Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program/Unit Descriptions

Inpatient Child and Adolescent

The University of Rochester Medical Center’s Child & Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Unit offers a master’s-level clinician internship serving youth ages 5–18 admitted for acute psychiatric crises in a secure, therapeutic, team-based setting. Interns work two full days per week alongside a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and therapists, participating in assessment, treatment planning, documentation, rounds, and discharge coordination. Training includes orientation, safety education, observation, and exposure to emergency and adult psychiatry services, with increasing clinical involvement over time. Interns gain hands-on experience providing individual, family, and group therapy, crisis support within the milieu, and developing diagnostic, intake, and treatment planning skills, with a strong focus on the Rapid Stabilization Pathway model informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Narrative Therapy.

Inpatient Master’s Level Clinician Internship Opportunity University of Rochester Medical Center, Child & Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Unit 4-9000

The Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Service serves patients ages five through 18 (though most of our patients are between 11-17) who have symptoms of acute psychiatric illness or disorder requiring a safe, therapeutic, and supportive environment to assist with stabilization interventions. Admissions to the service generally occur on an emergency basis.

A team-based approach is utilized for the evaluation and treatment of each patient, actively involving families and other care and treatment providers. Our multidisciplinary inpatient mental healthcare team consists of:

• A child/adolescent psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse practitioner or psychiatry resident/fellow
• A child & adolescent psychologist, psychology interns, and post-doctoral fellows
• Mental health counselors
• Psychiatric social workers
• Psychiatric registered nurses
• Psychiatric technicians
• Activities therapist
• Occupational therapist
• Physical therapist
• Applied behavior analyst

School programming, including collaboration with the child’s home school, is also provided. Discharge planning begins immediately after admission to prepare each patient and family to move to a less restrictive level of care as soon as it is clinically safe to do so.

Time Commitment This internship requires a time commitment of at least two 8.5-hour days to include time for lunch. Students who are invited to and accept the internship position will have a choice of Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday, with a preference given to Tuesday and Thursday availability. Students will have an opportunity to be on site more hours if desired. Students will be accompanied by staff members of the unit, most often by a clinician with a master’s degree or higher in a therapy or related discipline (Mental Health Counseling, Social Work, Psychology, or Physician) and/or be video recorded when providing therapeutic support to patients. Students will be expected to engage in note taking and documentation as required by departmental policy to report and describe therapeutic interactions.

Onboarding In the first several weeks, the student will orient to the department of psychiatry and unit expectations to understand flow of admission, therapeutic engagement process, and discharge of patients admitted to the unit. Onboarding will include a heavy emphasis on departmental policies and expectations, safety training, and observation. The student will have an opportunity to tour and or shadow the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP), Brightstar Mental Health Urgent care, and adult psychiatric units. Students will be expected to interact collaboratively with members of the multi-disciplinary team including fellow students from various programs and backgrounds, primarily social work, and medical programs. Throughout the internship, they will participate actively in the treatment planning meetings run jointly by nursing and treatment teams of social workers, doctors, students, and psychologist. This will require the student to have and develop effective communication and teamwork skills. Students will aid in providing warm hands off whenever warranted as patients navigate the transition between levels of care. Initially students will have an opportunity to join various teams’ daily rounds. This will provide experience with ongoing assessment of patient safety and readiness for discharge with the primary treatment team. After an initial orientation, students will join the meetings as relevant to the care of the patients they are working with individually.

Learning Opportunities Throughout the internship, the master’s in mental health counseling student intern is expected to gain practical skills through providing individual ongoing psychotherapy, family therapy, group counseling to patients across age spans and diagnostic presentations, and crisis support when assisting in the milieu environment. This will require students to develop their theoretical orientations, build diagnostic formulation skills, conduct thorough intake assessments, and treatment planning skills. Emphasis is placed on learning the theoretical underpinnings of the Rapid Stabilization Pathway protocol, a treatment track that provides intensive individual and family therapy, which is heavily influenced by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Narrative Therapy. Students are expected to gain expertise in rapport building and robust safety planning.