MENTAL HEALTH STRATEGIES FOR PEDIATRIC CARE (PB 2022)

For many children and teens, primary care clinicians are the first to notice and help with mental health issues. This guide helps primary care pediatricians, family doctors, nurse practitioners, and other professionals identify, treat, and prevent mental health problems as well as promote good mental health in their patients. The authors come from different medical specialties but emphasize common factors and elements in approaching mental health care in the primary practice setting.

Clinicians will gain insight into effective methods for helping patients and families share mental health concerns, learn about mental health issues, and develop positive attitudes about seeking treatment from specialty providers. They will also learn how to more effectively deal with issues that are below the level of a diagnosable disorder and use early, first-line therapeutic strategies for common mental health disorders. Also included are techniques for supporting patients and families in maintaining positive emotional and behavioral changes that resulted from specialty treatment with other providers.

Susan G. Forman, PhD, is a professor at Rutgers University. She has served as Chair of the Department of Applied Psychology, and Director of Clinical Training for the School Psychology Program in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, and as Vice President for Undergraduate Education. Prior to coming to Rutgers, she was Professor of Psychology and also served as Associate Provost at the University of South Carolina. Her research and scholarship focus on implementation of interprofessional collaborative approaches to pediatric behavioral healthcare, factors that influence intervention implementation, and the effectiveness of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions in educational settings. Her publications include over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and books. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, and the American Psychological Association, as well as a number of corporate and family foundations. Dr Forman has served on the executive boards of the School Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists and has served as Chair of the Council of Directors of School Psychology Programs. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has been elected to membership in the Society for the Study of School Psychology based on her scientific contributions to the field.

Jeffrey D. Shahidullah, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry within Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. He is a pediatric psychologist within the Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Dell Children’s Medical Center and UT Health Austin. Dr Shahidullah also provides consultative telephonic support for mental/behavioral health concerns to rural primary care practices and schools as part of state-funded telemedicine initiatives, Texas Child Psychiatry Access Network (CPAN) and Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program. He is the Director of Training for the Texas Childhood Trauma Research Network (CTRN) and is also a faculty affiliate in the UT Center for Health IPE where he leads interprofessional education and training efforts across the university. He is the Director of Research for the Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Dell Children's where he runs the IMPACT Lab, which is a family-centered research hub, joining clinical and academic programs to develop and disseminate equitable models to improve early detection and access to care for children with autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Cody Hostutler, PhD, is a pediatric primary care psychologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital and Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University. As a trainer, researcher, and clinician in pediatric primary care, he has considerable experience in implementing common factors and elements approaches in his practice, as well as training primary care clinicians, medical residents, and psychology trainees in this approach to mental health treatment in primary care.

Cori Green, MD, MS, FAAP is Director of Behavioral Health Education and Integration in pediatrics and an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine. Her clinical and research focus is the integration of pediatric mental health care into pediatric care and she has received grant funding and published in this field. She is a faculty member for Project TEACH and the REACH Institute where she trains pediatric providers to integrate mental health into primary care. Dr Green is part of several of the American Academy of Pediatrics mental health initiatives as a member of Mental Health Leadership Workgroup. She also consults for the American Board of Pediatrics.

Rebecca Baum, MD, FAAP is a developmental behavioral pediatrician at The Olson Huff Center at Mission Children’s Hospital in Asheville, NC. She has led several clinical, educational, research, and quality improvement efforts at the state and national levels focused on improving care for children with behavioral health conditions. She is a consultant to the American Board of Pediatrics Foundation’s Behavioral/Mental Health Crisis efforts and chair of the American Board of Pediatrics’ subboard of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health and liaison to the Section on Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics.