24-25 Availability: Fall, Winter Spring – 1 intern per trimester
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
The mission of the UCLA Fit for Healthy Weight Program (www.fitprogram.ucla.edu) is to provide comprehensive promotion of healthy eating, physical activity, psychosocial wellbeing (psychological, social, familial, and educational), and overall wellness for children and adolescents and their families. Our goal is to provide comprehensive care to prevent and manage health complications associated with higher body weight among children and adolescents. We emphasize prevention and treatment both in the community and at UCLA with our multidisciplinary team comprised of a general pediatrician, medical and surgical subspecialists, a dietitian, and a psychologist.
Interns will serve as psychological consultants on the team, evaluating patients for any psychiatric, social, and familial contributors to obesity. Interns will be trained to complete focused psychiatric evaluations and provide brief interventions for the promotion of emotional wellness and sustainable behavioral change (e.g. goal setting, motivation for health behavior change, etc). As the FIT clinic provides services to underserved, under-insured majority-minority population, this is an excellent training opportunity to learn how to work with families with a variety of psychosocial issues who are psychologically treatment-naïve. The training model provides interns with the opportunity to practice in an integrated, multidisciplinary setting and to learn about the medical and dietary management of overweight, diabetes and other medical complications. Interns will also get the opportunity to shadow psychiatric evaluations of adolescents pursuing bariatric surgery.
DAY, TIME AND LOCATION:
Clinic: Tuesdays 1:00-5:30pm
300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Suite 3300
HOURS PER WEEK: 4.5
DURATION OF ELECTIVE: 4 months to start in July, November or March
FACULTY:
Natacha Emerson, PhD
TRAINING PROVIDED:
On-site participation conducting a multidisciplinary behavioral intervention for children and adolescents and their families. No previous experience in behavioral techniques or participation in a multidisciplinary clinic is necessary.
DIVERSITY TRAINING:
Children and adolescents in the greater Los Angeles area are our primary population. Thus, patients are diverse in terms of socioeconomic status, racial and ethnic identity, as well as gender identity and sexual orientation. Many families have public insurance plans like MediCal, so sensitivity to referrals in the community and understanding access to care is important. Diversity training is conducted within the practicum experience and integrated throughout the training experience. Trainees will also be introduced to the concept of the medical term “obesity” and the discrimination towards those in larger bodies being related to racism and classism. Weight stigma and its detrimental relationship to health and wellness will also be taught to trainees. Trainees will be encouraged to examine their own fat-phobia and reflect upon institutionalized weight biases with a focus on how these biases affect BIPOC individuals disproportionately.
SUPERVISION PROVIDED:
Method of Supervision: Case Presentation
Format: Individual
Hours Per Week: 4.5 (1 hour of group, 1 hour of individual)
Days and Times: In clinic
Names of Supervisor(s): Natacha Emerson, PhD; plus attending pediatricians and registered dieticians are available for consult.
For more information and to sign up for this elective, please contact Natacha Emerson, PhD: ndemerson@mednet.ucla.edu or 310-794-8416.