Clinical Psychiatry Programs

Inpatient Psychiatry Service (IPS)
The IPS is a 16-bed, secure inpatient psychiatric unit on our Longwood campus that treats children and adolescents ages 8 to 17. The unique training goals of the IPS rotation are to teach fellows to evaluate and manage children, adolescents, and their families, who present with severe psychiatric illnesses, or co-morbid medical-psychiatric illnesses, requiring acute care or care in a more restrictive inpatient setting. In this rotation, our fellows work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team, and are involved in all aspects of patient care, from family, to individual, to pharmacotherapy. During this block, fellows receive supervision from the medical director, the attending psychiatrists and social work staff; rotation-specific didactics are also provided.

Psychiatry Consultation Service (PCS)
The training goals of the PCS rotation are similar to those of IPS but in a less-restrictive inpatient setting. Working on the interface between psychiatry and pediatrics, challenges our fellows to refine their differential diagnostic and systems-management skills, as well as to develop and implement comprehensive treatment plans in a non-psychiatric milieu. During this four-month rotation our fellows work closely with their attending PCS staff member to evaluate and follow patients during their medical hospitalization. Rotation-specific didactics are also provided.

Outpatient Psychiatry Services (OPS)
The unique training goals of the OPS rotation are to teach fellows to conduct comprehensive evaluations, and to formulate and carry out related evidence-based treatment plans for children, adolescents, and their families who present with a wide range of psychiatric needs. Fellows perform clinical duties and train in a variety of outpatient settings: our Adolescent Substance Use & Addiction Program, Pediatric Neurology, Gender Multispecialty Service, ADHD Clinic, PCIT, an Autism Clinic, and the Boston Children’s at Martha Eliot Community Health Center. Throughout the course of the first year, fellows maintain a continuity clinic one afternoon each week in the OPS. Attending supervisors review cases individually with each fellow in a traditional supervisory format; supervisors also directly observe and assist in select evaluations and/or follow-up appointments.

Emergency Psychiatry Service (EPS)
The EPS is a consultation service that provides behavioral health services to children, adolescents, and their families who visit the Boston Children’s Emergency Department in crisis. The goals of the EPS rotation are to stabilize patients, promote healthy coping strategies and provide the most appropriate follow-up care. Fellows receive supervision from the medical director, the attending psychiatrists and social work staff, and also have the opportunity to provide supervision and peer mentoring to junior trainees in the EPS.

Collaborative Behavioral Health Programs

Boston Children’s Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships (BCHNP)
BCHNP is the community behavioral health program within our Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. For 16 years, BCHNP has placed social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists in schools and community health centers throughout Boston to provide a comprehensive array of social, emotional, and behavioral health services to children and adolescents where they live and learn.

Behavioral Health Integration Initiatives in Pediatric Care
The Behavioral Health Integration Initiatives in Pediatric Care team partners behavioral health and pediatric practitioners and care coordinators to enhance the quality of behavioral health care in pediatric settings, thereby substantially extending the behavioral health workforce. The BHIP team was developed to diminish the challenges faced by pediatric primary care practitioners when identifying, assessing, and managing mild to moderate presentations of common psychiatric disorders in the primary care setting.

Research Programs

Tommy Fuss Center
The Tommy Fuss Center was established to advance understanding of developmental pathways leading to major neuropsychiatric disorders. The primary goals of the center are to develop innovative strategies to identify young children at risk for anxiety, depressive, and psychotic disorders along with transformative new therapies that can limit the progression or even prevent the emergence of these disorders.

Trauma and Community Resilience Center (BCH TCRC)
The Boston Children’s Hospital Trauma and Community Resilience Center is dedicated to understanding and promoting the healthy adjustment of youth and families who have experienced trauma and adversity. In partnership with communities and service systems, they build prevention and intervention programs, conduct research, and develop resources to assist refugee and immigrant families and service providers.