Joseph Woolston, MD

Dr. Joseph Woolston is the Albert J. Solnit Professor of Child Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine. He is the Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs for the Child Study Center. In that capacity he oversees clinical program development and quality improvement. Dr. Woolston has focused his career on creating, implementing and improving clinical programs designed to treat children and families who are living in significant psychosocial adversity.

Dr. Woolston started the Children’s Psychiatric Inpatient Service at Yale New Haven Medical Center in 1985. This service has been an international model for evaluation of seriously disturbed children and their families, for the training mental health professionals, and for research on severe childhood psychopathology and innovative service delivery models. In 1996, he co-founded Intensive In-home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service (IICAPS), an innovative blend of home-based, system of care service approach with a medical model. IICAPS is designed to help SED children and their families to reduce the risk of requiring institutional based care and to improve their development. IICAPS has now developed into a manualized, state-wide network that provides treatment for over 2200 children and families each year. In 2005 Dr. Woolston became Director of the Children’s Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic. With colleagues, he transformed the treatment model to be a data-driven, problem solving focused approach that emphasizes ongoing family engagement. Beginning in 2009, Dr. Woolston has led an integration of all Child Study Center clinical programs, including hospital-based, home-based and clinic-based programs, so that patients and patient information can flow as needed to optimize patient care.