Child-Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship

General Philosophy

The orientation of the program is biopsychosocial and eclectic. Hence, Fellows learn biological, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, object relations and family approaches to the assessment of children and adolescents all within a developmental framework.

General Objectives

The overall goal of the fellowship is to help each fellow develop the knowledge, skills and necessary experience to enjoy a productive life as a child-adolescent psychiatrist in a clinical, administrative, or research career. To this end, fellows are engaged in a progressive series of clinical and educational experiences. These include: closely supervised clinical outpatient and inpatient patient care; specific didactic courses (about 7 hours a week); supervised individual, family, group and milieu treatment; consultation and liaison in both hospital and community settings, including schools, courts and a community mental health center.

All fellows are required to gain competence in addressing mental disorders from infancy to late adolescence; consequently, developmental considerations are at the core of our biopsychosocial conceptual approach. Fellows are expected to be able to evaluate and follow patients from all socioeconomic and cultural levels, and to graduate with skills related to in-depth and evidence-based work with children, their families and related systems. This involves multi-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge of current research, as well as clinical, educational, and administrative  experience.

The clinical experiences include: inpatient and residential treatment at the Integris Mental Health Center (Spencer); outpatient child psychiatry in the Williams Pavilion at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; consultation and liaison at The Children's Hospital of Oklahoma (the only comprehensive children's hospital in the state of Oklahoma), a rotation in child neurology, and consultation to local courts and schools.

Electives in the second year allow the fellow to study areas of research interest or to follow up clinical areas in which he/she wishes more experiences. In recent years, fellows have chosen electives in the sleep laboratory, neuropsychology, developmental and behavioral pediatrics, and trauma-disaster research. Department faculty members are involved in research on psychological resilience, abnormal sexual genitalia, PTSD, and children's reactions and coping in disasters and terrorism.

Meet our Child & Adolescent Fellowship Program Director, Dr. Robyn Cowperthwaite, MD and several of our other faculty and Fellows who make part of the Child & Adolescent Fellowship Program at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Humaira Abid, MD

Eleanor Lastrapes, MD

Rachel Zettl, MD., M.Ed

Lenore Arlee, LCSW, LADC

Marion Ritchey, LCSW

• Betty Pfefferbaum, MD., JD
• John Raizen, MD
• Shree Vinekar, MD