Overview
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Program
Emory University School of Medicine

> APPLICATION
> APPLICATION INFORMATION

 

Training Director Arden D. Dingle, M.D. (adingle@emory.edu)

Residency Coordinator Beth Adams (eaadams@emory.edu; 404-7273886)

Please contact for program and application information

Division Chief Peter Ash, MD

General Characteristics

• Two year residency program with strong clinical emphasis
• Significant clinical research opportunities
• Diverse full-time and voluntary faculty
• Multiple sites in metropolitan Atlanta
• Four residents per year, generally a mix of internal and outside applicants

Rotations
First Year (70% site; 30% outpatient clinic and didactics)

 

Children’s HealthCare of Atlanta at Egleston Children’s Hospital is a 3-month rotation on the consultation liaison service evaluating and treating children and adolescents with complicated medical and psychiatric conditions. Egleston is a tertiary care center that serves metropolitan Atlanta and other areas of the state and is a main training site for Emory pediatrics. The resident spends one afternoon a week in an outpatient neurology clinic.

Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta is a 3- month rotation on the adolescent (12 through 17) psychiatric unit. The hospital is a state facility for acute psychiatric care and serves metropolitan Atlanta and North Georgia.

Inner Harbour Hospital is a 3- month rotation at a non-profit, private institution that provides a range of services from residential treatment to outpatient care for adolescents. The residents work as members of multidisciplinary teams for several specialty programs such as substance abuse and sexual offenders.

Ridgeview Hospital is a 2-month rotation at a non-profit, private institution that provides a range of services from acute inpatient to intensive outpatient care for children and adolescents. The residents work as members of multidisciplinary teams on an acute unit as well as in an eating disorders program.

Peachford Hospital is a 1-month rotation at a private hospital. The patients evaluate and treat patients (child and adolescent units) during an acute psychiatric hospitalization as well as see adolescents in several residential substance abuse programs.

Second Year (60% site and elective; 40% outpatient clinic and didactics) This year consists of 11 months of required rotations and 1 month of electives but is organized into assignments of 2 to 12 months over the entire year rather than in block months.   Residents rotate at a variety of settings including Grady Health System, Crawford Long Hospital, Emory Autism Center and Georgia State University.   Other community settings include a crisis center, juvenile court, juvenile detention center, public elementary school and preschool program, Grady Health System is the county hospital for metropolitan Atlanta and a major training institution for Emory.  Crawford-Long Hospital also is an Emory hospital, which is private, and community based.  The Autism Center provides services for children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders. Rotations involve a combination of providing direct patient care as well as consultation.  Assignments include:

Consultation Services
Community agencies	crisis center staffed by child protective services/ community agencies
School	two rotations –public elementary school and university student health center
Preschool	based at a local HeadStart program
Infant/Toddler	two sites – NICU and program for medically fragile infants/ toddlers
Juvenile Justice
Forensics	work with forensic child/ adolescent psychiatrist
Juvenile Court	evaluate youth referred by the court and provide recommendations
Juvenile Detention	evaluate and treat detained children and adolescents
Outpatient Clinics
Family Evaluation Clinic	team evaluation of a family
General Outpatient Clinic	outpatient care of youth; supervision of rotating general residents
Mood Disorders	evaluation and treatment of youth with mood disorders
Developmental Disabilities
Developmental Disabilities Clinic	evaluation and treatment of youth with developmental disorders
Autism Center	care of autistic youth in clinic, preschool, family/ school interventions
Clinical Research Project	depend on resident interest and program availability
Elective	depend on resident interest and program availability

Both Years

Outpatient Training Clinic is a sliding scale clinic operated at Emory for children, adolescents, and families. The emphasis is on long-term psychotherapeutic treatment. The residents do evaluations and ongoing therapy and receive individual supervision. Patient fees help support the secretary. The residents also co-lead a group at a local adolescent residential treatment center (Hillside). The requirements are:

Patient Hours (includes group): 4 hours/week first year residents; 6 hours/week second year residents
Supervision: 1 hour/week first year residents; 2 hours/week second year residents

 

Didactics
The curriculum includes both courses that occur every year and those that are given every other year. The majority of the classes are taught to the first and second year residents together.

