Family treatment with Devin.
Graduating trainees give feedback about the program
Psychology Internships
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
The Psychiatry Department provides specialized outpatient services to children in the community as well as the hospital’s emergency room and pediatric inpatients of Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland. Our staff includes psychologists, several psychiatrists, social workers and a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Our trainees have the unique opportunity for a wide range of pediatric psychology training experiences because all pediatric inpatients with significant mental health issues affecting their medical treatment are referred to the Psychiatry department for evaluation or treatment services. In addition, pediatricians in both our inpatient units and our primary care clinics refer their pediatric patients to the Department of Psychiatry when they suspect more serious psychological/psychiatric conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, etc. This allows our trainees exposure to a challenging and diverse patient population.
The main services of the Department of Psychiatry include:
- Outpatient mental health services: Providing evaluations, individual and family therapy to children ages 5 through 21
- The Behavioral Emergency Response Team: Providing Emergency Room evaluations of children under 12 years of age with suicidal ideation, behavioral crises or possible need for psychiatric hospitalization
- Inpatient Consultation-Liaison Service: Serving hospitalized children and families with a wide range of emotional, behavioral and psychiatric difficulties affecting their child’s medical care—children with both acute medical problems and chronic illnesses are seen by our staff and trainees
- Psychiatric Medication Clinic: Providing diagnostic evaluations and ongoing medication management for children with serious psychiatric disorders
- On-site school clinics: Serving Castlemont High School and McClymonds High School in Oakland.
Our clinicians and trainees see children for long-term individual and family therapy as well as time-limited, brief therapy, crisis intervention and diagnostic evaluations. Referrals for outpatient treatment and evaluations in our department come directly from families as well as pediatricians, social services, Alameda County’s Access system and other community service providers.
Goals of training
In addition to the common goals of the psychology training program, a primary placement in the Department of Psychiatry also incorporates the following goals:
- To develop a knowledge base in the psychological issues common to acutely ill and chronically ill children and their family systems, and treatment methods appropriate to these issues
- To develop skills in consulting with physicians, nurses and allied medical staff to optimize the physical health and mental health care of hospitalized children
- To learn best practices in the use of psychotropic medication in outpatient treatment and collaboration with psychiatrists in integrating medication with psychological approaches to treatment
- To develop skills through supervised experience in psychotherapy, consultation, assessment and crisis intervention with both psychiatric outpatients and pediatric inpatients
- To learn brief crisis assessment procedures in a hospital emergency room setting and make effective dispositions, including psychiatric hospitalizations, of children in crisis.
Psychology fellows
Psychology fellows in the Department of Psychiatry will have access to the clinical and educational experiences available to the psychology interns. Our fellows will have an increased level of responsibility and an opportunity for more advanced clinical work. In addition, they will be assigned a full day per week to provide coverage to the hospital for inpatient consultation requests and the Behavioral Emergency Response Team (BERT) in the emergency room. Depending on their interests, fellows have the opportunity to choose an inpatient service to serve as designated liaison for Psychiatry services. Our psychology fellows also share weekend and night call duties with our staff, for which there is a small increase in stipend.
Our proximity to the main hospital building allows our trainees easy access to the training opportunities and educational events taking place on a daily basis at the hospital. Videotape is used extensively in both individual and group supervision of trainees’ clinical work.
Training staff in the Department of Psychiatry
Primary Supervisors:
Theopia Jackson, PhD
Judith Libow, PhD
Susan Wilkens, PhD
Other Training Staff:
Jennifer Basurto, LCSW
Andrew Giammona, MD
Shelley Nakaishi, RN
Cherise Northcutt, PhD
Herbert Schreier, MD
Joanne Yeaton, LCSW
Additional Supervisors:
Carole Dorham, PhD, McClymonds High School site
Dina Hankin, PhD, Oncology service
Pamela Orren, PhD, Oncology service
Su Park, PsyD, Castlemont High School site
Marsha Treadwell, PhD, Sickle Cell Program
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