FOUNTAIN HILL, Pa. — Bridging the gap between addiction and mental health — that’s what a new fellowship program at a local health system aims to do.
St. Luke’s University Health Network is looking for medical experts interested in its Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship program, which launches in July 2025.
“Detox is easy. Recovery is hard.”Dr. Gregory Dobash, who oversees St. Luke's Addiction Medicine Fellowship program
“We need a workforce who understands addiction,” said Dr. Gregory Dobash, who oversees the Addiction Medicine Fellowship program, which launched in July 2024.
“Detox is easy. Recovery is hard.”
Dobash will work hand-in-hand with Dr. Gibson George in the new program.
“The big issue we face is being able to be compassionate in the face of people who can be rude and manipulative," George said.
"We need to understand that that’s the pathology; it’s not that person’s choice."
Both programs are designed to support the growth of physicians and psychiatrists in the fields.
“Our overarching mission is to train the workforce of addiction specialists who can provide care in the Lehigh Valley and in rural locations,” Dobash said.
“Unfortunately, some people will fall through the cracks. They go to the ER for treatment for an overdose. They’re treated, revived, but there’s no warm handoff for that individual.
"Our goal is to have someone available to pick that patient up from the ER and continue their therapy and treatment.”
Medicine, psychiatry both needed
Dobash is a family medicine and addiction physician who works closely with the homeless population, those suffering from mental illness and the disease of addiction, and other underserved groups.
He and George said they believe there’s a link between medicine and psychiatry.
“We need both,” Dobash said. “I’d be hard pressed to think of a patient who did not have a psychiatric comorbidity that’s linked to addiction.”
St. Luke’s University Health Network acquired the Penn Foundation, a mental health services organization, in 2021. George said it will be a resource for the new fellowship program.
“We now have the expertise in the [mental health and addiction] field and a backing of a huge health network,” George said.
“If you’re not willing to get down to where they are, if you’re waiting for them to get up to a certain level, you’re not going to have a lot of success.”Dr. Gregory Dobash, St. Luke's University Health Network
Dobash said the program is looking for people who are willing to meet people where they are.
“It’s very difficult to treat folks otherwise,” he said. “If you’re not willing to get down to where they are, if you’re waiting for them to get up to a certain level, you’re not going to have a lot of success.”
The two fellowship leaders are now searching for physicians who understand the pathology and stigma of addiction for the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship.
Physicians also have to have completed a residency in psychiatry.
