Training the next generation of child and adolescent psychiatrists through funded fellowship positions

What is CAP?

Texas faces a critical shortage of psychiatrists and other mental health specialists. The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Fellowship program strengthens the Texas mental health workforce by funding two-year fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry.

By expanding fellowship positions across the state, the CAP Fellowship program:

Directly increases the number of child and adolescent psychiatrists trained to meet the mental and behavioral health needs of Texas children and youth.
Reduces wait times for care.
Reduces the number of designated mental health professional shortage areas.

Who Participates in CAP Fellowships?

CAP fellowships are available to physicians pursuing specialized training in child and adolescent psychiatry. Child and adolescent psychiatry is a subspecialty of general psychiatry and requires an additional two years of fellowship training. These two-year fellowships are offered through the Consortium’s participating health-related institutions (HRIs) across Texas.

What Do CAP Fellows Learn?

A CAP Fellowship provides psychiatric training in working with children from infancy through late adolescence. Fellows learn how to work with the parents, extended families, schools, hospitals, courts, and communities where patients live.

The training is provided in different therapeutic modalities (e.g., group, individual, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, psychopharmacologic, family systems) and treatment settings (inpatient, day hospital, outpatient, sometimes residential).

CAP Fellowship participants:

Learn how to be a teacher, a supervisor, and an administrative leader.
Learn to work with interdisciplinary teams as well as independently.
Are trained in pediatric neurology and in hospital consultation-liaison to pediatrics.
Receive extended coursework in typical child developmental theory throughout the life cycle, as well as the full range of clinical syndromes and their treatments.
Are exposed to research methodology and opportunities for research participation.