Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine
USF Health

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Program

The Training Program

The Residency Training Program in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is a two year subspecialty program that is fully accredited by the American Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Two residents per year are accepted into the program. Residents must have completed at least three years of psychiatric training prior to entering the program. The program provides a broad spectrum of well supervised clinical and didactic experiences in inpatient, outpatient, consultation liaison, and school psychiatry. The major goal of the program is to train competent child and adolescent psychiatrists whose ability to understand and treat the psychiatric problems of children, adolescents and families is based upon a firm theoretical and clinical foundation.

During the first year of their child psychiatry training, residents work on an acute inpatient unit for children and adolescents and perform consultations at Tampa General Hospital. They participate in a number of outpatient clinics at USF including an ADHD subspecialty clinic. Residents satisfy their training requirements for pediatric neurology during the first year.

During the second year of the training, residents participate in an several clinics at All Children's Hospital in St. Pete, FL including an advanced psychopharmacology clinic working with medically complex children, diagnostic clinics for youth with pervasive developmental disorders, tic disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. At the All Children's site, residents also spend a half day per week utilizing cognitive-behavioral therapy. Residents provide consultation to a variety of different schools and see continuity patients. Research opportunities are available for interested residents.

Clinical Sites

  1. Tampa General Hospital - TGH is a large multispecialty general hospital with a level one trauma center, burn unit and rehabilitation center. Residents provide consultation to a variety of pediatric services in the hospital. The neurology clinic is also at this location.
  2. The Silver Child Development Center located at the University of South Florida Psychiatry Center is the site for general and specialty outpatient clinics. Residents will see patients at this site for a minimum of a half day per week throughout the two year program. Residents will conduct diagnostic assessments and see follow up patients employing both medication management as well as psychotherapy for patients under their care.
  3. All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL is a pediatric multidisciplinary site hospital and outpatient clinic. During the second year of training, residents will work in several clinics at this site and perform psychiatric consultation for patients admitted to the hospital.
  4. Dorothy Thomas Exceptional Center and Caminiti Exceptional Center - residents participate in consultations at two local schools.
  5. Phoenix House – an outpatient substance abuse treatment center. Here residents see patients in the program for diagnostic evaluation and medication management as part of the multidisciplinary treatment team.

Faculty

University of South Florida site

  • Mike Bengtson, M.D. - Division Chief
  • Heidi Bruty M.D.
  • Wade Myers, M.D.
  • Saundra Stock M.D.
  • Danielle Sutton, Ph.D.
All Children's Hospital site
  • Jeffrey Alvaro, M.D
  • Mark Cavitt, M.D.
  • Tanya Murphy, M.D.
  • Eric Storch, Ph.D.

Didactics

The residents in the child and adolescent program attend a half day per week of educational conferences on Thursday mornings. The didactic program is set on a two year cycle allowing all residents in the program to attend conferences together. The didactic series includes:
  • Assessment seminar
  • Development seminar
  • Psychopathology and Psychopharmacology
  • Psychodynamic psychotherapy
  • Play Therapy
  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
  • Interpersonal Psychotherapy
  • Family Therapy
  • Systems Based Practice
  • Psychosomatic and Consultation
  • Forensic Issues and Ethics in Child Psychiatry
  • School-Based interventions
  • Parent Management
  • Clinical Case Conference
  • Journal Club

How to Apply

Interested applicants should submit the following:
  1. Completed Psychiatry Post-Graduate Training Program Application PDF
  2. A personal statement about your interest in child psychiatry
  3. 3 letters of reference
  4. updated CV
  5. USMLE scores
  6. Medical school transcript
  7. Letter Attesting to General Psychiatry Board Eligibility - To be completed by your Training Director 
Thank you for your interest in our program.

Sincerely,

Saundra Stock, M.D.
Associate Professor
Director, Child & Adolescent Training Program


For additional information, please contact:
Education Coordinator: Kay Isaac (kisaac@health.usf.edu)