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Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (P)
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Specialty Description

Child and adolescent psychiatry is a medical specialty focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders of thinking, feeling, and behavior affecting children, adolescents, and their families (1).

What does a child and adolescent psychiatrist do?

Child and adolescent psychiatry is a medical subspecialty that involves working with children, adolescents and their families with emotional and behavioral illnesses.

Child and adolescent psychiatry:

  • Uses a knowledge of neurological, biological, psychological and social factors to treat patientsImage removed.

  • Offers a stimulating and rapidly evolving field

  • Provides opportunities for prevention and early intervention to improve quality of life

Child and adolescent psychiatrists spend meaningful time with patients, have the ability to make a major difference in children’s lives and:

  • Combine art and science to treat their patients' emotional, behavioral and psychical illnesses

  • Establish long-term relationships with patients and their family members

  • Fulfill the tremendous need for more child and adolescent psychiatrists

The field offers diverse and flexible practice options with outstanding job opportunities and remuneration including:

  • Private practice in solo or group settings

  • Research and teaching

  • Consultation to schools, hospitals, courts or other agencies

  • Advocacy for child mental health and public policy

The field offers flexibility of work hours with a lifestyle that can be tailored to career as well as family, such as:

  • Opportunities for part-time work

  • Excellent job-family balance

  • Top number of job offers per resident on graduation

  • Highly competitive salaries

  • Worldwide geographic opportunities

Sources

  1. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)