Implementation of a School Mental Health Learning Collaborative Model to Support Cross-Sector Collaboration.

Facilitating success for students with behavioral health challenges requires effective collaboration among professionals from traditionally disparate systems (e.g., education, health, and mental health).

Integrated behavioral health education using simulated patients for pediatric residents engaged in a primary care community of practice.

Introduction: Novel teaching curricula using simulated patients (SP) and a team-based approach are needed to teach pediatric residents how to approach behavioral health (BH) conditions in an integrated care setting.

Method: This mixed-methods study evaluated a pilot curriculum on BH integration in pediatric primary care. Two 1-hour didactic sessions and 3 hours of SP encounters focused on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety, followed by facilitated debriefings that included interdisciplinary team members.

Mindfulness-based group therapy: Impact on psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents.

The practice of mindfulness has long been incorporated into psychotherapy. Research on the therapeutic benefits of mindfulness exists within adult populations, and emerging empirical evidence demonstrates the benefit of such practices in the treatment of adolescents in both clinical and non-clinical settings. However, there are extremely limited data on the practice of mindfulness with adolescents in a psychiatric hospital.

Integrated Mental Health Training for Pediatric and Psychology Trainees Using Standardized Patient Encounters.

Primary care pediatricians and psychology practitioners who comanage mental health problems can develop interdisciplinary communication and collaborative skills from joint standardized patient encounters and debriefings, combined with brief didactics. Learners showed increased confidence in shared management of behavior health problems.

Impact of pediatric mental health screening on clinical discussion and referral for services.

Objective: This study discusses the impact of mental health screening in pediatric primary care on the management of mental health concerns.

Methods: Youth aged 11 years and their parents completed the Pediatric Symptom Checklist and chart reviews were used to gather information about discussion of mental health concerns and connection with mental health services. The study design was a post-intervention study with a concurrent comparison group of youth aged 12 years who were not offered a screening.

Use of a brief standardized screening instrument in a primary care setting to enhance detection of social-emotional problems among youth in foster care.

Objective: To determine whether systematic use of a validated social-emotional screening instrument in a primary care setting is feasible and improves detection of social-emotional problems among youth in foster care.

Methods: Before-and-after study design, following a practice intervention to screen all youth in foster care for psychosocial problems using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a validated instrument with 5 subdomains. After implementation of systematic screening, youth aged 11 to 17 years and their foster parents completed the SDQ at routine health maintenance visits.

Reducing premature infants' length of stay and improving parents' mental health outcomes with the Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE) neonatal intensive care unit program: a randomized, controlled trial.

Objective: Although low birth weight premature infants and parents are at high risk for adverse health outcomes, there is a paucity of studies that test early NICU interventions with parents to prevent the development of negative parent-infant interaction trajectories and to reduce hospital length of stay. Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of an educational-behavioral intervention program (ie, Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment) that was designed to enhance parent-infant interactions and parent mental health outcomes for the ultimate purpose of improving child developmental and behavior outcomes.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A randomized, controlled trial was conducted with 260 families with preterm infants from 2001 to 2004 in 2 NICUs in the northeast United States.

Testing the theoretical framework of the COPE program for mothers of critically ill children: an integrative model of young children's post-hospital adjustment behaviors.

Objective: To test a theoretical model examining processes through which a parent-focused educational-behavioral intervention [Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment (COPE)] relates to children's post-hospital adjustment problems.

Methods: Mothers (n = 143) and their 2-7-year-old children, unexpectedly hospitalized in two pediatric intensive care units, were randomized to COPE or control conditions. Maternal measures included parental beliefs, anxiety, negative mood, and child adjustment 3 months post discharge.

Creating opportunities for parent empowerment: program effects on the mental health/coping outcomes of critically ill young children and their mothers.

Objective: Increasing numbers of children in the United States (ie, approximately 200 children per 100,000 population) require intensive care annually, because of advances in pediatric therapeutic techniques and a changing spectrum of pediatric disease. These children are especially vulnerable to a multitude of short- and long-term negative emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes, including a higher risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a greater need for psychiatric treatment, compared with matched hospitalized children who do not require intensive care. In addition, the parents of these children are at risk for the development of PTSD, as well as other negative emotional outcomes (eg, depression and anxiety disorders).