On Thursday, the University of North Carolina Wilmington will take another step towards the goal of building a health sciences quad on campus, as outlined in the school’s master plan. Today the university will host a ceremonially groundbreaking for a $33 million psychology department building, which is scheduled to open in 2012. Construction of the new Nursing school building is currently in progress.

In addition to the 80,850 square foot psychology building, UNCW got the green light from the UNC Board of Governors this month to continue planning a new doctoral program in applied and experimental psychology. It will be UNCW’s third PhD program, following Marine Biology and Education. The proposed PhD in Applied and Experimental Psychological Science will require graduate students to be fluent in Spanish – a program requirement aimed at preparing mental health professionals to meet the needs of the state’s growing Spanish-speaking population, said Mark Lanier, assistant secretary to the Board of Trustees.

“These two things coming together – the new building and the new doctoral program – couldn’t be better,” said psychology department chairman Mark Galizio in a press release. “We’re expanding research training and clinical training. Everything is in place, except the space to do it. This building is the final component in the creation of a world class doctoral program.”

Plans for the new building include a neuroscience laboratory with the latest technology, a child psychology lab complex, a substance abuse research complex and a cognitive aging lab complex that will aid the university’s current research on Alzheimer’s disease, the fifth leading cause of death among North Carolinians.

Other new laboratories in the building will support research in social psychology, behavior analysis, forensic psychology, cross-cultural psychology and a new research and clinical program designed to help Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans recover from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

“The shortage of mental health professionals in our state is nothing less than shocking,” said UNCW Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo in a press release. “One quarter of North Carolina’s 100 counties, including two in our region, do not have an active psychologist practicing in their communities.”

The Governor’s Task Force for Healthy Carolinians has identified increasing access to mental health services is a top priority for the state.