Behavioral Health Fellowship

The Cahaba + UAB Behavioral Health Fellowship is a one-year post-residency fellowship designed to train family medicine physicians in integrated, primary care–based behavioral and mental health. Our goal is to cultivate leaders who are clinically excellent, emotionally attuned, and capable of teaching and modeling behavioral health integration in underserved and resource-limited settings.

Fellows will provide direct care across multiple outpatient sites, lead educational sessions, build a teaching archive, collaborate with counselors and care teams, and support resident wellness. This is a highly interdisciplinary fellowship rooted in our mission to care for the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—and to prepare future physician-educators to do the same.

CURRICULUM HIGHLIGHTS

Core Themes

Primary care–based behavioral and mental health
Addiction medicine, psychopharmacology, trauma-informed care
Teaching and resident development
Community-based care and systems navigation
Collaborative care with both our psychiatry residency and our clinical behavioral health consultants

Teaching Structure

Flipped Classroom Model: Weekly readings, bite-sized teaching blurbs, and monthly full-length lectures.
Resident Education: Fellows may present in our Family Medicine Residency didactics on multiple mental health topics.
Resource Development: Fellows will help build and maintain a behavioral health archive accessible to all Cahaba providers.

Thematic Curriculum (13 blocks):

Anxiety, Depression & Suicide
De-escalation, Redirection & Motivational Interviewing
Trauma, PTSD & Trauma-Based Care
Substance Use Disorders & MAT
Chronic Pain & Chronic Disease
ADHD, Autism & Learning Disorders
Eating Disorders, Body Image & Lifestyle
Personality Disorders
Psychotic Disorders
Dementia & Delirium
Death, Dying & Grief
Culture, Community & Barriers to Care
Resident Wellness & Burnout Prevention

CLINICAL EXPERIENCE

Fellows work across Cahaba Medical Care locations in Jefferson, Bibb, Chilton County, and Perry counties.

Clinical duties include:

Dedicated half-day behavioral health clinics
Participation in MAT/Suboxone groups (Maplesville, Marion, Centreville)
Quality improvement and ACEs screening projects
Participation in Collaborative Care Meeting with our behavioral health counsellors and the psychiatry faculty

SCHEDULE STRUCTURE

The fellow follows a repeating weekly schedule combining clinical care, didactics, psychopharmacology consults, suboxone group work, and time for curriculum development and mentorship.

Example schedule includes:

Full clinic sessions
Suboxone clinics (multiple sites)
Weekly didactic time and academic development
Rotating psych clinic sessions across Cahaba locations with our psychiatry residency faculty.

ELIGIBILITY

Applicants must

Be board certified or board eligible in Family Medicine
Have completed an ACGME-accredited Family Medicine residency
Be eligible to practice in Alabama (we cannot sponsor visas)

APPLICATION

Applications open: July 1, 2025

Deadline: November 30, 2025

Fellowship dates: July 2026 – June 2027

Submit the following

Curriculum Vitae (CV)
USMLE or COMLEX transcript
Medical school diploma and transcript
State medical license (if available)
Three (3) letters of recommendation (including one from residency program director)
1–2 paragraphs describing:
Your long-term career goals
Your interest in behavioral health
What you hope to gain from the fellowship
Any previous behavioral health or addiction medicine experience

Send applications to:
Kristen Thrasher
Kristen.Thrasher@cahabamedicalcare.com