Intermediate Length of Stay Inpatient Services

You will oversee the evaluation and treatment of a limited number of children, providing a variety of treatment modalities, including:

• psychopharmacology
• individual play therapy
• individual supportive therapy
• family therapy
• individual and group cognitive-behavioral therapy
• group dialectical-behavioral therapy
• group social skills development
• crisis intervention

In addition, you will observe psychological testing on patients, including at least one of your own, and participate in forensic evaulations.

Patients’ diagnoses at the Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center, the location for this rotation, include severe disruptive disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders and psychotic disorders. Many children also have developmental disorders (including pervasive developmental disorders), learning disorders or neurological conditions.

The unique hospital program provides intensive family and individual intervention, play and group therapy, psychopharmacology and case management. A multidisciplinary team cares for patients, who stay at the facility between three and six months.

You may work on any of the hospital’s three coed units:

The children’s treatment unit has 12 beds and serves children ages 4 to 12. It typically sees around 30 new admissions a year, with an average stay of 120 days.

The adolescent treatment unit has 16 beds and serves adolescents ages 11 and 18.

The intensive treatment unit has 18 beds and is dedicated to treating hard-to-manage adolescents. It typically sees 50 new admissions a year, with an average stay of 110 days. This unit takes referrals from acute psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment facilities and community-based outpatient programs. Court orders account for 5 percent of admissions. The remainder include patients who failed to respond to less intensive inpatient treatment, typically at another institution.

The rotation familiarizes you with the strengths and limitations of inpatient treatment and how the distinct, multidisciplinary aspects of the milieu interact. You will also build skills in evaluation, psychopharmacology and play, group and family therapy.

Other hospital staff—mental health professionals, pediatricians, neurology consultants, occupational and recreational therapists, speech and language therapists, and school professionals—provide ongoing collaborative experiences as you assume a leadership role in the inpatient setting.

Many patients have additional involvement with community systems such as social services, the legal system, schools and services for developmental disabilities, and you will interface with professionals from these systems regularly.

You will manage three to four patients during this rotation. You also will conduct at least two forensic evaluations.

In addition to fulfilling a traditional child psychiatrist’s role, you will be integrated into the treatment team as coordinator of care. In this capacity, you will take on substantial responsibilities, including:

• conducting comprehensive psychiatric evaluations
• family assessment
  
• developing treatment plans
• medication evaluation and management
  
• liaisons with outside agencies
  
• individual therapy, typically 30 to 45 minutes, twice per week
• family therapy, typically 60 minutes each week
• parent guidance and training
  
• at least one home visit
  
• group therapy (co-leading two groups on the children’s treatment unit and one on the intensive treatment unit)
  
• discharge planning

On the intensive treatment unit, you will write court reports and testify with the attending, if necessary.

• Year 1 rotation
• Four months

Children’s Inpatient Treatment Unit of the Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center (WNYCPC)
1010 East and West Road
West Seneca, NY 14224

• five child and adolescent psychiatrists
• full-time treatment team
  leaders
• clinical social workers
• clinical psychologists
• director of education