Dear Applicant: I want to congratulate you on your choice of a career in child and adolescent psychiatry! It is a particularly exciting time in the field—a time of innovative prevention and treatment initiatives, burgeoning clinical and basic science research, and a particularly crucial time to take the lead as a discipline to help shape social policy to improve the mental health of children and families. Child and adolescent psychiatry is a field in tremendous shortage, and there is no end to the career opportunities. In addition to the exciting new developments, we have maintained roots in a commitment to the importance of listening and coming to understand the inner experience and psychological depth of each child we treat. The following is a very brief general outline of our Child and Adolescent Psychiatry program at the Yale Child Study Center. When you come for your interview, you will hear about and receive a notebook of materials which describe in more detail the child and adolescent psychiatry residency program at the Yale Child Study Center (Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Medical Center). Our residency in child and adolescent psychiatry is based on a two-year program for physicians who have completed at least three years of training in adult psychiatry. Training is centered on supervised clinical experiences in the diagnosis and treatment of children from infancy through adolescence in inpatient and outpatient child psychiatry settings. These core experiences are richly supplemented by exercises in clinical observation in our developmental evaluation unit; and in collaborative work with pediatricians, teachers and others in the community who work with children. All experiences are supervised and are associated with a rich complement of didactics to provide the theoretical and developmental underpinnings of the clinical experiences. In addition to clinical experiences, research mentorship is available for most areas of clinical investigation and for laboratory-based studies in the developmental neurosciences. In applying for training here, we request that the applicant complete an application form; forward photocopies of a valid license to practice medicine, medical school diploma, and three letters of reference from psychiatrists who know your work, one of whom must be the Director of your Residency Training Program. The letters of reference should be sent in a sealed envelope with the name of the referee written across the sealed end. In addition, a brief form must be completed by your present Training Director, which specifies whether or not at the time of your transfer you will have completed your general psychiatry requirements and, if not, in what you are deficient. An applicant should also forward a biographical sketch with a statement of the development of his or her interest in child psychiatry and plans for future professional work. This statement should not be more than 1,000 words. Please note that we are requesting all application information be submitted at the same time. Decisions regarding applications for the two-year period starting in July are made in the late fall of the preceding year. All applications and accompanying materials must be received by October 5th to be considered. We participate in the National Resident Matching Program, and abide by the rules and regulations of the matching process. We highly recommend getting your application materials to us as soon as possible so that we can schedule your interview prior to November, since that tends to be the most heavily booked month for interviews. If you are unable to send all materials at one time, please contact us. There are two training tracks for Child Study Center child and adolescent psychiatry residency training—the Child Study Center/Solnit South Hospital for Children and Youth track and the Child Study Center/Yale-New Haven Hospital Medical Center track. The tracks primarily differ by where and when inpatient training is received, and the funding source of stipends. Two trainees will be selected for the Combined Child Study CenterSolnit South track in which residents spend half-time at each facility for both training years. The trainee will be funded by the State of Connecticut with vacation time and benefits consistent with state employment. Solnit South Hospital for Children and Youth is financed through the state of Connecticut, and is located in Middletown, a 40-minute drive from New Haven. Solnit South provides court-ordered psychiatric evaluations, and intermediate to long-term psychiatric hospital care to severely emotionally disturbed children who are between the ages of 5 and 17, many of whom also suffer from the additional burden of psychosocial deprivation. A variety of treatment modalities are employed in the hospital, including milieu therapy, special education, recreational therapy, psychopharmacotherapy, and psychotherapy in the form of individual, group and family therapy. In general, the joint Solnit South /Child Study Center program offers the opportunity for more extended treatment of patients with severe psychiatric disorder. Research opportunities are also available. Both the joint program and the New Haven-only track trainees receive their didactic teaching at the Child Study Center and their supervision from the Child Study Center faculty. Similarly, for all of the residents, the inpatient opportunities are augmented by outpatient treatment cases at the Outpatient Clinic of the Child Study Center. The Child Study Center/Yale-New Haven Medical Center track consists of inpatient experience on the Children’s Psychiatric Inpatient Service, the child and adolescent psychiatric unit of Yale-New Haven Hospital. This is an intensive, eight-month experience in brief to intermediate length of stay comprehensive crisis-oriented treatment of children and adolescent with acute psychiatric difficulties. A multi-disciplinary team approach is stressed, and intensive work with families is an integral component of the treatment. The Children’s Psychiatric Inpatient Service at Yale-New Haven Hospital offers exposure to a wide variety of patients, utilizes an intensive crisis-oriented approach consistent with current psychiatric practice, and strongly emphasized family involvement in treatment. A partial hospital program is adjacent to the inpatient Unit, and treatment of children and youth in this school and/or after school therapeutic modality is included during the inpatient training experience. The first year also includes two months on the pediatric psychiatry service (consultation liaison service) to provide intensive psychiatric input to the pediatric treatment teams. Additionally selective time is reserved to allow each resident to explore an interest area in child psychiatry. It may be used for an international experience (the Child Study Center has numerous international connections) or as an opportunity to explore another area of focus. Trainees in the New Haven-only program are funded by Yale University, with vacation time and benefits consistent with University employment. 2 The Yale Child Study Center has a long history of excellence and productivity. We strive to train those who will be future leaders in child psychiatry, public policy, and developmental science. Our trainees come with a wide variety of geographical and cultural backgrounds and intellectual interests, but we tend to favor individuals who combine a high level of clinical interest with a wish to further the field through a dedication to inquiry and investigation. The Yale Child Study Center is dedicated to training the future leaders of our field. We encourage each applicant to apply for both training tracks--the Child Study Center/Yale-New Haven Medical Center (4 positions available) and the Child Study Center/Solnit South Combined Training Track (2 positions available). Our interviews will begin on Monday mornings at the Child Study Center where you will meet with the Director of Training after which you will travel to the Solnit South Hospital for Children & Youth in Middletown. New Haven interviews will be held on Tuesdays with lunch scheduled with the fellows. Please note that due to holidays which fall on a Monday, the schedule will be reversed. Again, I am very pleased that you have chosen a career in child and adolescent psychiatry. I look forward to getting to know you and your interests. We will be in touch to arrange your schedule if you are chosen to be interviewed. Beginning in mid September interviews are held over a two day period with Mondays at the Solnit South location and Tuesdays in New Haven unless otherwise noted. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our coordinator, Kathleen Czarniak at 203-785-2516 and visit our website at http://childstudycenter.yale.edu/ for additional information on our program. Dorothy E. Stubbe, M.D. Director of Residency Training 3