Citation

Coffey S, Latta L, Mueller H, Flanders S. Psychiatr. Serv. 2019; 70(7): 631-634.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa (Coffey); Early Childhood Education Institute (Latta) and Department of Psychiatry, School of Community Medicine (Mueller), University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, Tulsa; Department of Behavioral Health, PeaceHealth Medical Group, Eugene, Oregon (Flanders). Debra A. Pinals, M.D., and Marcia Valenstein, M.D., M.S., are editors of this column.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Psychiatric Association)

DOI

10.1176/appi.ps.201800429

PMID

31109265

Abstract

About 20% of students in U.S. communities have diagnoses of emotional and behavioral disturbances. Even when mental health services are in place, students and teachers often struggle in the classroom. In this column, the authors describe a partnership with a public school system to provide collaborative, innovative support that also offered a novel training opportunity for child and adolescent psychiatry fellows. Over three years of collaborative work, the child psychiatry team (attending child psychiatrist and two child psychiatry fellows) offered direct clinical care and consultation in a school-based clinic. In later years, the team provided ongoing professional development and consultation to teachers, and the model was implemented districtwide. The authors describe challenges of engaging and working in the school setting, which call on key strengths of an effective partnership: communication, respect, and trust. The multiyear partnership offered a mutually beneficial experience for both educators and psychiatry trainees.

Language: en

Keywords

Child psychiatry; Community consultation; School-Based Mental Health