Our Mission:

Through the use of health promotion, prevention, and intelligent intervention we strive to use the Family Based Approach with a long term goal of helping the well remain illness free, preventing at risk children from developing psychiatric illness and intervening comprehensively on behalf of the children and families challenged by emotional or behavioral disorders.

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Please View our Mission Video to Learn More

Director, Steven Schlozman, MD


 

 

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Education

As a department, we are immersed in education at every learner level. Our faculty teach at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels, at the Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont and within the Psychiatry Residency and Child Psychiatry fellowship. We play a key role in educating those interested in taking care of children and families.

 

 

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Patient Care

Providers at the Pediatric Psychiatry Clinic promote the Vermont Family Based Approach (VFBA) to best take care of our patients and their families. With our proximity to the community, we strive to make partnerships and support community members working with children and families across Vermont and upstate New York. Our providers also participate in the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry & Psychology Consult Service (CAPPCON) at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and the Vermont Child Psychiatry Access Program.

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Research

Our research aims focus on improving the health and wellbeing of the developing child. Faculty research programs include child dysregulation and irritability and the risk and resilience of children and adolescents. We partner with the Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families (RCCYF), the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP), and the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU). Within the research community, we also partner with individual investigators that align with our research focuses.



Highlighted news from the Child Psychiatry department:

Leahy, Althoff Discuss New Mental Health Urgent Care Center with NBC5

September 10, 2024 by Lucy Gardner Carson

(SEPTEMBER 10, 2024) Maureen Leahy, M.Ed., UVM Health Network director of psychiatry and neurology health care services, and Robert Althoff, Ph.D., M.D., professor and chair of psychiatry, commented to NBC5 about a new Mental Health Urgent Care Center opening soon in Burlington.

Photo: Annie Mackin, UVM Health

(SEPTEMBER 10, 2024) Maureen Leahy, M.Ed., director of psychiatry and neurology health care services for the UVM Health Network and administrative director of UVM’s Osher Center for Integrative Health, and Robert Althoff, Ph.D., M.D., professor and chair of psychiatry, commented to NBC5 about a new Mental Health Urgent Care Center opening soon in Burlington.

The Department of Mental Health, alongside the Howard Center and other community partners, is set to open the center—the first urgent care of its kind in Chittenden County and the fourth in the state—on October 28. The center will allow adults with increasing or acute mental health needs to be quickly evaluated and matched with providers and programs to get them the best care possible. Initially, it will operate Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a walk-in basis.

“The walk-in nature of the clinic itself will be assisting suicide prevention, because when the individual is feeling desperate and like they have nowhere to go, they will now have somewhere to go that will receive them,” Leahy. “It’s a beautiful space and trained individuals and they can start feeling well.”

The center has grant funding for three years which will cover most of its services. The hope is to keep it running long-term.

“Three years is going to give us a really good idea of the size and scope and the overall cost and gives us the opportunity to look at both conventional billing models, but also maybe some unique billing models for a program like this,” said Althoff.

This news was also covered by WVNY-TV, WCAX-TV, the Burlington Free Press, and Vermont Public.

Read full story at NBC5