Administrative issues in child and adult psychiatry training programs

Child psychiatry training programs have encountered a number of administrative problems resulting from efforts to recognize, without isolating or submerging, the unique aspects of child psychiatry within existing departments of psychiatry. This paper questions the validity of the concept of general psychiatry, which may be responsible for many of these administrative dilemmas. The thesis is advanced that adult and child psychiatry actually represent distinct fields of practice, however, training programs for each should be integrated within departments of psychiatry through both adult and child divisional administrative lines.