BONUS: Can pediatricians treat psychological disorders?

It's a staggering stat: More than 15 million children and adolescents are in need of a pediatric psychiatrist. But finding treatment is anything but easy with just around 8,300 trained pediatric mental health professionals in the U.S. The consequence: Long wait times, worsening symptoms and even higher costs when they do get help. To increase the pool of providers that can offer effective treatments to this population, Project TEACH is training pediatricians, as well as family doctors and Ob/Gyns, to be able to handle mild-to-moderate behavioral health conditions. On this bonus episode, host Sandra Linday, RN, speaks with two pediatricians using the New York State program, a collaboration between the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and seven top universities and hospitals across the state, led by University at Buffalo (UB). They share their experiences treating youth with mental health conditions like depression, anxiety and ADHD before Project TEACH began in 2010, and how the free training, consultation and referral service has transformed their practice. 

This bonus conversation builds on an earlier podcast featuring two of the founders of Project TEACH, David Kaye, MD and Victor Fornari, MD, as well as the new NYS lead for its reproductive psychiatry branch, Kristina Deligiannidis, MD.

Our guests this week are:

• David Fagan, MD FAAP, vice chair of Pediatric Ambulatory Services at Cohen Children's Medical Center, a part of Northwell Health
• Maureen Montgomery, MD, FAAP, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at SUNY Buffalo

Podcast transcript

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