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.

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.

RIVERVIEW HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH:

The UCHC Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry offers a required 6-month full-time (70% time weekly) inpatient child and adolescent psychiatry experience located at Riverview State Psychiatric Hospital for Children and Adolescents.  Riverview Hospital (RVH) is located in Middletown, CT approximately 25 minutes from the UCHC Department of Psychiatry.

The hospital has an average census of 85 children and adolescents (110 bed total capacity), ages 5 to 17 years old, and the average length of stay is 150 days. The hospital is organized by separate inpatient units delineated by patient age (5-10 years old, 10-14 years old, and 15-17 years old). All units admit both males and females. RVH serves the most seriously emotionally disturbed children and adolescents in the state of Connecticut. As such, the site offers a unique opportunity for UCHC child and adolescent psychiatry resident training in severe early-onset psychopathology. Training at the state child psychiatric hospital is consistent with the overall goal of the UCHC Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to train child and adolescent psychiatrists for clinical service and clinical research in the public sector.