The Arizona State Hospital (ASH) provides “the highest and most restrictive” level of long-term psychiatric care in the state to Arizonans with mental illnesses who are under court order for treatment. Our staff provide high-quality inpatient psychiatric care, using a multi-disciplinary team approach, and are committed to treating patients with dignity and respect.
The team at ASH, located at 24th and Van Buren streets in Phoenix, is continually making improvements to patient care and treatment modalities. The hospital promotes hope and wellness for patients with individualized treatment that focuses on education about their illnesses and collaborates to help each patient improve their quality of life and progress towards discharge and community reintegration. We believe that individuals are not defined by their mental illness and that everyone can live a life filled with meaning and purpose.
ASH’s clinical departments have extensive educational partnerships – in psychology, psychiatry, nursing, social work, rehabilitation, and pharmacy – to train the next generation of mental health care workers both internally through internships, and externally through presentations and lectures by our staff at various academic locations.
Our Psychology Department’s internship program recently received a glowing re-accreditation for a full 10 years by the American Psychological Association and continues to accept high-quality candidates. Meanwhile, our social work, pharmacy, and rehab departments continue to train enthusiastic and compassionate interns. We have an ongoing relationship with Creighton’s Psychiatric Residency Program to host psychiatrists in training on rotation on our Forensic Campus.
Our pharmacists have promoted behavioral health education and effective medication administration practices by being published in a peer-reviewed journal and presenting their findings at national conferences. Our Nursing Department partners with multiple colleges to provide clinical hours helping students obtain the knowledge and skills necessary to become registered nurses in the mental health field. Being able to provide the students an opportunity to interact with our patient population allows them to truly see how psychiatric RNs provide the needed care to these individuals.
Clinical staff of all disciplines also regularly contribute educationally within the behavioral health academic community. Our psychologists, social workers, rehab staff, and pharmacists give guest lectures at a variety of area institutions. Our chief medical officer, Dr. Katharine Woods, gave a Grand Rounds at the University of Arizona on treatment-resistant and clozapine-resistant schizophrenia.
All of this is being done with a goal of improving the lives of not only the patients directly under the hospital’s care, but also to help do our part to foster growth to collectively meet the needs of all those in our community facing the challenges of treating individuals with a mental illness in an environment of scarce resources and an ever-increasing demand for services.
