Location: The Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA (RNPH)

Inpatient Faculty: Artha Gillis, MD, PhD, Brandon Ito, MD, MPH, Manal Khan, MD, Jenny Nguyen, MD, Krista Tabuenca, PhD, Michael Strober, PhD

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Inpatient Service is where fellows become part of one of the best inpatient multidisciplinary teams in the nation, gaining clinical experience in the management of severe child and adolescent psychiatric disorders side by side experienced psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, nurses, educational specialists, recreational therapists and more. Fellows provide individual psychotherapy and medication management for patients typically ranging from 10-17 years old, in addition to family therapy and parenting support. Case conferences as well as individual and group supervision contribute to fellows’ training during this rotation. The inpatient experience is also enriched by a clinical rotation on the Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program, which offers an interdisciplinary hospital day program for adolescents between the ages of 12-17 in transition from acute inpatient hospitalization. Here, fellows gain experience treating severely ill adolescents across treatment settings.  

During this 4-month rotation, fellows will: 

• Serve as case coordinator and manage all aspects of treatment for children and adolescents on the inpatient wards and the APHP including individual psychotherapy, psychotropic medication, and at least one family therapy session per week, typically with the social worker as co-therapist.  
• Be responsible for psychiatric management and psychosocial interventions for acute patients presenting with childhood disorders such as mood and anxiety, psychotic, substance related, eating, somatoform, and sleep;  
• Provide treatment for school-aged and adolescents from diverse cultures, using treatment modalities including family therapy, group therapy, supportive, psychodynamic, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), and psychopharmacologic therapy 
• Collaborate with other professionals and learn such skills as interpreting psychological testing, assessing school, legal, and community needs.

Location: UCLA Semel Institute

ABC Faculty: Benjamin Schneider, M.D. and Tara Peris, Ph.D. 

KidsConnect Faculty: Tanya Paparella, Ph.D., Stephanny Freeman, Ph.D., Robert Suddath, M.D.

It is on the ABC rotation where fellows fully delve into the world of young children and learn the fundamentals of evaluating and treating children 6-12 years old in a partial hospital setting. Our young patients present with a wide variety of psychological and developmental conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADHD, OCD, Anxiety and Mood Disorders, genetic syndromes, and challenging difficulties with impulse control and emotional regulation.  Fellows will coordinate the care of child partial hospital patients through treatment planning meetings, psychiatric attending rounds, and learning how to conduct family and parent training sessions in addition to psychotherapeutic strategies that have been proven effective with children. In addition to cases on the ABC service, fellows will also observe younger children with Autism and other developmental disabilities in the KidsConnect, learning about how therapeutic environments and individualized strategies can help to improve behaviors and communication and socialization. 

During this 4-month rotation, fellows will:  

• Evaluate school-aged patients with diagnoses including those first diagnosed in childhood, mood, and anxiety disorders;  
• Provide treatment of preschool and school-aged children from diverse cultures and varied sociodemographic backgrounds 
• Be exposed to treatment modalities of family therapy, group therapy, supportive therapy, CBT for children, and childhood psychopharmacology; collaboration with other professionals; other experiences such as psychological testing 
• Consult with pediatricians, schools, regional centers, and other community agencies

Location: UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center 

Faculty: Jena Lee, M.D. and Natacha Emerson, Ph.D. 

On the CL-ED Rotation, fellows learn the art of being a child psychiatric consultant to pediatric teams for children admitted to the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and to the Emergency Department at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. In their role as consultant to Pediatrics, first year fellows complete comprehensive consultations of medically ill children in the inpatient hospital setting.  They learn to evaluate consultation requests, manage the physical, interpersonal, and system issues inherent to the psychiatric consultant in a pediatric setting, differentiate pathological from normal behavioral and emotional responses to a medical illness, and work with a multidisciplinary team to devise appropriate treatment plans for children. As consultants to the Emergency Department, fellows learn how to efficiently and effectively assess and manage children and adolescents presenting with acute psychiatric symptoms, including symptoms that can be the initial presentations of chronic and severe psychiatric conditions. Fellows become adept at discerning level of safety risk, managing acute behavioral aggression, legal issues that impact psychiatric care of youth, and medical conditions that can influence psychiatric symptoms.   

During this 4-month rotation, fellows will:  

• Evaluate preschool, school aged, and adolescent youth who first present to pediatrics or emergency department teams with disorders including adjustment, trauma, mood and anxiety, psychotic, substance related, feeding/eating, somatic symptom, and sleep, or those who undergoing a transplant.   
• Provide treatments including crisis intervention, psychoeducation, supportive therapy, parenting and behavioral interventions, coping skills training, and psychopharmacologic treatment recommendations 
• Collaborate with pediatricians, emergency physicians, other staff and mental health professionals in managing childhood psychiatric emergencies, acute seriously emotionally disturbed patients, and preschool, school aged, and adolescent youth who are experiencing medical trauma and stress.