University of Virginia Library

Child Help Center
Begins Operation

A Child and Adolescent Services
Center, a unit of the University of
Virginia's department of psychiatry,
will begin operating at full
tempo this week and the occasion
will be marked by an open house
tomorrow.

The unit's new headquarters at
1312 Lane Road has office space
for two residents, with room for
anticipated staff additions. Five
new play and therapy areas will
serve as major training tools for
child therapists.

In addition to the open house,
which will last from 2-6 p.m., there
will be tours for the public of the
building conducted by volunteers
of the Hospital Auxiliary. Ribbon
cutting to officially open the center
is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

Helen Ross, a noted child analyst
and member of the Washington
and Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institutes,
will be keynote speaker. Her
talk, entitled "Listening to the
Child," will be held at the Medical
School Amphitheater at 5 p.m. It is
open to the public also.

"Besides serving the community
in the diagnosis, testing and treatment
of emotional disorders of
children and adolescents, our major
aim is the training of the next
generation of therapists to help
alleviate the acute personnel shortage
in our area," said James
Kavanaugh, a child psychiatrist at
the University and the unit's acting
director.

He added that no fixed capacity
has been projected for the center.

"We hope to keep it flexible. In
this way we can perform a balanced
role of teaching, research and service,"
he said.

The two full-time psychiatrists
at the center include Dr. Kavanaugh
and Ruth Weeks. Marvin White will
be full-time psychologist and Mrs.
M.W. Langman and Mrs. Elizabeth
Fivaz will be part-time psychologists.

Social service personnel who
work with the parents of the patients
play an important counselling
role in child psychiatry, Dr.
Kavanaugh noted. Herschel Hicks
will serve as full-time social worker
and help make the center a "self-contained
unit," he added.

He said children, although unable
at times to verbally express
themselves in such a way to help
doctors in diagnosis, are still able to
give much important information in
their own way.

"We can get a lot of history
about a child through study of the
toys with which he plays and his
manner of play. But to discover
their needs it is necessary to have
trained personnel working in facilities
equipped like this one," he
said.