A new division within WMed’s Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine will allow the medical school to expand its offerings to treatment and intervention along with its current psychological testing and evaluation services for children and adolescents.
The Division of Pediatric Psychology will continue to provide assessment and treatment and intervention services using evidence-based behavioral and cognitive behavioral approaches.
Dr. Roger W. Apple, an associate professor in the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, will serve as the division chief. Dr. Apple is a graduate of Western Michigan University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1997 and a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology in 2000. He received his PhD in Counseling Psychology from Western Michigan University in 2009.
Dr. Apple’s staff includes two additional psychologists and a developing post-doctoral program. The division has been a site for training 4-5 masters’ level psychologists from Western Michigan University every year for many years. The division of pediatric psychology works in close collaboration with the division of developmental and behavioral pediatrics. The division of pediatric psychology is essential in training pediatric and medicine-pediatrics residents in pediatric psychology. The division is also engaged in continued scholarly activity.
The new division will allow the medical school to expand the mental health evaluations it has offered for several years. In addition, the medical school will hire a post-doctoral level psychologist to implement a treatment program, thanks to a grant from the Children’s Hospital Foundation. The one-year position should be up and running by the end of the year, Dr. Apple said, and will allow the medical school to provide evidence-based psychological intervention for most mental health diagnoses.
“That’s a huge asset,” Dr. Apple said. “No other pediatric practice I know of in Kalamazoo has a division of pediatric psychology. I think it’s important for the medical school to have recognized pediatric psychology.”
Dr. Apple said establishing the pediatric psychology division will help highlight the fact that WMed’s psychologists treat all aspects of mental health or psychological functioning, not just what are considered as behavioral issues. Clinical services provided include: consultation to general and subspecialty pediatrics clinics, diagnostic interviews for regular psychological evaluations and autism evaluations, comprehensive psychological evaluations, autism evaluations, Integrated Behavioral Health and intervention and treatment.
Dr. Apple said WMed’s psychologists can assess a wide range of disorders, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, autism, depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, intellectual deficits and severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, mood disorders and somatic symptom disorders.