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"The majority of physicians who do addiction medicine come from primary care, but physicians from any one of the 24 specialties can apply" for the new fellowship program, Haynes said. KUSM-Wichita has approval to accept up to three fellows for the program, which is accredited by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education. Fellows will spend 1,500 hours of the 2,000-hour fellowship in clinical training, Haynes said, helping treat patients with substance use disorders and co-occurring conditions at sites that include the VA Medical Center and COMCARE, the county's certified community behavioral health clinic. CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY FELLOWSHIP Also in summer 2025, the first three fellows in KUSM-Wichita's two- year Child & Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship program graduated. KUSM-Wichita was approved to accept up to four fellows each year when it received ACGME accreditation in 2023. "Our goal is to have two fellows per year, but we wanted to be approved for more in the event that we have additional qualified candidates," said Cassie Karlsson, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and the CAP fellowship program director. Mental health disorders for youth up to 21 years of age are at record levels throughout the U.S., and Kansas has a particularly dire situation. The state has a higher-than-average prevalence of mental illness and lower-than-average rates of access to care. Kansas has fewer than 70 child and adolescent psychiatrists and is projected to have only 30% of the child psychiatrists needed by 2037. There is currently only one child psychiatrist for every 16,428 children and adolescents in Sedgwick County, and 90% of Kansas counties have no child and adolescent psychiatrists at all, according to HRSA Workforce Projections and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The fellowship program is already boosting the number of certified providers in the area, thanks to both new graduates and new faculty. Before the KUSM-Wichita CAP fellowship program started in 2023, there were only five certified child and adolescent psychiatrists in the Wichita area. Graduate Sandhya Mainali, M.D., joined the KUSM-Wichita faculty as a clinical instructor and is the associate director for the CAP fellowship program. Javanthi Theegala, M.D., is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with COMCARE. The third graduate, David Matuszewski, M.D., is completing his third year in the KUSM-Wichita psychiatry residency program. "We are definitely excited that all three completed their fellowship training, and two are staying to help children and families right here in our community, while the third is finishing his final year of psychiatry residency," Karlsson said. Earlier in 2025, Faisal Ansari, M.D., who completed a CAP fellowship at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, joined the KUSM-Wichita Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences faculty. Ansari also completed an addiction psychiatry fellowship at KUMC. Ashley Haynes, M.D., Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program director, and Luke Rosebraugh, M.D., 2025 fellowship graduate, visit with a client at the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center. 16 Sandhya Mainali, M.D., graduated in 2025 from the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program and joined the KU School of Medicine- Wichita faculty as a clinical instructor and associate director of the fellowship program.