Child and Adolescent Track

Overview and Distinct Training Goals

The Child and Adolescent Psychology track is part of the Child and Adolescent Psychology Training Program. It’s purpose is to provide specialized clinical training with children, adolescents, and families. The fundamental goals of the program are to enhance each fellow's knowledge base and clinical skills in relation to developmental psychopathology, assessment, treatment planning, and treatment implementation. These goals are achieved by supervised care of children and adolescents who are experiencing a broad range of psychological disturbances -- from adjustment disorders to psychotic disturbances. Fellows receive a minimum of 2 hours of weekly individual supervision from licensed clinical psychologists plus group supervision as appropriate. This 1 year program aims to train people for leadership roles in the delivery of mental health services to this population.

Toward this end, fellows take on increasing responsibility in a) patient care, b) training of doctoral interns and other mental health professionals, and c) program development. The training program emphasizes understanding children, adolescents and families from a developmental and systems perspective. Diagnostic evaluations are followed by patient-specific treatment planning. The fellow receives intensive clinical training in a wide range of diagnostic and treatment skills. The program enables fellows to achieve competence in multiple treatment modalities such as individual, group, family, sibling, parent, and parent group interventions. Depending on the individualized training goals of the fellow, he or she may participate in research projects consistent with their interests. All fellows have the opportunity to integrate both clinical and scholarly dimensions of the field. The track offers didactic and clinical seminars in order to provide the in-depth biopsychosocial knowledge necessary to understand and treat child and adolescent psychopathology. Internal (cognitive, affective, dynamic and biologic) and external (familial, school, peers, community) factors are explored in a variety of seminars. Intensive supervision is provided for the fellow's clinical work.

Each fellowship is designed to address the special interests and professional career plans of the fellow. Each fellow is involved with one or more projects based on these issues. Fellows may also move into a teaching/supervisory role with predoctoral interns during the latter half of the program. These experiences will be supervised by the Child and Adolescent Faculty. The supervised teaching experiences may include: diagnostic evaluations, psychological testing, individual and group psychotherapy, and parent consultation.

Fellows in most fellowships receive specialized training in pediatric psychology. This is achieved by supervised experiences in primary care and specialty care pediatric settings, with outpatient and inpatient populations, and in collaboration and consultations with other health care providers. Training includes attention to: quality of life and adjustment to illness; medical adherence; pain and discomfort; death and dying; and addressing psychological disorders within pediatric settings.

Currently the Child and Adolescent track offers two distinct fellowships:

Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) Fellowship:

Three fellows each year are selected to participate in the GPE program funded by the HRSA’s Bureau of Health Professions. The University of Rochester Medical Center is one of a select group of programs awarded with federal funding to offer this type of training opportunity. The fellowship is designed to train psychologists to meet the needs of underserved child and adolescent populations and their families through clinical and research pursuits. This innovative program includes diverse training sites within the medical center (Psychiatry and Pediatrics) and within the community. University training sites include: Strong Behavioral Health Child and Adolescent Services, and Primary and Specialty Care Clinics within the Department of Pediatrics. Community training sites include: Anthony Jordan Community Health Center, Head Start Centers, Monroe County Pediatric Foster Care Clinic, and the Heath-E-Access telehealth program. Fellows participate in a core group of didactic seminars and clinical settings and also choose from a wide array of opportunities to custom design the fellowship experience in collaboration with the training director and faculty. Each fellow completes one or more projects over the course of the fellowship. Projects may include program development, program evaluation, and/or grant writing.

Select Core Clinical Experiences of the Child and Adolescent Track

Strong Behavioral Health: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Services

All Child and Adolescent track fellows participate in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Services of Strong Behavioral Health. Outpatient services serves children from infancy through age 18 with a wide range of psychopathology. Outpatient Services accepts a wide range of insurance including Medicaid and private insurance. A sliding fee schedule exits to enable families with no insurance, or limited financial resources with insurance to access our services. All therapy rooms are equipped with audio-visual equipment to allow trainees to videotape all of their patient contacts for intensive supervision.

Department of Pediatrics, Ambulatory Services of Golisano's Children's Hospital, University of Rochester Medical Center

Fellows receive training within several components of the Department of Pediatrics. Fellows are supervised on-site and in a pediatric group supervision format by a faculty member. Fellows work collaboratively with faculty and trainees within the Department of Pediatrics to provide integrated health and mental health care to both primary care and specialty care populations of children and adolescents and their families. Specialty clinics include: pulmonary, endocrine, adolescent medicine, gastroenterology, infectious diseases (HIV), hematology-oncology, gastroenterology, cranio-facial.