Mary Dobbins, M.D
Chief, Division of Child Psychiatry

The SIU Division of Child Psychiatry was created to provide mental 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- leading 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 and diagnose areas of dysfunction, and provide treatment and support to children and families in need.

SIU Child Psychiatry outpatient clinics deliver services to approximately 1,000 patients per month, with the majority of families residing in the 13 surrounding central and southern Illinois counties. The patient population mirrors the community (80% Caucasian, 15% African American, and 5% “other”), ranging from urban to rural, encompassing ages from newborn to young adult, and drawing from all socio-economic backgrounds. Telehealth programming additionally extends services into the extreme southern and west-central areas of the state.

Services include: diagnostic evaluations, ongoing medication management, consultations (for other mental health and primary care providers), child forensic evaluations, psychological testing, and psychotherapy. Play therapy, individual therapy, family therapy, and a variety of therapy groups are available. Treatment is provided for the full range of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.

Child Psychiatry faculty members also provide services in a variety of additional settings. These include: consultation clinics at the SIU Department of Family and Community Medicine; outpatient clinics at the Children’s Center (the Mental Health Centers of Central Illinois); consultation through Springfield Public School District # 186; inpatient Pediatrics units of the Carol Jo Vecchie Women’s and Children’s Hospital (a Children’s Miracle Network hospital); residential substance abuse programming at Gateway; and inpatient psychiatric care at the Lincoln Prairie Behavioral Health Center.

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship is a two-year program accredited through the ACGME to train board eligible child psychiatrists. Medical students, therapy interns, and residents in General Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Family and Community Medicine participate in Child Psychiatry clinical programming. Case consultation and educational support (including CME programming) is provided both directly and through videoconferencing to pediatricians, family practitioners, general psychiatrists, and therapists in both academic and community settings throughout central and southern Illinois.

Research is ongoing in the areas of: medical education; collaboration between mental health and primary care; telepsychiatry; ADHD; adverse reactions of pharmacotherapy; and familial grief.

Faculty:
Mary I. Dobbins, M.D., Assistant Professor & Division Chief

Pamela Campbell, M.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry

Rebecca Loschen, LCSW, Adjunct Instructor

Stephen M. Soltys, M.D., Professor & Department Chair

Ayame Takahashi, M.D., Assistant Professor & Child Fellowship Training Director

Sandra Vicari, Ph.D., L.C.P.C., Associate Professor

Emeritus Faculty:
Gene Brodland, L.C.S.W., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry

Cross Appointed Faculty:
Glen Aylward, Ph.D. (Pediatrics), Associate Professor
 

Children's Healthcare Partnership

The Division of Child Psychiatry is also a member of The Children's Healthcare Partnership (CHP), formed in 2008 to increase access to coordinated care for children with complex conditions that include mental illness or developmental disabilities. The CHP is composed of:

• Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• SIU's Department of Family and Community Medicine
• The Hope Institute for Children and Families
• The Children's Center, a program of Mental Health Centers of Central Illinois
• The Autism Program of Illinois

The children's service providers of the CHP are working collaboratively to develop a comprehensive approach to the whole child where children receive coordinated care for all their medical needs. Services include primary care, psychiatric care, behavioral health services, rehabilitative services including occupational and physical therapy, and dental and optometric care. The projects goal is to provide improved coordinated for all the children served at Noll Medical Pavilion. Ultimately, it will be a model that can be replicated across the nation.

Approximately 7,000 children from across central Illinois are being served at the Pavilion by the Children's Healthcare Partnership. For more information about the Children's Healthcare Partnership, call (217) 757-7700.