Child Psychiatry

The Division of Child Psychiatry at SIU School of Medicine was created to provide psychiatric and behavioral health services to the youth of central and southern Illinois. Our shared vision is that all young people will develop to their fullest potential emotionally, behaviorally and interpersonally with a goal of living their lives with a sense of self-worth, competence and connection to others. Our mission is to develop and promote practices that foster mental health, detect areas of dysfunction and provide treatment and support to children, their families and communities in which they live. The Division is dedicated to providing services, education and research in the area of child and adolescent psychiatry.

We provide an array of services for children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional issues. Inpatient, partial hospital and crisis services are available through collaboration with Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center. The outpatient program provides comprehensive psychiatric and psychological assessments and individual, group and family therapies for a broad range of diagnoses with specialty clinics in Eating Disorder and Developmental Disability. We collaborate with Gateway Foundation to provide substance abuse treatment for adolescents and with The Autism Center in providing services to individuals with autism.

SIU Child Psychiatry is extensively involved in teaching and provides training for general psychiatry residents and medical students from SIU School of Medicine. We have an accredited child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship, and through the fellowship we provide consultation services to regional medical facilities, schools and substance abuse treatment centers. We also provide training for social work and psychology interns and nurse practitioners. We are involved in a variety of areas for research, including medical education, collaboration between mental health and primary care, telepsychiatry, autism, adverse reactions to medications and attitudes about medical marijuana. We are participating in pharmacologic studies for the treatment of suicidality and depression in adolescents.