Fellows will have a longitudinal experience in outpatient child and adolescent psychiatry at UF Health Psychiatry – San Jose. Fellows will begin to care for patients at the start of their first year and provide continuity of care for these patients and families until the end of their fellowship training. This offers fellows a unique opportunity to develop lasting relationships with families and to learn about the course of psychiatric illness over time.

First-year fellows will spend six months on the inpatient and emergency rotation at Wolfson Children's Hospital. This freestanding children's hospital has been recognized as one of America's Best Children's Hospitals by U.S. News and World Report. Fellows will work in a 14-bed inpatient child and adolescent psychiatry unit that provides comprehensive acute psychiatry care for children and adolescents ages six to 18. In addition, fellows will provide psychiatry consultation in the Wolfson Children's Emergency Center.

The other six month rotation during the first year focuses on addiction, juvenile justice and forensics. During the addiction component, fellows will gain experience caring for youth with substance use disorders and other comorbid psychiatric disorders at Gateway Community Services, a long-term adolescent drug and alcohol residential treatment facility.

Fellows will participate in juvenile drug court, practice family and group therapy and observe juvenile justice forensic psychiatry evaluations. The patient population at Gateway Community Services is predominantly of lower socioeconomic status and includes a large population of racial minorities. In addition, fellows will rotate through multiple subspecialty sites in pediatric neurology, child protection and autism and developmental disabilities.

Second year fellows will continue their longitudinal experience at UF Health Psychiatry – San Jose.

Conferences

University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville's child and adolescent faculty and fellows are also active participants at this year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).

Both first and second-year fellows will participate in monthly journal clubs and case conferences together. All fellows will practice for the child psychiatry board certification exam during the annual intensive board-preparation and clinical skills verification experience.

In addition, all fellows are invited to attend the department of psychiatry's grand rounds.

Conference topics during the first year of fellowship

• Clinical interviewing in child and adolescent psychiatry
• Child and adolescent psychopathology
• Cultural competency and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender psychiatry
• Psychotherapy for children, adolescents and families
• Early childhood mental health problems and child developmental theories
• Psychological testing for children and adolescents
• Community systems of care and child welfare

All first-year fellows will also participate in the following specialized conferences that take place during their rotations focusing:

• Normal and abnormal child development, developmental disorders and autism
• Inpatient child and adolescent psychiatry
• Addiction, juvenile justice and forensic psychiatry
• Child abuse and neglect and forensic pediatrics

Conference topics during the second year of fellowship

In general, the advanced conferences during the second year are geared towards preparing fellows to serve as consultants in the community. The topics include:

• Consult-liaison child and adolescent psychiatry
• Collaborative care (integration of child mental health in primary care)
• School consultation seminar
• Back to school day (normal vs. abnormal development in the school setting)
• Dialectical behavioral therapy in practice