Teaching Health Care Providers About Psychopharmacology and Mental Health

I was fortunate to spend the past weekend continuing my work as Faculty-in-Training at the REACH Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to transforming children’s health services by empowering their care providers – parents, doctors, teachers, counselors, and therapists – to know and use the most effective methods for identifying and assisting children with mental health conditions.

My involvement with this organization began in 2011 when I had the opportunity to participate in an intensive Mini-Fellowship, Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care.  The Mini-Fellowship was designed to address the growing shortage of pediatric psychiatrists by providing pediatricians, family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, psychiatrists and neurologists with up-to-date training in the use of psychiatric medications  for children and adolescents.  

Since 2011, The Yellin Center’s involvement in children’s mental health and psychopharmacology has grown steadily.  Therefore, I was thrilled when I was invited to apply and was subsequently accepted in the REACH Institute’s Faculty Training Program.  Having completed the first two phases of training, I am hopeful that I will complete the process of becoming a full-fledged member of the REACH Institute’s National Faculty within the next few months.  My work with them already has had a significant impact on my practice and I look forward to ongoing collaborations with experts to ensure that my knowledge and skills continue to grow and remain current.  I also am excited about the prospect of participating in the critical work of addressing the growing shortage of pediatric psychiatrists and increasing access to high quality mental health services for our nation’s children and families.