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Ruddy Ruggles Global Mental Health Scholars

The Rudy Ruggles Global Mental Health Scholars program is a collaborative initiative between Nuvance Health and the Psychiatry Department of Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS), generously supported by Dr. Rudy Ruggles. At the program’s inception, the partnership was between the Departments of Psychiatry of UVMLCOM and MAkCHS. However, in 2023 due to the restructuring of the Global Health (GH) Program at UVMLCOM, the partnership transitioned to the Department of Psychiatry at Nuvance Health under the leadership of Dr. Charles Herrick.

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The Global Mental Health Scholars engage in the three-year clinical and didactic curriculum of the Masters of Medicine Degree in Psychiatry (MMED Psych) offered by the Department of Psychiatry at MakCHS. Scholars are selected based on interest, academic and clinical performance, and interviews conducted at MakCHS, with input from the Nuvance Health Psychiatry Department leadership. The goal is to improve psychiatry education and equip future Global Mental Health workers with a breadth of skills to address the mental health needs of the Ugandan population.

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The collaboration involves funding tuition and research fees for three rising second- and third-year residents at MakCHS. The partnership includes:

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  • Pairing Nuvance Health residents with Ruggles Scholars in Uganda (the “twinning mode”) for email correspondence, article sharing, educational resource exchange, and potential joint research projects;

  • Semi-annual joint case conferences between the Psychiatry Departments of MakCHS and Nuvance Health;

  • Access for Ruggles Scholars to Nuvance Health Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds via streaming or recordings

  • Future collaboration of Nuvance Health residents with the Ruggles Scholars of MakCHS on research projects, with Nuvance Health faculty co-supervising Ruggles Scholars to create publishable manuscripts​
     

Outstanding Ruggles Scholars will have the opportunity to visit Nuvance Health for one to two months, gaining exposure to U.S. psychiatric care and healthcare policy, with expenses covered by the GH Academy at Nuvance Health.

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We aim for this program to contribute to capacity building and support the training of competent psychiatrists to address the mental health needs of the Ugandan population.

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