Introduction to CHOC Children’s
CHOC serves much of Southern California as it is Orange County’s only medical facility solely devoted to the care of children and their families.  Founded in 1964, CHOC is a tertiary care facility with a 232-bed capacity and a medical staff of over 500 physicians.  Virtually every pediatric subspecialty is offered here: Allergy, cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology, infectious disease, neonatology, nephrology, neurology, oncology, pulmonary medicine, and rheumatology.  Most surgical specialties are also available.  CHOC also has a pediatrics residency program.  CHOC Children’s and the University of California, Irvine Medical School recently signed an affiliation agreement and starting in 2009, the majority of pediatric care for both facilities takes place at CHOC.

Since opening its doors in 1964, CHOC Children’s has provided the highest quality medical care to children. Our regional health system includes a state-of-the-art main hospital facility in the City of Orange, a hospital-within-a hospital in Mission Viejo, and five community clinics — plus over 100 additional programs and services. With admissions growing by 90% over the last eight years, CHOC and CHOC at Mission combined rank as the 15th busiest children’s hospital in the country.  To better accommodate the growing needs of our community’s children, CHOC is building a new state-of-the-art patient care tower set to open on our main campus in 2013.  When completed, the new CHOC Children’s Hospital will feature pediatric surgical suites and related services, emergency, laboratory, pathology, imaging and radiology services, as well as private rooms, a dynamic and family-friendly lobby, inviting outdoor gardens, a café and more.

CHOC is dedicated to providing the highest quality pediatric health care as well as offering specialized programs and services to meet the unique needs of children and their families. 

Introduction to the Pediatric Psychology Department
The Department of Pediatric Psychology at CHOC provides comprehensive psychological treatment and assessment services to children and their families.  Our team of psychologists attends to the emotional, cognitive, and developmental needs of medically fragile children.  Consultation is provided to all inpatient medical services hospital-wide.  Psychological and neuropsychological assessment and psychological support and/or therapy occur within inpatient and outpatient settings.  The Psychology internship is well integrated within the hospital and is administered in collaboration with other professional training programs in pediatrics, child psychiatry, nursing, social services and rehabilitation within the hospital.  Interns have the opportunity to be involved in a full range of departmental activities.  Examples of specific departmental activities are listed below.

• Evaluation and treatment of psychological factors associated with medical illness; including adjustment issues, adherence to prescribed regimens, parent-child issues, and staff-patient-family dynamics.
• Psychodiagnostic, psychoeducational and neuropsychological assessment
• Consultation and liaison with physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals
• On-call services, including assessment of patients at high risk for dangerous behavior
• Consultation on an emergent basis to the CHOC emergency department, all medical inpatient units, and CHOC medical outpatient clinics
• Individual, family, and group psychotherapy
• Child psychiatry services
• School re-entry services
• Participation in medical services’ rounds and psychosocial rounds
• Provision of educational seminars to residents and medical staff members
• Support/psycho-educational groups
• Pain management evaluations and treatment services
• Language screening clinic for bilingual children
• Assessments and psychotherapy conducted in Spanish for children and families (for interns who are Spanish speaking, Spanish language group supervision of cases is provided)
• Infant development and developmental disabilities evaluation, consultation and treatment