Medical students (undergraduate education)
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) offers the opportunity to learn about child and adolescent psychiatry in a world-renowned teaching and research hospital. Students benefit from exposure to complex clinical cases and ongoing investigations into the origins and treatment of psychiatric problems. Our clinics develop and evaluate novel approaches to various therapeutic modalities, such as family therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, and pharmacotherapy. One-on-one contact with some of the best people in their fields enriches this rewarding educational environment.
Clerkship courses
In their third year, medical students at The University of Toronto complete a six-week course in psychiatry. This course includes three hours per week in child psychiatry at one of several sites, including SickKids. Through a combination of classroom and clinical teaching, students learn about the common psychiatric problems among children and adolescents.
Electives
Elective training to further explore child and adolescent psychiatry is available to third and fourth year medical students at the University of Toronto and other medical schools.
At SickKids, psychiatry electives generally last one to four weeks and are tailored to meet each student’s interests at his or her stage of learning.
- If a student wishes exposure within a particular field or fields – for example, eating disorders or infant-parent attachment – he or she can be linked with specialists in those areas and their clinical and/or research activities.
- Or, students may choose a general elective, exposing them to the rich diversity of work in child psychiatry. They will spend their time observing, assisting and conducting assessments under the observation of a range of specialists.
Specific clinical study opportunities include:
- Anxiety Disorders Program - An assessment, treatment and research program with particular expertise in working with anxious children and their families through innovative use of cognitive behavioural therapy and pharmacotherapy.
- Eating Disorders Program - One of the few programs in North Americafor children and adolescents with eating disorders where medical and psychiatric care is fully integrated, as well as one of Canada’s few inpatient services for eating disorders.
- Infant Psychiatry Program - An assessment, short-term treatment and research program focusing on mental health problems among infants, toddlers and their parents; common concerns include feeding difficulties, attachment or relationship problems, and coping with serious illness or trauma.
- Medical-Psychiatry Program - A unique consultation and liaison program for all medical and surgical floors at SickKids. The program focuses on patient care by addressing psychiatric problems associated with or resulting from a young person’s medical condition.
- ADHD Clinic - An interdisciplinary group with a research and clinical focus on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and associated concerns such as developmental, behavioural or learning difficulties.
- Psychiatry Assessment and Treatment Unit - An interdisciplinary program providing specialized assessment and treatment – in outpatient, day hospital and inpatient settings – for children and adolescents with psychoses, severe mood or anxiety disorders, or risk of suicide.
- Psychiatry Emergency Service - An urgent and acute care outpatient and consultative service for children and adolescents at risk for hurting themselves or someone else, or who have other urgent psychiatric problems.
Tammy Chong
Education Administrative Coordinator
Psychiatry
The Hospital for Sick Children
Phone: 416-813-6174
Fax: 416-813-5326
email: tammy.chong@sickkids.ca
Suneeta Monga
Director, Undergraduate Education
Psychiatry
The Hospital for Sick Children
Phone: 416-813-8954
Fax: 416-813-5326
email: suneeta.monga@sickkids.ca