An Innovative, Interdisciplinary Model of Care for Inpatient Child Psychiatry: an Overview

There are profound effects of childhood psychiatric disorders on families and communities. Given that each year over half a million youth receive mental health services through inpatient psychiatric hospitals, focus on assessment and treatment strategies for this group is paramount The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of an innovative, evidenced-based model of inpatient child psychiatric care that challenges commonly used traditional practices of inpatient child psychiatry. The highlighted model utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to clarify psychiatric diagnoses; create a comprehensive biopsychosocial formulation of the child and family; establish a rational medication regimen; provide individually tailored recommendations; and address the "revolving door" of repeated psychiatric hospitalizations. Descriptive analyses are presented that provide demographic, developmental, and psychiatric characteristics of the children admitted to the unit. The potential benefits of using this innovative model with developmentally and psychiatrically complex children are discussed.