BC Children’s Hospital offers predoctoral residency/internship positions focusing on pediatric and child clinical psychology. The location of these residency is Vancouver, BC. The mission of our residency program is to provide excellent clinical, ethical and professional training to enable residents to become highly competent, caring clinical psychologists able to function in complex, interdisciplinary healthcare settings.Psychologists in health care settings face exciting challenges and demands. They carry out a full range of sophisticated diagnostic activities and provide therapeutic intervention for a variety of psychological and emotional needs. They develop and implement management strategies for patients with a wide range of behavioural symptom-management problems. They are in a position to educate and collaborate with other professionals in the hospital and in the community. In other words, the health care psychologist is a trained professional working in a complex interdisciplinary health care setting.In the residency, you will receive training in the psychological assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of children and youth with a wide range of acute and chronic medical, mental health, and developmental conditions. This includes helping children and families who are coping with pain, illness or injury, experiencing emotional distress or behavioural difficulties, or facing a physical or mental disability.
The Department of Psychology at BC Children’s Hospital was established in 1974 and now manages Psychology Services at BC Children’s, Sunny Hill, and BC Women’s. We provide a wide range of clinical activities, training, teaching opportunities, and research options. We have approximately 45 full time and part-time Registered Psychologists and Psychometrists working on the two sites. Ours is an independent department affiliated with the three provincial universities, University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU), and University of Victoria (UVIC).
BC Children’s Hospital is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of British Columbia and has a strong research orientation and extensive community involvement. BC Children’s is a tertiary care facility which is the main referral centre for children from birth to 19 years with complex medical problems from British Columbia and the Yukon. BC Children’s is located in the heart of Vancouver on the Oak Street campus, a landscaped complex that includes BC Children’s, the Child & Family Research Institute, and BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre. At BC Children’s, our department includes over 30 Registered Psychologists and Psychometrists. As a department in a major teaching hospital, we have pursued an integrated mix of clinical services, training, teaching, research, and community partnerships. We provide clinical services, including assessment, treatment and consultation, to the children and families of the province who have major medical or mental health problems. In addition, each year we provide direct clinical training and clinical research opportunities for three to five psychology graduate students from the three provincial universities and other universities across North America and Europe. About 20 of our psychologists work in the area of pediatric psychology. About 14 of our psychologists work in the area of child and youth mental health.
As psychologists, we function as consultants and/or as members of interdisciplinary teams. Over the past 30 years, we have expanded our mandate from providing a small range of assessment activities to offering a wide range of services including: 1) differential diagnosis; 2) assessments for children with complex problems – this may include psycho-educational, neuropsychological and/or socio-emotional assessment, 3) consultations with care teams in the hospital and in the community; 4) short-term therapeutic interventions; 5) longer term psychotherapy as well as 6) research and education/training. In each of the last two years we have provided seven to nine thousand patient visits each year.
While the majority of the resident's time will be at BC Children’s and this will be your home base, there is also a rotation at Sunny Hill Health Centre. Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children offers specialized services to children with disabilities and their families from across the province. It is located approximately 15 minutes from the Oak Street campus by car.
Sunny Hill is a provincial resource providing specialized tertiary care services to children with disabilities, including physical disabilities, sensory disabilities such as hearing loss and visual impairment, and developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. In collaboration with families and community service providers, Sunny Hill provides leadership in clinical services, research and education. It is a referral centre for children and youth up to 19 years of age who require interdisciplinary assessment, treatment and follow-up. Services complement but do not duplicate those offered in the community and exclude acute health care services. There are 7 permanent staff in Psychology at Sunny Hill.
Psychology is involved in a number of specialty teams under the umbrella of the Child Development and Rehabilitation Program, including the BC Autism Assessment Network BCAAN), Complex Developmental and Behavioural Conditions Team (CDBC), Visual Impairment Program (VIP), Hearing Loss Resource Team, the Neuromotor Team, and the Brain Injury Resource Team. The mandate of each team includes multidisciplinary assessment, diagnosis, recommendations, and referral to community services, as well as a leadership role in training, education and research for professionals working in this area across the province. Most children are seen on-site, as outpatients. Some outreach services are provided, primarily to northern British Columbia. A small ward provides inpatient rehabilitation services for children with central nervous system injuries. Psychologists at Sunnyhill are involved in research, with recent investigations including long-term outcome for individuals receiving a very early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, desensitization to dental procedures for children with autism, and consumer evaluation of innovative formats for psychology reports. Educational programs are provided to community groups on request.
A printable copy of the information on this website can be downloaded here: 2012-2013 Residency BrochurePlease note: In addition to the three CPA-accredited residency positions in Pediatric and Child Clinical Psychology that we have always offered, BC Children's Hospital is collaborating with BC Mental Health and Addiction Services to offer a joint residency position in Child and Youth Mental Health. This residency position is part of the BCMHAS internship and applications for that occur via their Training Director and it is not currently CPA -accredited for the 2012-13 year, but is in the process of seeking accreditation. For more information, please see the link below:
In some years, we have funding available for post-doctoral positions. For information about post-doctoral positions in the 2012-2013 year, please contact the director of training, Dr. Marilyn Ransby at mransby@cw.bc.ca.