NYU Child Study Center
NYU Child Study Center is the nation's leading organization for research, prevention and treatment of child and adolescent psychiatric and learning disorders. Through science-based clinical care, [...]-edge research, expert professional training, and extensive public education, the Center strives to generate new knowledge AbOUT child mental health, improve the practices of health care professionals who serve children, and influence child-related public health policy. Most importantly, the Center provides hope, help and care to children and their families who suffer from these disorders.
Overview & History
The New York University Child Study Center (CSC) was founded in 1997 at Bellevue Hospital Center, with Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., as Director. The CSC was established with a mission to improve the treatment of child psychiatric disorders by:
- Eliminating the stigma of being or having a child with a psychiatric disorder
- Conducting research and disseminating scientific findings to improve the practices of professionals serving children
- Influencing child-related public policy
Initially, the Center was devoted to scientific research in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry while its clinicians practiced under the Bellevue Department Of Psychiatry umbrella. In 1998, the Center moved to its current site at 577 First Avenue, effectively housing clinicians and researchers under one roof. Over the last ten years, the Center established offices in five locations in New York City, Rockland County and Long Island. Another was recently opened in Hackensack, N.J.
In 2006, the CSC was named the second independent Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the nation and was designated as the only New York State Center of Excellence in Mental Health. Plans are now underway to consolidate the majority of CSC services and research under one roof in a new building on First Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets in New York City.
The Child Study Center is built around a group of research Institutes with associated clinical arms, a structure that allows recruitment of patients for research studies and then provides "real-world" testing for successful controlled-environment findings. These research initiatives have advanced understanding of the causes and treatments of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.
Over the past ten years, the research results of the Child Study Center have been disseminated through more than 400 peer-reviewed journal articles and thousands of presentations at national and international scientific meetings. Starting in 1998 with a total research portfolio of under $1 million with all research focused on ADHD, the Child Study Center currently has $40 million in research grants in seven different areas. Newly established relationships with the Nathan Kline Institute (NKI) and the Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center have greatly expanded the Center's research capability.
In addition to the Child Study Center's research and clinical programs, its Institutes, in ongoing collaboration with community resources, have identified unmet psychological needs of children and their families and established innovative new services. Over the last few years, CSC has developed:
- Asperger Institute, established in 2006, which provides research, clinical and educational programs for adolescents with Asperger Syndrome
- HOPE (Harris Obesity Prevention Effort), established in 2007, an interdisciplinary obesity prevention effort that focuses on family and school intervention with urban, ethnic minority youth
- STEPS (Screen, Test, Evaluate to Prevent [...]), established in 2007, a program for high school students that utilizes state-of-the-art internet-based self-help and assessment technology
The Child Study Center also offers advanced training to prepare the next generation of mental health professionals to help ensure that tomorrow's children will continue to benefit from advanced clinical care and effective treatments that are the result of scientific research. Outreach programs translate research into everyday skills for parents and educators, and into practical applications for pediatricians and mental health professionals around the country.
Child Study Center at-a-glance
- After an initial home at Bellevue Hospital Center, the First Avenue facility opened in the spring of 1998
- Six locations featuring more than of family-friendly clinical facilities
- Seven endowed faculty chairs
- Fifty current research programs with federal, foundation, and corporate support
- Research focused on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; violence prevention; depression; anxiety and mood disorders; Tourette and movement disorders; trauma, stress, and bereavement; autism; Asperger Syndrome; and pediatric neuroscience
- Post-graduate training and continuing medical education in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychology
- An award-winning website - AboutOurKids.org
The Child Study Center is the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry within the NYU School of Medicine.
Please note that the Child Study Center does not accept any insurance including Medicaid and its fees for evaluations only can start at $3,000. For more information concerning fees and insurance contact the Child Study Center at (212) 263-6622.
Center of Excellence
The New York State Center of Excellence at the NYU Child Study Center is an innovative vision for child and adolescent mental health for the State of New York. With the support of the City and State of New York, it will establish new laboratories and programmatic initiatives, allowing for the recruitment of internationally renowned scientists to pursue cures, treatments and preventions.
The new Child Study Center will take an integrated, scientific approach to revolutionize child and adolescent mental health in America. The Child Study Center will be the first of its kind to make science the driving force behind this vital new initiative—attacking child mental disorders in much the same way the medical and scientific communities have attacked cancer.
The new facility—the largest of its kind in the world—is a more than $200 million investment consisting of:
- A $30 million New York State grant to establish a Center of Excellence in a new state-of-the-art facility dedicated to interdisciplinary scientific research and treatment for the advancement of child mental health, located on the NYU Medical Center campus.
- A $35 million investment by New York State to build a state-of-the-art Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center, demonstrating a statewide commitment to the improvement of mental health services.
- Housing for 500 research faculty, trainees and staff that will work in 12 independent laboratories focusing on specific mental health and behavioral disorders.
- Expansion of the NYU Child Study Center's work in the areas of Anxiety and Mood Disorders, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Behavior Disorders, Prevention Science, Pediatric Neuroscience, Tourette's and Movement Disorders, Trauma and Stress, and Learning Disabilities.
- Establishment of a comprehensive clinical and research Eating Disorders Program and a state-of-the-art Autism Center.
In partnership with New York City, NYU will also leverage outstanding local resources and create new synergies to collaborate with Bellevue Hospital Center to dramatically increase New York City's capacity to provide mental health services to low-income children and adolescents; disseminate the Child Study Center's successful ParentCorps program to increase parent involvement, prevent behavior problems and promote academic achievement in pre-kindergarten programs throughout the City; expand the Center's treatment for children and adolescents who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder not only from the events of 9/11, but also from the cumulative stresses of violence, poverty, abuse and crime; and expand the Center's school-based services in all five boroughs.
Child psychiatric disorders properly diagnosed and treated help kids stay in school and become healthy, productive, tax-paying citizens, instead of being plagued with substance abuse, academic failure and potential incarceration.
Recent Awards
Founder and Director of NYU Child Study Center Honored at Annual AACAP Ceremonies
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) has awarded Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., the Irving Philips Award for Prevention, its highest honor, for his dedication and outstanding achievements in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. This award recognizes a child and adolescent psychiatrist and Academy member who has made significant contributions in a lifetime career or single seminal work to the prevention of mental illness in children and adolescents.
Dr. Koplewicz founded the NYU Child Study Center in 1997 with a mission, based on his own vision, to improve child mental health by expanding scientific knowledge of child and adolescent disorders, delivering evidence-based clinical care, and translating and disseminating new scientifically sound information to mental health professionals, pediatricians, educators, parents and policy makers. Under the leadership of Dr. Koplewicz, the NYU Child Study Center is now recognized as a world-renowned center for child and adolescent psychiatric care.
As Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for External Affairs of the NYU Medical Center, Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Bellevue Hospitals Center, Dr. Koplewicz spearheads multiple aspects of prevention, research and treatment. In addition, his leadership as Director of the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (NKI), has resulted in a $10 million allocation for capital improvements to NKI in Governor Spitzer's budget as well as funds for 15 new research scientists in child and adolescent mental health.