UCHC CHILD & ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRY TRAINING

INTRODUCTION

Because the current standard of care in child & adolescent psychiatry is a team approach to evaluation and treatment, psychiatric training in the UCHC Child Division is multi-disciplinary. Residents are exposed to teaching by many different disciplines who commonly work treating children and adolescents with early onset behavioral health disorders including social work, nursing, psychology, master-level therapists, and child psychiatrists. Because child & adolescent psychiatrists work in many different settings employing a wide variety of skills, training in the UCHC Child Division occurs in many different sites. Because the Division has a focus on public sector psychiatry, training emphasizes evaluation and treatment of the seriously emotionally disturbed child and adolescent, who is generally involved in multiple systems of care. The child psychiatry resident learns many empirically based individual, family, and systems interventions, both psychosocial and biologic/psychopharmacological, during the course of two years of residency training. Although the emphasis is on clinical work, participation in academic and research projects is highly encouraged during training.

YEARLY SCHEDULE AND ROTATIONS

Year I

Year II

TRAINING SITES

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HEALTH CENTER, JOHN DEMPSEY HOSPITAL: The University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) is the principal teaching hospital of the University of Connecticut Medical School. The hospital is located in Farmington, about 10 miles west of Hartford, the Connecticut state capital. The UCHC Department of Psychiatry and Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry are located at UCHC. Didactic lectures in child psychiatry, supervision, and departmental grand rounds occur at this site.

RIVERVIEW HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH: RVH is Connecticut's only state psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. It is located in Middletown, CT approximately 25 minutes driving time from the University of Connecticut Health Center. Organized by eight separate units stratified by age, the hospital has 110 beds for male and female youths ages 5 to 18 years old. The average length of stay is 150 days allowing the resident trainee adequate time to evaluate and treat these young inpatients. RVH is also a training site for the Yale Riverview Child Residency Program and UCHC child residents will train with Yale Child Residents during the rotation. Because RVH serves the most seriously emotionally disturbed children and adolescents in Connecticut, the hospital offers a unique opportunity for UCHC child and adolescent resident training in severe early-onset psychopathology.

UNIVERSITY HEALTH PARTNERS AMBULATORY CLINIC: The UHP Clinic is the site of the Division's outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry clinic. Located 10 minutes from the University of Connecticut Health Center in West Hartford, the clinic serves children with behavioral health difficulties and early onset psychiatric disorders from 4 to 18 years old and their families. The UHP Clinic is the primary UCHC teaching site for outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry. Pediatrics and adolescent medicine are co-located within the same facility allowing the child resident opportunities to develop skills in consultation with pediatric primary care physicians.

THE HOMECARE PROGRAM: The HomeCare Program is funded by the state of Connecticut and is focused on providing mental health services to court-involved adolescents. The Program is located in several Federally Qualified Health Care Centers (FQHCs) around the state. The FQHCs are supported by the federal government to delivery comprehensive health care services to generally poor, inner-city children and their families. Within the FQHC are dentistry, obstetrics-gynecology, family and community medicine, radiology, and psychiatry services. These multi-disciplinary settings offer the child psychiatry resident ample opportunities to interact with other medical disciplines around consultation questions, and the evaluation and treatment of early-onset psychiatric disorders. HomeCAre sites are located in Hartford, Meriden, and Middletown, CT; all about 20 to 25 minutes driving from the University of Connecticut Health Center.

CAPITAL REGION EDUCATIONAL COUNCIL POLARIS CENTER (CREC): Located in East Hartford, about 25 minutes driving time from UCHC, CREC is a special education facility containing a 30 bed adolescent female residential treatment unit, an outpatient clinic, and a complete special education school serving adolescents 12 to 22 years old. The outpatient clinic serves children as young as 4 years old and their families. CREC allows the child resident opportunities to consult with teachers and school personnel in the care of children and adolescents with mental health needs.

MANSON YOUTH TRAINING INSTITUTE: Manson is Connecticut's correctional facility for incarcerated male adolescents 12-19 years old. Because research increasingly identifies youths in corrections as having high rates of undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, the Division runs a once-weekly child psychiatry clinic within the prison. Psychiatry residents and child psychiatry residents work directly with a Division child psychiatrist in the clinic to evaluate and treat incarcerated adolescents. This rotation is very consistent with the Division's emphasis on training child psychiatrists for work in the public sector.

CONNECTICUT CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER (CCMC): Located about 20 minutes driving time from UCHC, CCMC is a busy free-standing pediatics hospital dedicated to serving the pediatrics needs of children in inner-city Hartford. CCMC has multiple primary care and specialty ambulatory and inpatient services. The UCHC child and adolescent psychiatry rotations in pediatric consultation/liaison and in pediatric neurology occur at CCMC.

THE WHEELER CLINIC The Wheeler Clinic is a large multi-specialty mental health clinic located 15 minutes from UCHC. Child and adolescent psychiatry residents will rotate on the crisis service here. The crisis service is a mobile mental health emergency service that responds to the mental health needs of children, youth, and families in crisis. UCHC child residents accompany Wheeler Clinic crisis workers during a 6 month rotation dedicated to a clinical experience in emergency mental health evaluation and management.