Psychiatric Services

The IRC psychiatric team is on the frontline acting on behalf of the residents, monitoring care, responding to medical emergencies, responding to court orders, and serving as a vital liaison to pediatricians, hospitals, families, and follow-up providers.

The IRC psychiatric team, which includes board certified child and adolescent psychiatrists, advanced nurse practitioners, and mental health specialists, is on-call 24/7 at the JTDC premises (or by pager) to provide constant coverage to residents.

More than 75% of the youths at the JTDC have diagnosed mental health issues, including serious mental illness and emotional disturbances. The IRC psychiatric team is on the frontline acting on behalf of the residents, monitoring care, responding to medical emergencies, responding to court orders, and serving as a vital liaison to pediatricians, hospitals, families, and follow-up providers.

Team members collaborate with residents, their families, the courts, probation officers, and the educational system to determine a continuum of services that address the individual’s needs. The goal is to coordinate care so youths can understand and participate in their own care during their stay at the JTDC and their eventual reintegration into the community.

The psychiatric team provides evaluations of residents, prescribes medication as needed, educates youths about medication and compliance, and coordinates care with JTDC pediatricians and adolescent medicine physicians. The team responds to resident requests for appointments, and provides yearly psychiatric evaluations for JTDC residents.

Beyond those services, our psychiatric teams assist with crisis intervention, often deflating high-risk situations by ordering emergency medication, or transferring a resident to the emergency room for evaluation for psychiatric hospitalization. In addition, the psychiatric team regularly provides practical training to JTDC employees so they have a better understanding of mental illness, risk reduction, and suicide prevention. Psychiatrists also assess residents that are suicide risks, or have a risk of self-abuse or homicide, and make daily rounds with a pediatrician and nurse.

To encourage the next generation of mental health providers, the IRC is planning a rotation program for medical students, general residents, and child psychiatry fellows, as well as internships for social work, nursing, and psychology students. Tours of the JTDC, followed by discussion with psychiatry team members, are available to students that have an interest in working with children and adolescents or the correctional center population.