districts, local Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), local hospitals, and the IU School of Medicine.

“These partnerships are incredibly important. Having a strong relationship with partners like IU School of Medicine, along with our accredited residency program – we lean on each other for advice, how things should grow, and what it should look like overall,” Trowbridge said.

Dr. Warren Fournier, associate director of the psychiatry residency program, views this celebration as a great way to consolidate their progress into a special night.

“This is a big deal not only for our graduates, but for all of our residents,” Fournier said. “We have been very happy to be a part of the growth and development of these five individuals.”

This ceremony for the psychiatry resident graduates celebrated five individuals: Dr. Sotirios Travlos, DO, Dr. Dasia McClain, MD, Dr. Manisha Byreddy, BBDS, Dr. Cory Mahler, MD, and Dr. Chantae Hollis-Scott, MD.

Byreddy is appreciative of the experience this program has provided her with as she embarks on the next chapter of her career.

“This is such a conglomeration of all the things that we’ve done over the past four years. It’s great to celebrate all the hard work we’ve done. Right now, my options are open, but for the short-term I’d like to start with telehealth.”

As this group of graduates that came together for this program might now be taking different directions, the biggest thing that Douglas will remember about this group is how they will impact the classes that will graduate after them.

“With this being the very first group, it’s really the basis for everything. They were the ones who laid the groundwork, and it’s such a strong group that the trainees coming behind them have a great example to follow,” Douglas said. “This group is always going to be special to us.”

For more information on Regional Health Systems, visit rhs.care.