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.
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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
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