The Clinical Division of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior maintains a wide scope of patient care activities. Our main venue for service is at the attractive Neuropsychiatric Center at UCIMC in Orange, California. At this state of the art hospital we maintain an inpatient service of approximately 60 beds which are housed in our spacious, light and airy units. The department has long standing experience in treating severe mental illness along with patients who have significant co-morbid medical conditions. Being housed at a major teaching institution insures readily available consultation at a high level. We also have considerable experience in addressing the needs of higher functioning patients who are in the midst of a crisis or decompensation.  The focus of our adult treatment service is on thorough assessment and efficient treatment planning.

Many of our patients continue their follow-up treatment in our Outpatient Clinic which delivers almost 14,000 visits per year and has specialty clinics for Schizophrenia, Child Psychiatry, Developmental Disorders and Affective Disorders. Our outpatient staff are particularly skilled in combining psychotherapeutic modalities and psychopharmacology.
We also offer a Cognitive Group Psychotherapy experience which has been highly valued by patients. The Outpatient Department is primarily based in Orange but services are also available at the Medical Plaza on the main Irvine campus in a more limited fashion. The department also provides services under contract to the UCI graduate students and recently has become involved in providing mental health services at the Student health Center in Irvine.

Two specialized inpatient programs are also offered at the Neuropsychiatric Center in Orange. The Youth Program devoted to patients from 13-18 has become a regional referral source and specilaizes in adolescents with a significant psychiatric disorder and those patients with medical illnesses with a significant emotional component. These patients are frequently complicated and require comprehensive assessment and considerable interaction with their families and care-givers. The Geropsychiatry Program is devoted to older adults with psychiatric illness and those with cognitive disorders accompanied by psychiatric symptoms. This program is staffed by specialists in geriatric psychiatry and has a sophisticated internal medicine component provided by a specialist in geromedicine.

Electroconvulsive therapy can be a life saving modality and it is offered as part of our therapeutic armamentarium for appropriate patients in collaboration with the Department of Anesthesiology.

Consultation and liason to other areas of the general hospital is an important departmental function and allows patients with psychiatric disturbances to be managed in meidcal settings. Our staff are frequently helpful in assisting in the diagnostic process for complicated patients as well as dealing with emotional issues which become manifest in medical settings.

The department also oversees a program for abused children managed under contract from the Orange County Department of Social Services. The “FOCUS” Program has been in existence for over 10 years and has proved to be an outstanding resource for the community. The program is based in Orange in close proximity to UCIMC.

Our extensive clinical footprint has provided the infrastructure for a variety of clinical research that has brought cutting-edge diagnosis and treatment to many patients. The availability of research protocols has allowed patients to receive treatment wihtout regard to cost or the availability of insurance. Practically all of the latest generation of psychiatric medications have been studied within our clinical services. The Brain Imaging Center on the Irvine campus while initially a pioneering research enterprise has increasingly become available for clinical diagnosis and sophisticated treatment planning.

The future is bright for our department as we integrate high-level science, evidence-based medicine and clinical care. Despite the difficult healthcare environment we hope to expand judiciously and continue to improve the care of patients.