Training Coordinator: Beverly Pernitzke
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training
Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry emphasizes the importance of the biologic, psychologic, and sociocultural impact of life experiences during development of the individual. The rich interplay of culture, family, educational and social experiences, interpersonal and personal assets, genetics and biological development lays the foundation and framework for the emerging person. Recognition of the neurologic impact of learning (neurochemical and structural), and of the variability of that influence in different developmental phases and cultural contexts allows for a more comprehensive understanding of psychiatric illness. Recent rapid progress in the neurosciences and decades of progress in Psychology has produced effective treatments to impact on mental illness and psychological distress when they impinge on the lives of children and adolescents. Progress in the field of adult learning, and leadership in the ACGME, have contributed to our detailed and progressive curriculum and excellent training.
The Fellowship
Our two-year fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), carefully integrates learning in clinical and didactic settings to promote exceptional training. There are eight residents (four per year). Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (CHW), our main teaching hospital, was again rated in the top 10 best Children's Hospitals in the country by Child Magazine. It is in the top five busiest children's hospitals in the country and treats patients from all over the Midwest and beyond. The chief editors of the two main pediatric textbooks (Nelson's and Rudolph's) are on the faculty at the Medical College of Wisconsin and CHW, and there are nationally recognized programs in epileptology, hematology and oncology, gastroenterology and feeding problems, and surgical correction of congenital heart defects. The Longitudinal ADHD Study, originally the work of Russ Barkley, MD and Mary Ellen Fischer, PhD continues at MCW under Dr. Fischer's direction. In short, the quality of pediatric services is exceptional.
Medical College of Wisconsin
The Medical College of Wisconsin is a private medical school in Milwaukee, founded in 1893. It is Wisconsin's only private medical school with an enrollment of 1,281 students. This consists of 805 medical students and 476 graduate students. In 2006, the National Institutes of Health ranked the Medical College 46th among the nation's medical schools for NIH research funding amounting to $84 million, placing the College in the top half of the nation's medical schools. It is also the largest private research institution in Wisconsin. As a major national research center, Medical College of Wisconsin faculty has received $134 million in external support for research, teaching, training and related purposes in fiscal year 2005-2006, of which $125.6 million was for research, teaching and training. The Medical College of Wisconsin is recognized as an international leader in functional neuro-imaging, especially in the fields of SPECT and fMRI. Faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine participate in an NIMH-funded Program Project Grant examining sensory, language, motor and cognitive behavior in both normal and pathological human subjects.
The Department and Division
The Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Dr. Laura Roberts, is an international leader in the field of research ethics. She heads the Empirical Ethics Group, a clinical ethics resource and multidisciplinary health ethics research team funded by The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) with funding totaling $6,159,689 since 1999. Additionally, she is the Editor-in-Chief of Academic Psychiatry. Dr. Russell Scheffer, the former Division Director, left as of June 30 to join the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Kansas. We are pleased with the progress under Dr. Scheffer's leadership, and are excited about the growth and development that continues. We are adding faculty and expanding programs in psychiatry and psychology and look forward to choosing a new Division Director.
The Setting
Milwaukee is situated right on Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River and has a population of almost 600,000. In the four county area from which our patients come there are 1.4 million people. Scandinavian and Northern European cultures are prominent. There are six Native American Nations in Wisconsin and growing populations of Southeast Asians (especially Hmong) and Latinos. Milwaukee has a large and vibrant African American population including a Somali immigrant community. Plentiful sports and innovative contemporary arts, architecture (including the beautiful Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum), and muisic make the city an exciting place to live and work.
Rotations (click to see a list)
In the first year of training, fellows rotate through both public and private inpatient psychiatry settings. The Child and Adolescent Inpatient Services (CAIS) of the Milwaukee County Mental Health Center includes three attendings and the River Hills School. Rogers Memorial Hospital includes inpatient and day hospital experiences. Additionally, fellows rotate through the busy Consultation/Liaison Service at CHW, work with the county Mobile Urgent Treatment Team, and have year-long experiences at CHW in outpatient psychotherapy and psychopharmacology that continue in the second year.
The second year is devoted to outpatient services. In addition to the core experiences in psychotherapy and psychopharmacology at CHW, there are rotations through our Child Protection Center, Child Development Center, programs for persons with visual and hearing impairments, pediatric neurology, school consultation, a residential treatment center, a day treatment program for the developmentally disabled, a wrap-around community consultation service, Ethan Allen School (a boy's prison), and Dr. Scheffer's research clinic. There is also elective time to follow one's own developing interests in more depth.
Teaching (click to see a list)
Intensive supervision and mentoring throughout the two years involves faculty with a wide variety of clinical and theoretical orientations at the college and on the clinical faculty. There is an extensive two-year didactic program to complement and supplement learning in the rotations. Seminars include Normal Development; Developmental Psychopathology; a three semester cycle of Psychotherapies; a four semester cycle of psychopharmacology and neuropharmacology; a two semester cycle of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry including Pediatric Hospital, Pediatric Outpatient Office, Emergency Psychiatry, Community Consultation, School Consultation, Addictions, and Forensic Consultation; Substance Abuse; Psychological and Neuropsychological Testing; Professionalism (Ethics, Law and Critical Reasoning, and Multicultural Competence); a Practice Seminar; Research and Evidence-based Psychiatry; and a very active case conference. Fellows participate in teaching and supervision of medical students, pediatric residents, general psychiatry residents, and fellows in Pediatric Neurology.
Application
For application requirements and materials please call (414-456-7240) or e-mail Beverly Pernitzke (bpernitz@mcw.edu), our program coordinator. You may print out the application from MCWAH's website. All residents and fellows at MCW are hired through Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Inc. (MCWAH). For further information about MCWAH and Milwaukee please visit MCWAH's page for Prospective Residents and Fellows.