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Social workers key to IOP youth services by Mary Lou Shoemaker, LISW-CP Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, IOP Throughout the spectrum of services provided by the Youth Division of the Institute of Psychiatry, social workers play an important role in helping children, adolescents and their families. Recognizing that individuals and families may need therapeutic help for a variety of problems, for different degrees of seriousness, and for various ages of children the Youth Division offers several levels of services.   Outpatient services are provided through the entity of MUSC Behavioral Health at three off-campus locations and through faculty and residents’ clinics at the Institute of Psychiatry. Outpatient social work clinicians include Ed Loeber, Debra Wallace, and Pamela Saunders-Williams at the West Ashley clinic on Leinbach Drive; Sallie Campbell at the North Charleston clinic at Trident Executive Center and Marcella Hamilton at the Mount Pleasant clinic. Providing clinical and supervisory services at the Institute of Psychiatry are Sue King and Beverly Williams (who runs an evening adolescent substance abuse group).   If more intensive services are needed, the Youth Division offers four Day Treatment Programs—the IMPACT Program for pre-school youngsters on Leeds Avenue, and three sites of the STAR Program for children ages 6-18.  Meredith Lyons-Crews is the manager of all the Day Treatment Programs, Rebecca Daffron is the program director for the STAR Program that serves teenagers 12-18 at the Institute of Psychiatry, Anna Roberts is the program director of the STAR Program for ages 6-12 on Leeds Avenue, and Cynthia Plutro is the social worker for the Ladson STAR Program, which serves ages 6-12. All of the Day Treatment social workers provide managerial, supervisory, and clinical services to the programs and for the patients and their families.   And, if problems arise to the level of dangerousness or complication where hospitalization is needed, our 24-bed inpatient unit is available to serve all ages of children and their families. The social workers who provide intensive therapy services for the families of our inpatients include Mary Deas, Sherell Lucas, and Mary Lou Shoemaker—all working as part of the treatment teams to help restabilize children so that they may quickly return to their homes and communities.      In addition to clinical roles, Youth Division social workers join with social workers from all other programs at the Institute to serve as teachers of our departmental trainees; to actively participate in the committees leading the growth and planning for our Institute; to help provide education to the community and other professionals; and to support the ongoing research activities of our department.   For information on the Youth Division at the IOP, call 792-9888.     Friday, March 30, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.