Washington University

Washington Early Recognition Center (WERC)
The WERC is a program of the Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. It will be the first clinical service in St. Louis County (and all of Eastern Missouri) specialized in providing comprehensive mental health care and resources to transitional age adolescents who show signs of being in the prodromal stage of psychosis. The psychosis prodrome is the critical time period before the onset of psychosis, when individuals are showing subthreshold symptoms that suggest they are at high risk for developing the illness. WERC will also serve adolescents who are at an early stage of a psychotic disorder (e.g. schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, psychotic bipolar disorder), and will provide an integrated team of mental health specialists to facilitate early recognition and provide targeted intervention for affected adolescents and their caregivers.

The SYNCHRONY Project
The SYNCHRONY Project is a clinical service of the Washington University Division of Child Psychiatry, Its mission is to prevent child abuse and neglect, principally among infants and young children in foster care, and among newborns of stressed parents with unmet mental health needs. The team is comprised of child psychiatrists and a multidisciplinary group of clinicians with special expertise in infancy and maternal-child health. In the course of providing comprehensive psychiatric assessment and care to the families, we collaborate with the Family Court and the Missouri Department of Social Services in devising intervention plans to promote the highest possible level of safety and wellbeing for the children and families enrolled. The program occupies a critical niche in the community by providing two-generation psychiatric care and intensive evidence-based parenting education, to support the long-term mental health and safety of the County's most fragile infants and preschoolers."