Our Mission:

Through the use of health promotion, prevention, and intelligent intervention we strive to use the Family Based Approach with a long term goal of helping the well remain illness free, preventing at risk children from developing psychiatric illness and intervening comprehensively on behalf of the children and families challenged by emotional or behavioral disorders.

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Please View our Mission Video to Learn More

Director, Steven Schlozman, MD

 

 

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Education

As a department, we are immersed in education at every learner level. Our faculty teach at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels, at the Larner College of Medicine, University of Vermont and within the Psychiatry Residency and Child Psychiatry fellowship. We play a key role in educating those interested in taking care of children and families.

 

 

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Patient Care

Providers at the Pediatric Psychiatry Clinic promote the Vermont Family Based Approach (VFBA) to best take care of our patients and their families. With our proximity to the community, we strive to make partnerships and support community members working with children and families across Vermont and upstate New York. Our providers also participate in the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry & Psychology Consult Service (CAPPCON) at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and the Vermont Child Psychiatry Access Program.

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Research

Our research aims focus on improving the health and wellbeing of the developing child. Faculty research programs include child dysregulation and irritability and the risk and resilience of children and adolescents. We partner with the Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families (RCCYF), the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program (VCHIP), and the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU). Within the research community, we also partner with individual investigators that align with our research focuses.

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Vermont Child Psychiatry Access Program (VTCPAP)

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Highlighted news from the Child Psychiatry department:

Schlozman Talks Teens with Milton Independent

May 21, 2024 by Lucy Gardner Carson

(MAY 21, 2024) UVM Medical Center child psychiatrist Steven Schlozman, M.D., spoke with the Milton Independent about what’s on the minds of Vermont teenagers.

UVM Medical Center child psychiatrist Steven Schlozman, M.D., director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families and associate professor of psychiatry at the Larner College of Medicine

(MAY 21, 2024) UVM Medical Center child psychiatrist Steven Schlozman, M.D., director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth, and Families and associate professor of psychiatry at the Larner College of Medicine, spoke with the Milton Independent about what’s on the minds of Vermont teenagers.

Schlozman has seen his share of teens struggling to make sense of the world. But in the last decade, he has noticed this group’s tendency to struggle with anxiety and depression has been compounded by increasing political polarization, the rising cost of living, and climate change, among other social issues. “I mean, kids had political opinions before, but they were more concerned about their relationships,” he said. Schlozman attributes this difference partially to the rise in popularity of social media and more information being available on the Internet.

Issues with impulsivity and negative mood are more likely to occur in teens because the brain tends to myelinate, or mature, from the bottom of the brain upward, he explained. This tends to make teens susceptible to parts of the brain that are more impulsive, such as the amygdala, a primitive part that controls responses to emotions.

Teens also tend to get emotionally elevated faster than adults because the parts of the brain currently developing don’t have as much of a chance to communicate with parts of the brain that are higher up, like the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for more rational thought processes, he said.

Schlozman enjoys helping teens come up with solutions to their mental health challenges and helping them find ways to implement them.

“I love the work. It’s not great that people are suffering, but the complicated nature of it is pretty special, because humans are pretty special, and kids especially,” he said.

Read full story at the Milton Independent