Irving Philips

Changes in Inpatient Child Psychiatry: Consequences and Recommendations

Abstract The Psychiatric Inpatient Unit for children has evolved into a specialized setting for comprehensive diagnostic evaluation and brief intervention. This development has coincided with major changes in the nature of the patients admitted, the funding of inpatient care, and the availability of community resources. These factors have altered the way psychiatrists work with patients and their families and have had consequences for staff morale, milieu, training, and continuity of care. A series of steps to address these consequences is recommended, including the development of a full spectrum of rehabilitative services coordinated by a central agency. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry , 1988, 27, 4:397–403.

FUNCTIONS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST IN A PSYCHIATRIC SETTING FOR CHILDREN.

This paper describes the functions of an educational psychologist in a psychiatric treatment center for children. This center, the Childrens Service of the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, provides inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services for emotionally disturbed and some mentally retarded children (Szurek, 1952). During the past decade and a half, the clinical program of this service has been directed toward a better understanding of the nature of severe emotional disturbances in children, toward developing more effective means of treating such disorders, and toward the improvement of training for dinical personnel in the field of child psychiatry. In its effort to provide training in all aspects of child psychiatry, the Childrens Service has maintained a continual interest in the field of mental retardation. Four years ago it applied for and was awarded a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to provide additional faculty to augment its teaching and training program in this field. Although the focus of this additional faculty was on the special problem of mental retardation, each member of the group continued to participate in the broad spectrum of the work of the Childrens Service (Philips, et al., 1961).

The Rights of Children: A Historical Evolution

Nov. 2 1,17 13. This Day I attended the Funeral of my two: Eleazer and Martha. Between 9 h and 10 h at Night, my lovely Jerusha expired. She was two years, and about seven months old [From the Diary of Cotton Mather, 1709-17241. It is not often that a monumental work appears in print. This documentary history recounts a historical journey from the days of the early settlement of this country, tracing public policy toward children and youth in America from the colonial period to the present time. Prepared under the auspices of the American Public Health Association, with support from the Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, these 3 volumes (volumes I1 and 111 are each in 2 parts) are an essential addition to the library of any scholar or practitioner who works with children. They remind us of the slow evolution of services for children in the health, education, and welfare fields. The editors have provided a documentary anthology of references from scholars, political debates, personal diaries, newspaper clippings, court decisions, and congressional acts, with sufficient breadth to touch upon all aspects of the field. T o find, select, and organize all of these documents and to write a narrative history from them is a task in itself, and the editors deserve our congratulations for their discrimination in choosing what may be the best of what is available to portray the continuity of our concern for children and their families. In this era of nostalgia, it is often said that in the good old days the extended family lived in a happy unity of several generations which offered many rewards to the human spirit. But a review of the historical development of the position of the child and the family in our society, in the perspective of the hard and difficult lives experienced by the settlers and