Every Year
First and Second Year Residents
General Psychiatry Grand Rounds
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Grand Rounds
Research Seminar
Cultural Conference
Spiritual Conference
Journal Club
Psychopharmacology
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Behavioral Management

Family Therapy

Other Therapies
Ethics

Clinical and Practice Issues
Outpatient Meeting
Chief Resident Meeting
Training Director’s Meeting
Chat with the Chief

Career Preparation
Resident Retreat

 

First Year Residents
Orientation
Assessment of children, adolescents, and families
Family Therapy Supervision (direct observation)

Second Year Residents
Family Therapy Supervision
Teaching
Clinical and Practice Issues

Every Other Year
First and Second Year Residents
Developmental Practicum
Psychopathology and Environmental Correlates

 

Goals and Objectives
The child and adolescent psychiatry residency at Emory University School of Medicine is a two year program which has been designed to offer training composed of a well balanced mix of clinical experiences, formal didactics, and theoretical orientations. The emphasis is upon the acquisition of diagnostic, therapeutic, and consultation skills which can be applied across the developmental spectrum, based on current concepts of cognitive and biological growth, learning theory, psychoanalytic theory and family systems models. The diverse clinical rotations coupled with a core of didactic seminars and lectures provide each trainee with a balanced experience in theoretical models and practical applications as the resident functions as diagnostician, treating physician, therapist, team leaders, and consultant. During the two years of training, the resident develops an increasing competence in clinical abilities, teaching, research and administration through a series of graduated learning experiences. Each resident also receives close supervision from faculty members, which fosters professional development.

This residency has been organized to optimize continuous outpatient evaluations and treatments in conjunction with in depth clinical experiences. During both years, residents participate in a training clinic with weekly requirements of didactics, patient evaluations, long-term outpatient treatment, and individual supervision. In the first year, the residents rotate on several intensive level programs (child psychiatry, adolescent psychiatry, and medical/psychiatric), work on a pediatric consultation-liaison service, and participate in adolescent substance abuse evaluation and treatment. The second year has an outpatient focus; residents rotate at several sites and work with specific populations such as the developmentally disabled, autistic, forensic, school based, neurological, and underprivileged as both clinicians and consultants. The residents also work on a clinical research project and have elective time.

Residents have the opportunity to evaluate and treat children and adolescents over the developmental age range with a broad spectrum of diagnosis and treatment options in a variety of well-supervised settings. During the first year, the initial focus is on descriptive diagnosis, interviewing, biological interventions, psychodynamic understanding and treatment planning primarily within inpatient and consultation settings. Later, the second year, the emphasis is on consolidation of skills and extension to specific populations and settings. Throughout the program, residents are exposed to issues of teaching, research, and administration with varying levels of participation depending on the situation.

This program is conceptualized as part of an educational process which has included medical school and general psychiatry. Child and adolescent psychiatry builds and expands upon those experiences. The program provides a core of clinical and educational experiences with some elective time that can be tailored to each individual. The program takes into account differences in prior training and experiences, clinical skills, interests, cultural issues and future plans, and is flexible so that individual needs can be met.

During this residency, child and adolescent residents are expected to complete responsibly all clinical assignments in an acceptable and ethical manner. They are expected to attend and participate in all required seminars and other educational supervision. Residents are expected to participate in the evaluation process, both for themselves and their rotations and supervisions.

Upon completion of the residency, the resident will have had well supervised experiences in diagnosing and treating all the major psychiatric disorders in children, adolescents, and families; a progressive exposure to broad theoretical perspectives of development from infancy through adolescence; a comprehensive exposure to the practice of child and adolescent psychiatry within medical and community settings; an in-depth experience with administrative and clinical aspects of a variety of health care systems; critical training in reading the literature as well as basic research methodology; and personal experience with a private practice in the training clinic. This comprehensive and broad based experience prepares residents to move into practice in private, public, and/or academic arenas.

