Specialty Clinics

Location: 300 Medical Plaza 

Director: James McGough, MD 

The Pediatric Psychopharmacology Clinic (PPC) provides child and adolescent psychiatric assessment and psychopharmacological treatment for a wide range of childhood psychiatric illnesses, ranging from disruptive behavior disorders such as ADHD, to mood disorders such as anxiety, bipolar and depressive disorders.  Additionally, fellows will learn how to manage patients with behavioral problems related to Autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as treat childhood tics, sleep abnormalities, and prodromal psychosis.

Fellows learn to do focused diagnostic assessments of youth presenting for general psychiatric care. In coordination with UCLA and community providers who are supporting patients with psychotherapeutic interventions, fellows provide psychopharmacological treatment that they learn to initiate and maintain over the course of their second year of fellowship. 

As part of PPC, fellows participate in two didactic activities. Fellows actively participate in a journal club that facilitates critical reading of pertinent clinical trials in the literature pertaining to child and adolescent pharmacology. A major emphasis will be the critical review of various types of medical literature to provide an evidence base for rational pharmacotherapy. A second focus will be the participants’ development of an ethically grounded clinical decision– making process given the limited scientific evidence supporting pharmacological practice in the field.

Another didactic series in PPC is The Advanced Research Literacy Seminar, which is an extension of the Research Literacy Seminar taught during the first-year child psychiatry core didactic series. This seminar builds upon the first-year course, by continuing to reinforce skills in the critical reading of child psychiatric research and the application of scientific evidence into clinical decision making.

Location: UCLA Semel Institute, 760 Westwood Plaza  

Directors: David Miklowitz, Ph.D., Patricia Walshaw, Ph.D. 

The CHAMP clinic provides diagnostic evaluations, second opinion consultation, and short-term treatments (medication management and various forms of psychotherapy) for youth who have symptoms of significant and impairing mood disorders along with supports for their families, with a focus on pediatric bipolar disorder.  

Dr. David Miklowitz, the developer of Family Focused Therapy for Bipolar Disorder (FFT), trains fellows in this evidence-based treatment for families with a child who has bipolar disorder. Fellows benefit from in-vivo supervision with the CHAMP team of experts in FFT and other psychotherapies.  

Dr. Patricia Walshaw teaches fellows how to conduct a comprehensive, semi-structured diagnostic assessment of youth, using the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS) and how to provide feedback to the family about recommendations for treatment.  

Drs. Elizabeth Horstmann and Robert Suddath provide teaching and supervision on psychopharmacology assessment and treatment of these complex children and adolescents.

For more information about the Max Gray CHAMP services, please click here.

Location: UCLA Semel Institute, 300 Medical Plaza 

Directors: John Piacentini, Ph.D., James T. McCracken, M.D. 

The UCLA Childhood OCD, Anxiety & Tic Disorders Program is a clinical research program that specializes in the evaluation and treatment of anxiety and related problems in children and adolescents. The primary goal of this clinic is to provide effective treatments for children suffering from anxiety disorders, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Selective Mutism (SM), Tic Disorders, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD), and Trichotillomania.  

Fellows learn evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy techniques from Dr. Piacentini and other faculty whose research in pediatric anxiety disorders is directly applied in clinic. Fellows will learn how to build fear hierarchies with patients, engage in exposure and response prevention, teach their patients with tics habit reversal therapy, and help all patients value mindfulness techniques such as guided visualization, deep breathing, and progressive muscle relaxation.

For more information, please click here.

Location: UCLA Semel Institute, 760 Westwood Plaza  

Directors:  Natalia Ramos, M.D. Catherine Mogil, PysD, Blanca Orellana, Ph.D.

The STAR Clinic provides evaluation, consultation, and treatment services for children and family members affected by trauma and other challenging events, including medical illness, traumatic loss, community violence, disasters, and combat deployment stress.  Comprised of a team of psychiatrists and psychologists specializing in children and adolescents, the clinic provides expertise in child and family traumatic stress for children of all ages and their family members.   

Fellows gain experience in a family resilience approach to prevention, early intervention, and treatment for youth and their families and learn a variety of evidence-based treatment strategies that are informed by an understanding of the role of traumatic stress on health and wellbeing. During this rotation, fellows also learn about promoting the mental health of LGBTQ youth and young adults, through the EMPWR Program (Promoting Well-Being and Resilience for LGBTQ Youth).   

Dr. Patricia Lester, the developer of Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS), and other STAR faculty train fellows in the core components of this family intervention, in addition to other trauma-informed interventions such as Trauma-Focused CBT and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT).

For more information about STAR, please click here.

For more information about EMPWR, please click here.

Location: UCLA Semel Institute, 300 Medical Plaza 

Directors: James T. McCracken, M.D. and Amanda Gulsrud, Ph.D. 

The Child and Adult Neurodevelopmental (CAN) Clinic provides multidisciplinary assessments and evidence-based treatment for children, adolescents, and adults with neurodevelopmental conditions and social development impairments related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental delays, and genetic conditions.  

Fellows learn comprehensive evidence-based assessment and treatment approaches for youth with neurodevelopmental disorders. Each clinic begins with a multidisciplinary meeting with in-depth discussion of cases.  

Pediatric neurology is also an integral part of the CAN Clinic rotation during the second year of fellowship, where fellows learn alongside expert research clinicians and pediatric neurologist, Dr. Rujuta Wilson, as well as with Dr. Derek Ott a child psychiatrist who specializes in neuropsychiatric illnesses and developmental disabilities.  

For more information about CAN, please click here.

Location: 1720 E. 120th St. Los Angeles 

Directors: Kira Williams, M.D., Vernon Rosario, M.D.  

Located in South Los Angeles, the Augustus F. Hawkins Family Mental Health Center is a Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinic that provides comprehensive public outpatient psychiatric care to a diverse under-resourced population of primarily African American and Latinx children and their families. They present with a wide variety of disorders ranging from mood, disruptive behavioral, learning, posttraumatic stress, anxiety, psychotic and developmental disorders. 

Fellows work with UCLA clinical faculty who have extensive expertise in community psychiatry. They learn about important cultural and social determinants of mental health and work closely with the clinic staff in coordinating existing resources.

For more information about the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, please click here.

Location: Behavioral Health Associates, 11318 National Blvd., Los Angeles, 310-231-9150 

Director: Jessica Jeffrey, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A. 

Behavioral Health Associates is an evidence-based, integrated care program operated as part of UCLA Health. Embedded BHA providers work collaboratively with primary care physicians to provide behavioral healthcare to patients. BHA offers psychiatric consultation and medication management by psychiatrists, short-term therapy (individual, couples, group) from master’s level therapists, and care coordination services. E-consultation to a psychiatrist is also available for primary care providers.  

Fellows will become familiar with integrated care best practices as they diagnose and treat behavioral health conditions within the pediatric integrated care setting. During this rotation fellows will have the opportunity to collaborate with primary care providers and participate in triage and e-consultation. They will also learn about measurement-based care principles and will gain experience utilizing rating scale data to improve individual care.

For more information about the Behavioral Health Associates services, please click here.