Clinical Rotations
Our clinical curriculum is structured into two tracks:
- Inpatient year
- Ambulatory care/outpatient year
Fellows may start their training with either year-long track. The inpatient year also includes one to two months of elective time.
Inpatient Rotations
Friends Hospital, founded in 1813, is the first non-profit private psychiatric institute in the U.S. and one of the oldest in the country. It has 192 acute inpatient beds and 27 residential beds. Its magnificent 100-acre campus also houses our department’s central administrative offices. Fellows spend two months on the 24-bed acute inpatient adolescent unit with diverse patient population aged 13 to 17 years. The unit admits approximately 600 privately and publicly insured patients a year. Fellows learn to assess and manage severely ill adolescents and work within an interdisciplinary team. Treatment modalities include individual, family and group psychotherapeutic interventions, experiential and recreational therapies, psychopharmacology, behavior therapy and therapeutic community. Fellows also develop necessary knowledge and skills for disposition planning.
Horsham Clinic is a private facility located on a 55-acre suburban campus in Ambler, Pennsylvania. It is one of the largest providers of acute inpatient services in Southeastern Pennsylvania. It has 206 inpatient beds. Fellows spend two months at acute partial hospital program for children and adolescents and one month on the acute inpatient child unit. Fellows learn to provide short-term psychiatric care to acutely ill youths ages 4 through 18 with a variety of diagnoses, using multimodal treatment. The patient population is socioeconomically diverse. Interventions include behavior therapy with reward system; art, music and recreational therapy, onsite educational programming; individual, group and family therapy; pharmacotherapy; interagency meetings; and aftercare planning.
Founded in 1875, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children is a 130-bed tertiary care facility with a full range of inpatient medical and surgical services, specialty outpatient services and an emergency department. Fellows spend two months on pediatric neurology service and learn to evaluate and treat a wide range of neurological conditions in diverse patient populations in outpatient continuity clinic as well as on the inpatient unit. Exposure to sleep, PKU and epilepsy clinics and neuropsychology is also part of this rotation.
Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children is a 195-bed state-of-the-art tertiary care facility located in Wilmington, Delaware. It was founded in 1940 and provides advanced pediatric care in more than 30 medical disciplines. Fellows spend two months on the consultation-liaison service providing consultations on medical/surgical floors as well as emergency room. This multidisciplinary experience also includes managing youth with complex neuropsychiatric presentations.
Founded in 1913, Woods Services is a private residential and educational center located on a gorgeous 300-acre campus in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. It houses approximately 650 patients with a wide variety of genetic syndromes, neurodevelopmental, and intellectual disabilities including autism spectrum disorder, who come from 24 different states. Fellows spend one month acquiring sophisticated knowledge and skills managing this unique patient population while working in the context of a multidisciplinary treatment team. Fellows learn the art of complex psychopharmacology, ABA, sensory integration therapy, psychoeducational assessments, FBAs, PT, OT, dietary interventions, etc.
Ambulatory Care/Outpatient Year Rotations
Merakey (previously known as Northwestern Human Services) is one of the main providers of behavioral health, substance use, educational, developmental and intellectual disability services across eight states including Pennsylvania. The outpatient clinic located in North Philadelphia is one of the largest community mental health centers in the entire state of Pennsylvania. Onsite there are 50 therapists, 13 child and adolescent psychiatrists, and many other clinicians with diverse expertise. The clinic also houses a therapeutic preschool program and one-of-its-kind open-access clinic. Fellows spend three days per week across 12 consecutive months at this site. Patients and families present with a remarkable breadth and depth of psychopathology, with multiple systems of care involved. Fellows learn to provide longitudinal care to this very complex population (ages 3 through 21).
Fellows develop cutting-edge skills in conducting initial and ongoing outpatient psychiatric assessments, pharmacotherapy, and various psychotherapy modalities including parent training, parent child interaction therapy, individual, family, behavior, psychodynamic, and cognitive behavioral therapies, while collaborating with multiple providers including schools. There are regularly scheduled onsite educational conferences, social skills groups, process groups, wraparound evaluations and live videoconferencing of Drexel's Department of Psychiatry grand rounds.
Located in Northeast Philadelphia on a 72-acre historical campus, Merakey Education and Autism Centers is a self-contained, approved private school for youths with autism spectrum disorder, ages 5 to 21, from urban and suburban school districts. Fellows learn to function as effective psychiatric consultants to teachers and various school staff while working in specialized classrooms. They also appreciate first-hand the structure and function of a special education system.
Philadelphia Family Court
Philadelphia's family court system was founded in 1914. Fellows learn to evaluate adolescents involved with the juvenile justice system and the associated ethical, administrative, clinical and legal complexities.
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Please note that residents and fellows are employed by and insured by the hospital; they are not employees of Drexel University.