Developmental Disabilities
The rotation on the Developmental Disabilities Service at McLean Hospital emphasizes “hands on” experience with youth who suffer from developmental delays. Residents have the opportunity to meet patients with developmental delays. In Year 1, residents have a required seminar on Developmental Disabilities led by Dr. Frazier. They will also rotate through the services at McLean Hospital for one month, four hours a week. During the Year 1 required rotation, the residents will sit in on diagnostic evaluations of the patients with Dr. Frazier and get a sense of the complexity of the problems facing the developmentally delayed population. The overall goal is to enhance the trainees’ comfort level in working with this clinical population and to increase the residents’ ability to develop a diagnostic formulation and treatment plan. In Year 2, residents may elect to work for the Developmental Disabilities Service for five to ten hours weekly for four months. Initially they will sit in on diagnostic evaluations with Dr. Frazier. Later during the elective rotation, the child residents will be encouraged to do one or two diagnostic assessments of individuals with developmental disabilities on their own and to initiate treatment. Child residents may continue to follow the children who they assess during their elective time through McLean Hospital Outpatient Service. In the required and elective rotations, residents will see children and adolescents with mental retardation, learning disorders and pervasive developmental disorders. Most patients have a wide range of comorbid psychiatric disorders. During the rotation, residents on this service will not conduct treatment on their own. However, in the general outpatient clinic at MGH, many patients in the caselload under supervision will have a variety of developmental cognitive social and physical disabilities. During the course of their longitudinal work with this population, they will participate in multimodal treatment, reviewing neuropsychological testing and individual educational plans and coordinating the treatment with allied health professionals, parents and teachers.