Child Inpatient (UMC)
Community Health Outreach Program (UMC)
Pediatric Psychology (UMC)
Child Residential (CARES)

The rotation involves providing psychological services to children (and their families) who are hospitalized on the acute psychiatric child inpatient unit at UMMC. The unit provides service for children ranging from 4 to 12 years of age and who present with a range of psychological problems including depression, anxiety, conduct problems, ADHD, attachment disorder, as well as pervasive developmental disorders. The typical length of the patient's stay ranges from 1 to 3 weeks. The unit provides an excellent opportunity to observe and work with children with a range of mental illnesses including severe psychopathology. Because this is a short-term inpatient unit, clinical service and experience is acute and short-term. Clinical duties include assessment of children and families, and working with a multi-disciplinary team developing treatment plans and appropriate follow-up after discharge. More specifically, the resident would be involved in conducting psychological assessments, developing behavioral treatment plans for children, group therapy, and family assessment/therapy. In addition, the resident will have the opportunity to be involved in participating in and leading staff training and professional development seminars. The resident will also be involved in ongoing research on the unit and opportunities for coauthorship on presentations and publications. For more detail on the Child/Pediatric Rotations, please click here.

CHOP is an interdisciplinary community outreach program with the goal of health promotion, disease prevention, and successful management of chronic illnesses among children and adolescents in the community. Clinical services are provided in community settings located in Jackson and the greater Jackson area with a cross-section of families. Residents on this rotation will collaborate with health professionals and provide clinical consultation, psychological screening and intervention in two primary settings--school-based health clinics and the UMC Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic. While all health behaviors are addressed, lifestyle behaviors contributing to the risk of obesity in children and adolescents are targeted. Residents will have the opportunity to apply empirically validated treatments for weight management and to evaluate interventions empirically. In addition, opportunities to develop community-based health promotion programs designed to reduce the risk of pediatric obesity are encouraged and available.

The school-based clinics are full service medical clinics housed in elementary, junior high and high schools located throughout the Jackson area. Each clinic is staffed by a nurse practitioner and social worker. Other allied disciplines including dentistry also provide health services as needed. Residents will work at a designated clinic providing on-site psychological consultation and intervention for students referred for health management issues including, but not exclusively, weight management, managing type I and type II diabetes, and psychosocial issues interfering with the student's emotional, social, and or academic functioning. Residents will acquire experience in community outreach, psychological consultation, and applying empirically validated interventions.

The UMC Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic is an interdisciplinary clinic staffed by an endocrinologist, nutritionist, diabetes nurse, and psychology team. The typical age range for patients seen in the clinic is 2-19 years of age. While all endocrinological disorders are seen in the clinic, most of the patients are diagnosed with either type I or type II diabetes. As part of the interdisciplinary treatment team, the psychology resident assesses patients for psychosocial issues that may interfere with the children's adherence to their diabetes treatment. After an assessment, behavioral consultation is provided to address behaviors that are compromising the child's diabetes management. Residents may have the opportunity to follow patients in need of more extensive therapy on an outpatient basis. In addition to providing clinical services, residents are involved in ongoing research that focuses on promoting treatment adherence and on reducing the risk of obesity and type II diabetes.

This rotation provides extensive training with a pediatric population in a variety of settings and clinics in the Medical Center, including Children's Hospital and a children's rehabilitation center. The residents participate in consultation and liaison services for UMC treatment teams, conducting supervised assessments and interventions for inpatient and outpatient populations with a number of different presenting medical diagnoses. Two unique aspects of behavioral pediatrics are the exceedingly wide range of problems seen by a resident, and the relatively brief time frame in which assessment and treatment can take place. This rotation emphasizes the diagnostic and treatment skills necessary for handling in a timely manner the wide range of cases presented in a pediatric/hospital setting. Residents have addressed problems such as adjustment, adherence to medical regimen, adaptive functioning, disruptive behavior, feeding problems, sleep problems, toileting, pain management, grief, and other areas. The resident is encouraged to participate in clinical research during this rotation, and there are many opportunities to do so. For more detail on the Child/Pediatric Rotations, please click here.

The CARES Center is a 44-bed Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF) serving severely emotionally disturbed (SED) youth ages 6 - 17. CARES is part of a continuum of care within the Mississippi Children's Home Services network which also provides a range of other treatment options from individual outpatient counseling to therapeutic foster home placement.

Research experiences represent a strong focus of this rotation, and are primarily relevant to program evaluation and treatment outcomes. These activities will entail a working knowledge of Systems of Care and Wraparound approaches to service provision (click here for a brief, general list of relevant citations). Residents will also have the opportunity to participate in grant-writing, administration/policy development, and dissemination. CARES' management has a number of connections with state and national residential treatment committees and research groups, and strongly supports these activities.

In terms of treatment experiences, residents can expect to encounter a wide variety of presenting problems consistent with SED (e.g., behavioral disturbances, difficulties with anger and aggression, academic underachievement, systemic difficulties, etc.). Youth typically complete a 6-month length of stay wherein services emphasize healthy transition from the controlled PRTF environment to a less restrictive home- or community-based setting. In addition to therapy, other clinical activities include the ability to supervise and provide training in evidence-based services to CARES therapists and direct-care staff. This work is closely monitored by the rotation supervisor, who also provides didactic instruction and feedback on these activities. This opportunity is nearly unique nationally among internship training sites, and represents a large focus of clinical activity on this rotation.