FUNCTIONS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST IN A PSYCHIATRIC SETTING FOR CHILDREN

Abstract

This paper describes the functions of an educational psychologist in a psychiatric treatment center for children. This center, the Children's 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 Children's 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 Children's Service (Philips, et al., 1961).