Emory Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Faculty
(Partial Listing)

Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Chairman, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
cnemero@emory.edu

Peter Ash, M.D.

Associate Professor
Chief, Child/Adolescent Psychiatry
Pash01@emory.edu

Arden D. Dingle, M.D.
Associate Professor
Training Director, Child/Adolescent Psychiatry
adingle@emory.edu

Ann Abramowitz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
aabramo@emory.edu

Shawn Allen, M.D.

Clinical Assistant Professor

Administrative Psychiatrist, DJJ Office of Behavioral Health

ShawnAllen@djj.state.ga.us

 

Ashraf Attalla, M.D.

Clinical Assistant Professor

Medical Director, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ridgeview Hospital

M.D.@ashrafattalla.com

Marianne Celano, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
mcelano@emory.edu

Marietta Collins , Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
mcollin@emory.edu

Adolph Casal , M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Medical Director, Behavioral Health Services
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Adolph.casal@choa.org

Shannon Croft , M.D.
Assistant Professor
Director, Grady Child/ Adolescent Psychiatry
Scrof01@emory.edu

Mary Dell, M.D.

Associate Professor

Director, Egleston Consultation-Liaison Service
mary.Dell@emoryhealthcare.org

Deepa Gopalakrishnan , M.D.
Assistant Professor
Director, School/ Preschool Rotations
dgopala@emory.edu

Jennifer Gould, M.D.

Clinical Assistant Professor

Director, Group Therapy
JenniferGould@HSIDE.ORG

 

Yolanda Graham, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Director, Inner Harbour Hospital
docgraham@aol.com

 

Sarah E. Herbert, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor

Supervisor
sherber@emory.edu

Karen Hochman, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Supervisor
khochma@emory.edu

Priya Jacobs, M.D.

Assistant Professor

Director of the Developmental Disabilities Clinic

mkjacob@emory.edu

Steve Jaffe, M.D.
Professor
Peachford Hospital
srjaffe@bellsouth.net

Nadine Kaslow , Ph.D.
Professor
Chief of Psychology, Grady Health System
nkaslow@emory.edu

Gail McGee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Program Director, Autism Resource Center
gmcgee@unix.cc.emory.edu

Margaret Shugart, M.D.

Associate Professor

Director, Infant/ Toddler Rotation

mshugar@emory.edu

 

Chaundrissa Smith, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Director, Family Evaluation Clinic

chaundrissa.smith@emory.edu

Fiameta Vargus , M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Director, Adolescent Unit, Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta
fvargas@dhr.state.ga.us

Emory Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Residents

First Year Residents

Smitha Bhandari, M.D.
saniles@emory.edu

Cliff Ehmke, M.D.
cehmke@emory.edu

Ron Magat, M.D.

rmagat@emory.edu

 

Allison Nitsche, M.D.

amnitsc@emory.edu

Second Year Residents

LeahCobb, M.D.
slcobb@emory.edu

Vivianne Aponte Rivera, M.D.
vaponte@emory.edu

Nadine Burnett, M.D.
ncburne@emory.edu

Dauda Griffin, M.D.
dagriff@emory.edu

Viorica Pencea, M.D.
vpencea@emory.edu

Community Residents

Leesha Ellis-Cox, M.D.
lmellis@emory.edu 

 

Recent Graduates	Psychiatry Residency	Career Choices
Sonali Sheth, M.D. *	Emory University	Academics
Deeba Ashraf, M.D.	Emory University	Private Practice
Joseph Thompson, M.D.	Emory University	Private Practice
Joseph Farris, M.D. *	Emory University	Community agency
Osvaldo Gaytan, M.D.	Emory University	Academics/Private Practice
Michael Marcin, M.D.	Emory University	Community agency
Sanders Mompremier, M.D.	Emory University	Private Practice

* Chief Resident