Family treatment with Devin.
Graduating trainees give feedback about the program
Psychology Internships
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
The Psychiatry Department provides specialized outpatient services to a broad range of patients including out-patient children in the community, children brought to the hospital’s emergency room and pediatric inpatients of Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland. Our clinical staff includes psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and psychiatric nurse practitioners.
Department of Psychiatry trainees have the unique opportunity for a wide range of pediatric psychology training experience. Trainees see children with routine mental health concerns (such as ADHD and adjustment issues), as well as pediatric inpatients with significant mental health issues affecting their medical treatment that are referred to the Psychiatry department for evaluation, acute intervention, or ongoing 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.
Department of Psychiatry Services
- 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 and adolescents 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
- School-based clinics: Serving Castlemont High School and McClymonds High School in Oakland. (see details below)
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.
Program Training Goals
In addition to the common goals of the Psychology Internship 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.
- To develop a contextually-informed lens through which to understand patients’ lives, behaviors, strengths and challenges.
- To increase trainee confidence and skill in selecting appropriate treatment modalities (e.g. individual therapy, parental collaterals, family therapy, etc.) based on presenting issues and other relevant child and family variables.
- To develop a deeper understanding of the theoretical assumptions underlying our work and how they influence our treatment-planning decisions, therapeutic approaches and our effectiveness with clients.
Psychology Fellowships
Psychology fellows in the Department of Psychiatry will have the opportunity to share in 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. 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.
Department of Psychiatry Training Staff
Primary Supervisors:
Theopia Jackson, PhD
Judith Libow, PhD
Susan Wilkens, PhD
Carole Dorham-Kelly, PhD, McClymonds High School
Gabriela Bronson-Castain, Psy.D.
Training Staff:
Vitaline Briggs, MSW
Andrew Giammona, MD
Dina Hankin, PhD
Alvin Hendrix, LVN
Shelley Nakaishi, RN
Cherise Northcutt, PhD
Pamela Orren-Clarke, PhD
Su Park, Psy.D.
Tamita Robinson, MD
Herbert Schreier, MD
Karl Smart, RN
Petra Steinbuchel, MD
Marsha Treadwell, PhD
Joanne Yeaton, LCSW
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