The Yale Child Study Center brings its diagnostic and treatment skills to Madison

Child Study Center - Madison Information and Appts (203) 785-2540 Location 23 Woodland Road, Suite B2 Madison, Connecticut Health Care Providers Heather Goff, MD Laurie Cardona-Wolenski, PsyD Tina Newman, PhD Prakash Thomas Christiana Mills Leah Booth, MA Pamela Ventola, PhD Dorothy Morgos

The CSC’s new shoreline location will make it easier for some families to access treatment and care for their children with mental health problems.

Christy Mills, LCSW, (left) and Heather Goff, MD, director of the new Madison facility.

For nearly a century, the Child Study Center has been a leader in diagnosing complex psychiatric disorders, contributed to mental-health research and helped shape national policy. Its clinicians have treated children with a host of complex disorders including autism, Tourette syndrome, anxiety and violent behavior.

Now, those same services are available to a wider range of potential patients. The Child Study Center at Madison opened its doors in July to make it easier and more convenient for families to access the services they need.  

Like the New Haven center, the Madison facility provides a broad range of diagnostic and treatment services for patients from infancy through young adulthood.  These include:

• Second opinions
• Psychiatric evaluations
• Developmental and academic skills assessments
• Trauma-focused evaluations and treatments
• Psychotherapy
• Medication evaluation and management
• Comprehensive clinical services for children with autism-spectrum disorders.

“There’s been an on-going need for services on the shoreline,” said Heather Goff, M.D., director of the Madison facility. “We saw this as a way to extend and grow the services of the Child Study Center.”

Goff hopes the location of the satellite office will make it easier for parents who have fulltime jobs and other demands on their time.  Noting that some evaluations can take up to six office visits, she said “we felt we needed to offer something more convenient and feasible for parents than commuting into New Haven.”  The office hours are 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., but evening appointments can be scheduled, depending on clinician availability. “We’re trying to accommodate patients and their families as much as possible,” Goff said.

Plans to open a satellite office have been in the works for some time, and administrators spent the last year looking for the right space. “We were looking for a multi-purpose space that was versatile enough to accommodate individual testing and one-on-one consultations as well as group activities,” said Goff. The space they found also has ample parking and is just down the street from a Yale-run laboratory, which will expedite test results.

The clinical faculty includes psychologists, child psychiatrists, clinical social workers and a speech and language pathologist. Each child is observed and tested by clinic staff to determine intellectual, academic, neuropsychological, adaptive and social-emotional functioning. If necessary, the clinician will also observe the child in the classroom and consult with the referring pediatrician.  

A top priority for the new facility, Goff said, is to be able to respond promptly to a parent’s request for help. “We don’t want parents having to wait too long for an appointment,” she said. “That’s really important when you’re concerned about your child.” Goff’s aim is for the new center to be able to schedule an appointment within a week of receiving the request, less if it’s an emergency.

She also wants to offer “an umbrella of care” for patients. By that she means a collaborative environment in which CSC clinicians partner with primary care providers, teachers, parents and other adults closely involved in the child’s life. “That’s a huge part of working with children,” she said. “Kids don’t come in here on their own. Many other people are invested in their wellbeing.”

Borrowing loosely from the African adage, Goff said of the new Child Study Center, “We’re trying to set up a village to help raise these children -- a four-room village.”