| The Elisabeth
Severance Prentiss Foundation has awarded the Department
of Psychiatry at University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC)
a grant of $5,000,000 to be paid over the next 5 years
to create an Inpatient Center for Child and Adolescent
Psychiatric Treatment. Currently, there is no inpatient
child and adolescent psychiatry unit in Northeast Ohio
that has been able to integrate superior clinical care,
training of future mental health professionals, and pioneering
evidence-based clinical research.
The proposed facility would
offer a quality-rich, therapeutic program with rapid stabilization
for acute illness; longer lengths of stays, as needed,
for thorough diagnostic evaluations on complex cases;
and would include research on specialty treatment tracks.
\
Under the leadership of Robert
Ronis, MD, MPH, Interim Chairman of the Department
of Psychiatry and Robert
L. Findling, MD, Director, Division of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, the Department has created a financially
sound and fiscally responsible practice model. Dr. Findling
will work with current Department markers in order to
implement the new Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit.
The state of the art facility
will also be distinguished by the ability of its mental
health professionals to care for medically complex children
in partnership with Rainbow Babies and Children’s pediatric
specialists. Furthermore, the young patients in this facility
would benefit from UHC’s multidisciplinary team approach
that draws on the expertise of an array of specialty areas,
and most importantly, offers children and families a range
of diagnostic and treatment options that are based on
what is best for each individual child, not what is most
readily available. There will also be an expansion of
outpatient consultation services as well as expansion
in the overall size of the Division in order to achieve
these goals. The care team will include psychologists
who provide comprehensive outpatient evaluation/treatment
service. This service will focus on a multidisciplinary
assessment of the patient, diagnostic clarification, treatment
initiation (including medication and psychotherapy), and
family psycho-education.
Fred C. Rothstein,
MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of UHC
stated, “This gift recognizes the outstanding work of
Dr. Findling and his colleagues in addressing the much-needed
facilities and programs to benefit children with behavior
disorders.”
The UHC Division of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry is grateful to the Elisabeth
Severance Prentiss Foundation for its generous support.
Through its vision, children and adolescents will be afforded
new opportunities for fostering social and emotional health
for children, adolescents and their families. |
