Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Program
With growing recognition that between 10% and 20% of
children and adolescents in the United States suffer
from a psychiatric disorder that impairs daily
functioning, there exists an urgent national need for
more psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and
advanced-practice nurses specializing in child and
adolescent psychiatry and early- onset behavioral and
mental health disorders. Presently, only about 5% of
children and adolescents in need receive any mental
health evaluation or intervention at all. Early
recognition and appropriate treatment of psychiatric
disorders in the developing years offers hope of
reducing the overall burden of psychiatric illness
across the lifespan of vulnerable individuals. In the
Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the
University of Connecticut Health Center, we are
dedicated to providing multi- disciplinary,
state-of-the-art assessment and intervention for
children, adolescents, and families with early-onset
mental health and behavioral health disorders.
The Division has a particular focus on working with
youngsters and families in the public sector in
Connecticut. This is reflected in our mission statement.
Using a collaborative multidisciplinary model,
the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the
University of Connecticut Health Center seeks to provide
empirically-based, culturally competent, and
developmentally sensitive standards-of-care, facilitate
greater knowledge through clinical, applied, and
translational research, and attract and educate new
pediatric mental health specialty students and trainees
in the understanding, treatment, and prevention of early
onset mental health disorders in children and
adolescents, with a particular emphasis on those in the
public sector.
Indeed, the Division works closely with federally
qualified health care centers and state public sector
agencies to provide mental health assessment and
clinical interventions to children and adolescents in
juvenile detention, in state-funded residential
treatment centers and hospitals, in the juvenile courts,
and for youngsters in the custody of the Connecticut
Department of Children and Families (DCF). The HomeCare
Program provides mental health intervention across the
state for adolescents recently released from detention
with a goal of preventing recidivism in at-risk youths.
We are very interested in the integration of pediatric
primary care with child psychiatry and allied mental
health professionals in the early recognition and
treatment of pediatric mental health and behavioral
health disorders. As such, the Division works closely
with pediatricians and family and community medicine
clinicians to develop innovative teaching tools with the
potential to facilitate knowledge about mental health
disorders in children for pediatric primary care
providers.
Clinical research is important in expanding the
scientific knowledge base in child & adolescent
psychiatry, and is well represented within the Division.
We are working on federal and state funded research
projects in the areas of developmental traumatic stress,
the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder, and the
treatment of adolescent alcohol and substance abuse.
Other areas of clinical research interest include
externalizing behavior disorders, maladaptive
aggression, and pediatric psychopharmacology in referred
children and adolescents. We are collaborating with the
Shriver Center of the University of Massachusetts
Medical School on a federally funded grant to develop an
assessment battery for depression in children and
adolescents with mental retardation and limited verbal
skills. We also collaborate with the Laboratory on
Developmental Neurobiology in the Psychology Department
at Northeastern University, Boston, MA on translational
research in the behavioral pharmacology of escalated
aggression.
The Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the
University of Connecticut is growing rapidly. The
present faculty is all full-time, and includes three
child and adolescent psychiatrists, six pediatric
psychologists, three advanced-practice registered nurses
with a specialty in pediatric psychopharmacology, and
one social worker. As we look towards the future, a
growing collaborative relationship with the state
Department of Children and Families will facilitate new
opportunities for the multi-disciplinary collaborative
care of seriously emotionally disturbed children and
adolescents in Connecticut. We are excited about the
Division and hope you will be too. Come have a look at
us.
Best,
Daniel F. Connor, M.D.
Division Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Professor and Lockean Distinguished Chair
in Mental Health Education, Research, and Clinical
Improvement