Department of Psychiatry Receives $2.8M to Expand Mental Health Workforce

The California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) has awarded UC Irvine two grants totaling $2.8 million to temporarily add positions to the adult residency program and child psychiatry fellowship.

California is projected to have a “severe shortage” of psychiatrists by 2028, with estimates suggesting that an additional 527 first-year psychiatry residents would be needed per year, from 2025 to 2029, to close the gap. In response, the state has made substantial investments in physician residencies, emphasizing psychiatry.

More recently, the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) launched the Medi-Cal Behavioral Health Residency Training Program (MBH-RTP). The program offers grant funding aimed at increasing the availability of general psychiatrists, child and adolescent psychiatrists, addiction psychiatrists and addiction medicine physicians who are trained and serve in Medi-Cal safety net settings. (Findings from a 2015 survey found that psychiatrists were less likely to accept new Medi-Cal patients than physicians in any other specialty.)

As part of this effort to expand the mental health workforce, the Department of Psychiatry at UC Irvine recently received two HCAI grants totaling $2.8 million.

“We are the only academic medical center to receive this grant funding,” says John Luo, MD, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior and director of the Psychiatry Residency Training program — the only psychiatry training program in Orange County. Luo received a grant to support two positions in the adult residency program, while Paramjit Joshi, MD, also a professor of psychiatry and human behavior, received a grant in support of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Fellowship program.

Adult Residency Program

The Department of Psychiatry received a $1.4 million grant in 2024 for the Psychiatric Education Capacity Expansion (PECE) for Psychiatry Residency Grant Programs. “We used the PECE funding to expand the residency program from nine to 11 positions starting July 2025,” says Luo. The latest grant will allow the department to again support two additional resident physicians, maintaining their cohort of 11 trainees.

“In contrast to the earlier PECE grant, the current MBH-RTP grant requires that the trainees register with HCAI for the Medi-Cal Behavioral Health Special Student Loan Repayment Program (MBH-SSLRP),” explains Luo. This program provides $60,000 per year of direct loan repayment to loan originators for up to $240,000. “Recipients must also agree to a four-year full-time service obligation in a Medi-Cal safety net setting, which includes UCI Health – Orange.”

Luo notes that the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for practicing psychiatrists in Orange County. “Both of the grants have enabled our program to increase our class size to meet that need,” he says. “It is significant that UCI is the only academic medical center in our state to be awarded this grant because our health system is both a center of excellence as well as a safety net hospital for the community. It is one of the reasons why I love working here at UCI Health!”

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship

The CAP Fellowship training program at UC Irvine is the only academic program in Orange County that prepares students for a plethora of opportunities. “Over the years, our graduates have established themselves in various settings, including staying in academia, joining private practices in Orange County, and working in county mental health programs and community hospitals,” says Joshi. “We strive to provide a diverse range of training settings and mentorship while maintaining the camaraderie and collegiality we feel is vital to the growth of the individual physician.”

The program’s clinical experiences have been developed to provide exposure to the wide variety of psychiatric diagnoses and issues facing children and adolescents, as well as to prepare CAP fellows for the diverse populations they encounter post-graduation. “We emphasize training in biological, psychological and social modalities, taking a multidisciplinary approach to providing psychiatric care in a compassionate and humanistic manner.”

Fellows in the newly established “community track,” funded by the HCAI grant, will increase the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists providing services to Medi-Cal and Medicaid youth. “The HCAI grant will not only enhance and enrich the training opportunities but also provide needed mental health services to youth who are marginalized, underserved, and lacking access to such services,” says Joshi. “We pride ourselves in both the quality of care we provide, and the quality of child and adolescent psychiatrists we train.”