Pilot study of divisions of Child Psychiatry in 32 schools of medicine.

In 1960, with the action of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, the profession of child psychiatry achieved the status of an accredited subspecialty of psychiatry. As a consequence, a major shift emerged in the base of influence on the academic functions of child psychiatry and the source of fiscal and professional support for child psychiatrists working within academic settings (Allen, 1961). Prior to 1960, the primary base of influence and source of support for academic functions of child psychiatry and academic child psychiatrists was to be found in community ch ild guidance clinics which were not integral to a school of medicine, and in the marketplace of clinical services and interdisciplinary staffs. Since 1960, the base of influence and source of support for the subspecialty of child psychiatry has increasingly shifted to child psychiatry programs integral to a school of medicine and to the academic marketplace of medical education. With this shift, the academic child psychiatrist'S need for a greater understanding of this academic marketplace in which the subspecialty of child psychiatry operates, and for the collecti ve support of others engaged in simi lar tasks and faced with similar problems, has emerged. The first National Conference of Division Chiefs of Child Psychiatry, held in 1963, and the ultimate formation in 1969 of an organization of Division Chiefs of Child Psychiatry, called the Society of Professors of Child Psychiatry, were intended to answer these needs. In line with these purposes, a pilot study of 32 divisions of child psychiatry in 32 schools of medicine was undertaken for presentation to the Society of Professors of Child Psychiatry in 1970, of which this paper is a report.