Ascend Healthcare, a premiere California insurance-based residential treatment center (RTC) for adolescents treating mental health and substance-use disorders, has partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Addiction Fellowship Program to provide often missing experience in the treatment of adolescents. UCLA (the #1 nationally-ranked public university of 2024) fellows are proxying Ascend’s intensive outpatient clients while providing consultation services as medication providers to those working within the RTCs. Thus, Ascend’s substance-abuse/dual-diagnosis clients can get more specialized, clinically-niche medical treatment.
“We are very proud to be a UCLA clinical rotation site,” said Dr. Lisa Acosta, Ascend Medical Director and chief psychiatrist. “It’s a great opportunity for the fellows to learn about adolescent care and for our team of caregivers to receive specialized training in addiction medicine. We look forward to offering this program to UCLA fellows for a long time to come.”
Addiction fellows are psychiatrists who take on an additional year of training in the very narrow field of addiction medicine. Fellows are already fully operational MDs who can practice independently. Often, they have limited exposure to working with adolescents in this field. Ascend offers this new opportunity to get real-world experience with this traditionally very underserved population who needs it.
Dr. Acosta said, “The intersection of adolescent psychiatry and appropriate substance abuse treatment is a very cutting-edge discipline that we look forward to advancing here at Ascend, and who better than ‘the best in the West’ to do it with?”
About Ascend Healthcare:
Ascend Healthcare offers residential, partial-hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient levels of care to adolescents and their families in Los Angeles, CA. Ascend offers 45-90 day, insurance-based programs of treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. The program is designed to treat the entire family system and help teach teens to emotionally self-regulate in a healthy manner, helping families evolve into safe and supportive units. For more information about this topic, please call Seamus McKeon at 310-359-9403 or email seamus@ascendhc.com.