Division of Behavioral Health

Individual and Family Therapy

Our clinical staff members provide therapy services to patients with acute and chronic medical illnesses, often in collaboration with the medical care team. Referrals for treatment are provided by the medical specialists. Individual and family therapy is provided to address issues related to adherence to medical treatment, coping with illness, and individual and family functioning. Areas of specialization include:

• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Asthma
• Gastrointestinal disorders
• Eating disorders
• Sickle cell disease
• Feeding disorders
• Cardiac conditions
• Pain management

Behavior Consultation Clinic

This clinic is designed to provide short-term services for parents and children from birth to six years for a wide range of behavioral and developmental concerns such as:

• parent-child conflict
• sleep problems
• toileting concerns
• daycare difficulties
• noncompliance
• sibling rivalry

Parent Child Conduct Clinic

Group treatment is provided to help parents learn about ADHD and address common behavioral concerns associated with ADHD, such as noncompliance and aggression. Children attend a social skills group to facilitate better peer relationships and learn self-control skills.

Primary Care Consultation 

Clinical staff members are co-located in five Nemours Pediatrics primary care offices to provide on-site consultation with providers and patients of the practice. Services consist of diagnostic consultation, brief treatment and referral to patients referred by the primary care providers.

Evaluation Services

Comprehensive assessments are conducted to provide clinical diagnosis and individual recommendations for patients with complex presentations.  Evaluation services include:

• Early childhood evaluations
• Clinical child evaluations
• ADHD evaluations
• Neurodevelopmental evaluations
• Adolescent personality evaluations

Pediatric Consultation Clinic

This clinic is available as a resource to primary care physicians including pediatricians and family practice physicians for their patients who they will continue to manage in their practices. This service includes a diagnostic evaluation with treatment recommendations provided to the referring physician. A referral for this service is required directly from the primary care physician.

Outpatient Psychiatric Care

This service includes evaluation and medication management for children and adolescents who are actively engaged in psychological therapy within the Behavioral Health division. A referral for this service is required directly from Psychology.

Psychology and psychiatry both perform inpatient consultation and liaison services at the request of the inpatient care team for patients admitted to the hospital for medical and/or surgical care. This service typically includes consultation to the patient’s care team, assessment of emotional and behavioral concerns and potential need for treatment including psychological therapy and/or psychiatric medication, and short-term psychological and/or psychiatric treatment during the patient’s hospital stay. 

In addition to patient care, our division is actively involved in research. Many of our research efforts are related to chronic illness and are often involve collaboration with other medical disciplines. Areas of current research include:

• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Cardiology
• Gastroenterology
• ADHD

Training is an integral facet of our division, with training opportunities at the graduate and postgraduate level. Training programs are highly competitive and include candidates from top-ranked universities.

Psychology Externship

The psychology externship program provides advanced practicum training for pre-doctoral candidates in clinical/professional psychology. Each year, six to eight positions may be offered, dependent upon the availability of opportunities and the match of interests between supervisors and externs.

Psychology Internship

The psychology internship program is a one year training program for predoctoral candidates in clinical and pediatric psychology. The internship is accredited by the American Psychological Association and registered in the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. 

Psychology Fellowship

The psychology fellowship program offers postdoctoral training in clinical and pediatric psychology to individuals who have completed a doctoral degree in psychology including a clinical internship. 

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Training

Fellows in their second year of training in the Jefferson Medical College Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program complete their consultation liaison training in our Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service.