Overview

Overview

Cleveland Clinic Children's Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry through our Neurological Institute, offers a comprehensive spectrum of mental health services for children from infancy through adolescence. Our pediatric psychiatric services are designed to meet the needs of children, adolescents and their families in times of adjustment or crisis.

Through collaboration with the Center for Pediatric Behavioral Health and the Section of Neuropsychology, the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry offers a full range of psychological services.

We see inpatients in consultation at Cleveland Clinic Children's, outpatients in the P Building, and children and youth psychiatrically are hospitalized at Fairview Hospital in a new state-of-the-art unit in a safe and secure community setting.

Financial Counselors & Social Services

Financial counselors are available to help with questions about insurance coverage. In addition, our social services department can provide referrals to community resources.

Information & Appointments

What We Treat

What We Treat

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders. We offer outpatient, hospital-based and consultative care for the evaluation and treatment of problems such as:

Why Choose Us

Why Choose Us

Full-range of pediatric psychiatric services

The Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry offers a full range of psychiatric services designed to meet the special needs of children, teens and their families, including:

  • Outpatient psychiatric evaluation.
  • Cleveland Clinic Children’s inpatient consultation for children and youth hospitalized with a primary medical diagnosis.
  • Inpatient psychiatric evaluation for children and youth with primary psychiatric and behavior disorders.

Inpatient Multidisciplinary care and consultation at Fairview Hospital

The supervising child psychiatrist works closely with an interdisciplinary team of child and adolescent psychiatric nurses, clinical social workers, special education teachers and occupational and recreation therapists. The team assesses patient needs and develops a specific, individualized treatment plan for each child or teen.

Consulting pediatric physicians

Subspecialty pediatricians from Cleveland Clinic's Pediatric Institute, including neurologists, endocrinologists, gastroenterologists and cardiologists, among others, are available 24 hours a day for consultation.

Inpatient Psychiatric Consultation

Specialty psychiatric consultation is available to all medically hospitalized children and youth for assessment of such clinical problems as delirium, adjustment to or behavioral consequences of serious medical illness, and psychosomatic disorders.

Programs

Programs

Specialized Outpatient Services

Whenever possible, children and adolescents are treated on an outpatient basis. The frequency and duration of outpatient visits is determined on an individual basis. This approach provides the least disruption to a child's routine, allowing the child to continue with school, family and other activities.

Pediatric Psychopharmacological Consultation

This program is directed by a child and adolescent psychiatrist. It offers consultative and treatment services for childhood disorders such as:

  • Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
  • Tourette’s syndrome.
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
  • Depression.
  • Autism.
  • Manic depression.
  • Psychosis.

Specialized pediatric Inpatient Services

Children with serious psychological problems may require hospitalization. Inpatient care includes comprehensive psychiatric, medical, family and educational assessment; crisis stabilization and development of a comprehensive aftercare plan. Parents and other family members are an integral part of the diagnostic and treatment process.

Gender Understanding, IDentity and Expression (GUIDE)

The Gender Understanding, IDentity and Expression (GUIDE) Program provides an evaluation and wide range of support and intervention for youth (childhood through adolescent years) who are gender questioning, gender non-conforming, gender fluid, or transgender, or who are struggling with any other issues around gender. Sometimes they are trying to figure out gender identity, or how they want to express gender; sometimes they may just feel like their gender assigned at birth doesn’t fit quite right. Our team works toward the goal of finding a path that is right for your individual child and family.

Our Doctors

Our Doctors

Joseph Austerman, DO
Joseph Austerman, DO
Section Head of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Barry Simon, DO
Barry Simon, DO
Child Psychiatrist