Motivational Interviewing in Pediatric Mental Health.

Although many pediatric clinicians have familiarity with motivational interviewing (MI), they may have limited awareness of how it can benefit mental and behavioral health assessment and management. This article describes the spirit, tasks, and skills of MI. Cases illustrate the application of MI to common presentations of mental health concerns in pediatric primary care.

Promoting Safe and Supportive Health Care Spaces for Youth Experiencing Racism.

Objective: This qualitative study applies a community-based participatory research approach to elicit formative data on pediatric patient experiences of racism in the health care setting and to explore clinic-based opportunities for supporting pediatric patients experiencing racism.

Methods: The study is situated within the outpatient practice of a large tertiary academic medical center in a midsize Midwestern city. Community partners were involved in all aspects of the research, including research protocol design, recruitment, data analysis, community dissemination, and manuscript preparation.

Psychologists as leaders in equitable science: Applications of antiracism and community participatory strategies in a pediatric behavioral medicine clinical trial.

Psychologists have an ethical responsibility to advance health equity and can play a significant role in improving health care experiences for families racialized as Black, including those with sickle cell disease (SCD), a group of genetic blood disorders primarily affecting communities of color. Parents of children with SCD report experiences of stigma and discrimination due to racism in the health care system. The current commentary describes the application of antiracism and participatory strategies to the research design, implementation, and dissemination of a behavioral medicine clinical trial (Engage-HU; NCT03442114) of shared decision-making (SDM) for pediatric patients with SCD, including (a) the development of a research question to promote justice for racialized groups; (b) a focus on "redressing imbalances" through SDM and a multidisciplinary, inclusive research team led by a Black psychologist; (c) community participatory approaches through the integration of stakeholder feedback across the study; and (d) centering context by attending to structural realities in response to the COVID-19 and racism pandemics.

Clinical Framework for Dismantling Antiblack Racism in the Clinic Room.

Children who identify as Black or multiracial report significantly higher exposure to adverse childhood experiences, which places them at greater risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes. These disparities and increasing awareness of racism as an adverse childhood experience has resulted in the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, and other groups declaring racism a public health crisis. To provide high-quality care, providers who engage with patients and families impacted by systemic racism must be aware of its role in health disparities.

An Immersive Virtual Reality Curriculum for Pediatric Hematology Clinicians on Shared Decision-making for Hydroxyurea in Sickle Cell Anemia.

Although hydroxyurea (HU) is an effective treatment for sickle cell anemia, uptake remains low. Shared decision-making (SDM) is a recommended strategy for HU initiation to elicit family preferences; however, clinicians lack SDM training. We implemented an immersive virtual reality (VR) curriculum at 8 pediatric institutions to train clinicians on SDM that included counseling virtual patients.

Mobile health use predicts self-efficacy and self-management in adolescents with sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with significant health challenges that often worsen during adolescence. Living with SCD requires a substantial amount of self-management and mobile health (mHealth) holds considerable promise for assessing and changing behaviors to improve health outcomes. We integrated a mobile app as an adjunct to a group intervention (SCThrive) and hypothesized that more engagement with the mHealth app would increase self-management and self-efficacy for adolescents and young adults (AYA) with SCD.

Implementation of the Psychosocial Standards for Caregiver Mental Health Within a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program.

The assessment of mental health needs and access to appropriate interventions for parents and caregivers is one of 15 evidence-based standards for the psychosocial care of children with cancer and their families. The objectives of this paper are to describe one program's approach to meeting this standard in oncologic, hematologic, and immunologic populations and outline key ethical, regulatory, and logistical considerations in providing mental health services to caregivers in a pediatric medical setting. A description of the Caregiver Mental Health Program (CMHP) is provided along with a case example to illustrate key considerations, including multiple family members needing care, access to psychiatric services, scope of treatment, confidentiality and privacy, and logistics.

Improving Distress and Behaviors for Parents of Adolescents With Chronic Pain Enrolled in an Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Program.

Objectives: Intensive interdisciplinary treatment is emerging as an effective treatment of chronic pain in youth. These programs often include a parental component with the belief that targeting parental distress and responses to a child's pain will improve outcomes. However, few studies have evaluated the impact of a parental intervention in the interdisciplinary treatment of pediatric chronic pain.

A preliminary investigation of the psychometric properties of PROMIS® scales in emerging adults with sickle cell disease.

Objective: To report preliminary psychometric properties of PROMIS® assessments among emerging adults with sickle cell disease (SCD).

Method: Forty-five emerging adults with SCD ages 18-24 (M = 20.81, SD = 1.

Development of a Hydroxyurea Decision Aid for Parents of Children With Sickle Cell Anemia.

National evidence-based guidelines recommend offering hydroxyurea to patients with sickle cell anemia 9 months of age and older using shared decision making, but offer no strategies to aid implementation. We developed a hydroxyurea multicomponent decision aid via a needs assessment, clinic observations, and iterative feedback to address parent decision needs and promote a discussion between clinicians and parents. A total of 75 parents and 28 clinicians participated across all phases.

Diagnosing disruptive mood dysregulation disorder: Integrating semi-structured and unstructured interviews.

The newest iteration of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-fifth edition (DSM-5), is the first to include the diagnosis of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). The assessment and diagnosis of psychopathology in children are complicated, particularly for mood disorders. Practice can be guided by the use of well-validated instruments.