Interdisciplinary case discussions as a training modality to teach cultural formulation in child mental health.

The DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI) may become an important tool to help operationalize culture in the clinical realm. However, challenges exist in teaching its use to avoid the risk of stereotyping and oversimplification, which could result in misunderstanding and stigma. The aim of this article is to document whether the CFI can be taught using regular Interdisciplinary Case Discussion Seminars (ICDSs), proposed as continuing education in child mental health and as part of clinical rotations for new trainees.

[Youth mental health at the cross roads of service organization].

The importance of children and youth mental health is increasingly recognized. This rapidly developing field cannot be conceptualized as an extension of adult services to a younger age group and its developmental and organizational specificities are the object of debate. Reviewing recent literature in this domain and some preliminary information about the Quebec Mental Health Plan implementation, this paper addresses some of the questions which structure this debate in Quebec.

Refugee children and their families: supporting psychological well-being and positive adaptation following migration.

The support of refugee children and their families is a worldwide concern. This article will highlight models of mental health care for refugee children and their families, focusing on collaborative care with primary care providers. Case vignettes are provided to illustrate how collaborative care can support refugee children׳s psychological well-being and positive adaptation following migration.

Refugee children: mental health and effective interventions.

The mental health consequences of war and other forms of organized violence for children represent a serious global public health issue. Much of the research on the mental health of war-affected civilians has focused on refugees who have sought asylum in high-income countries and face the dual stress of a traumatic past and resettlement. This review will focus on the mental health of refugee children who have fled war as well as interventions to both prevent and treat adverse mental health outcomes.

Addressing trauma in collaborative mental health care for refugee children.

Primary care institutions, including clinics, schools and community organizations, because of their closeness to the family living environment, are often in a privileged position to detect problems in traumatized refugee children and to provide help. In a collaborative care model, the child psychiatrist consultant can assist the primary care consultee and family in holding the trauma narrative and organizing a safe network around the child and family. The consultant can support the establishment of a therapeutic alliance, provide a cultural understanding of presenting problems and negotiate with the consultee and the family a treatment plan.

Partnership at the forefront of change: documenting the transformation of child and youth mental health services in quebec.

Objective: The Quebec Plan d'action en santé mentale (PASM) (Mental Health Action Plan) reform, a major transformation of the province's mental health care system, has put primary care rather than hospital-based care at the forefront of mental health service delivery. This study documents perceptions of changes in child and youth mental health (CYMH) services following the reform, as well as facilitators and obstacles to collaboration and partnership in CYMH services, and the specific challenges related to collaboration and partnership when servicing multi-ethnic populations.

Methods: This qualitative participatory research study collected data using semi-structured individual interviews, focus groups and participant observation in community-based health and social service institutions.

Measuring the quality of interprofessional collaboration in child mental health collaborative care.

Objective: This pilot study examines the potential utility of the Perception of Interprofessional Collaboration Model and the shared decision-making scales in evaluating the quality of partnership in child mental health collaborative care.

Methods: Ninety-six primary care professionals working with children and youth responded to an internet survey which included the Perception of Interprofessional Collaboration Model scale (PINCOM-Q) and an adapted version of a shared decision-making scale (Échelle de confort décisionnel, partenaire-ECD-P). The perceptions of child mental health professionals were compared with those of other professionals working with children.

Working with Interpreters in Child Mental Health.

Background:   A consensus exists about the importance of interpreters for refugee and immigrant patients presenting with mental health problems. However, beyond this consensus, the specificities of working with interpreters in child mental health are barely mentioned in the literature.

Method:   This paper describes some of the challenges associated with working with interpreters for the diagnosis of child psychiatric disorders and for intervention in situations of family crisis.

From the family universe to the outside world: family relations, school attitude, and perception of racism in Caribbean and Filipino adolescents.

Caribbean and Filipino immigrant families in Canada have much in common: the women have often immigrated as domestic workers, first-generation children may be separated from their parents for long periods, and they must deal with negative stereotypes of their ethnic group. This transcultural study looks at the associations between family relations and adolescents' perceptions of both their own group and the host society, and analyzes how these affect their mental health. The results suggest that family cohesion plays a key role in shaping adolescents' perceptions of racism in the host country and in promoting a positive appraisal of their own community, thus highlighting the need for a systemic understanding of family and intergroup relations.

Immigrants and mental health services: increasing collaboration with other service providers.

Introduction: This article examines the potential modifications of care indicated to engage migrant and refugee families in making use of needed mental health services for their children in Canada and the role psychiatrists can play in this process.

Method: The clinical and consultative role of the members of the Transcultural Child Psychiatry Service at the Montreal Children's Hospital is used as a model. This model has been useful in engaging both migrant families and local front line service providers to work with each other in a collaborative manner.

The development and therapeutic modalities of a transcultural child psychiatry service.

Introduction: To look at the specificities of the work of a Transcultural Child Psychiatry Team developed to meet the need for specialized services for Montreal and Quebec's culturally diverse immigrant and refugee pediatric population.

Method: A Transcultural Child Psychiatry Team was started at McGill University in 1995. The clinic's development and method of service provision for its patient population will be described.

DSM IV, culture and child psychiatry.

Objective: The expanding cultural diversity of children and families with mental health needs raises questions about the cultural appropriateness of diagnostic classifications like the DSM IV. This paper briefly surveys the literature on culture and DSM-IV in child psychiatry, presenting ADHD as an example of the relationship between diagnostic categories and cultural issues, and illustrating some of the clinical dilemmas of differential diagnosis in a migration context.

Method: A literature review was performed and analysed, and a case vignette was constructed to illustrate key points.

Prevalence and correlates of conduct disorder and problem behavior in Caribbean and Filipino immigrant adolescents.

This study investigates the prevalence and subtypes of conduct disorder (CD) and behavioral problems among youth in two communities characterized by prolonged parent-child separation upon immigration. CD and problem behaviors were assessed in 252 Caribbean-Canadian and Filipino-Canadian adolescents (12-19-year-old) using the DISC-C, the YSR and the CBCL cross-informant construct. Adolescents reported less problem behaviors than their host country peers, despite immigrant background or parent-child separation.

Caribbean and Filipino adolescents' and parents' perceptions of parental authority, physical punishment, and cultural values and their relation to migratory characteristics.

This article describes the perceptions of parents and adolescents of physical punishment in relation to family and migratory characteristics. Adolescents and their parents of Caribbean (n=118) and of Filipino (n=136) heritage responded to questions on their attitude toward physical discipline, their family relations, and their socio-demographic and migratory characteristics. Data analyses show that many Caribbean (78%) and Filipino (41.

Caring for migrant and refugee children: challenges associated with mental health care in pediatrics.

This article reviews aspects of the mental health care of migrant and refugee children. It highlights the challenges of access to care for these children and of considering the role of pediatricians in their mental health care. It also looks at the sources of differences in presentation of mental health issues of migrant youth when compared with dominant culture youth, examining the contributions of culture, context, and the families' own views.

Remaking family life: strategies for re-establishing continuity among Congolese refugees during the family reunification process.

The restrictive immigration and refugee policies of many Western countries force most refugee families to remain separated for long periods. Although there is much discussion among professionals in the community and the clinical milieu about the problems families encounter after reunification, the strategies employed by refugees to restore family life have not been paid much attention. This longitudinal study documents the pre- and post-reunification experiences of 12 refugee families from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Montreal.