Upcoming Conference for folks interested in System Change

Future of Pediatrics Conference
Embracing Change: Improving the Health of ALL Children
Chicago, Illinois
July 29-31, 2011
http://www.pedialink.org/cmefinder/search-detail.cfm?key=65511D4A-EB04-46D9-BFCD-ECA9E84F4A7C&type=event&grp=1&task=details
Register by June 29, 2011 for Early Bird Rates!

What is the Future of Pediatrics Conference?
With the overall goal of improving child and adolescent health, this conference blends cutting-edge updates on clinical and practice management topics with strategies for advancing medical homes and building partnerships within communities. Learners will apply principles of team-based care, change management, and co-management between pediatric specialists and primary care, to achieve a goal of improving the health of all children. A variety of educational formats will be utilized, including interactive, roundtable, and networking sessions, to provide learners with opportunities to develop innovative, enduring partnerships and transform their practices.

Who Should Attend?
• Pediatricians in Primary Care Practice
• Community Pediatricians
• Faculty in General and Community Pediatrics
• Pediatric Residents
• Family Advocacy and Maternal and Child Health Leaders
• Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
• Practice Administrators
• Other Pediatric Health Care Professionals

Earn a Maximum of 17.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM

Register online at www.pedialink.org/cmefinder or call 866/THE-AAP1 (866/843-2271).

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The AAP designates this live activity for a maximum of 17.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Attend the Mental Health Preconference -

Embracing Mental Health Care: Lessons Learned for Success
Thursday, July 28
10:00 am-5:15 pm

Plan to arrive early and participate in this opportunity designed to empower pediatricians with innovative best practice models for addressing mental health concerns and practical tools for clinical care. Advance registration is required, and seating is limited. A limited number of travel stipends will be available. For more information, visit www.aap.org/mentalhealth.

This preconference is supported by the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch (CAFB), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The content of this preconference does not necessarily reflect the views, opinions or policies of CAFB, CMHS, SAMHSA or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Child Services in the Commonwealth: Making it Better

Secretary Bigby is committed to changing the way in which children's services are organized in the Commonwealth (see her letter, posted last month) Now, several of the groups that advocate for children have weighed in, with a letter and some organizing around upcoming hearings (read it here) To join up, contact Barbara at the Children's League.

A letter from MCPAP

A letter from MCPAP:

----------------------

Dr. Keller,
Behavioral Health Emergency Services (ESP) are available to people of all ages who are uninsured or covered by MassHealth (Medicaid plans). These services are also covered by some commercial insurance companies.
A statewide toll-free telephone number is available to help individuals reach their local Emergency Service Program/Mobile Crisis Intervention provider (ESP/MCI). By dialing 877-382-1609 and entering their zip code, callers will hear a recorded message containing the phone number of the ESP/MCI program in their area. If the zip code is unknown, the caller will be given a number of an ESP/MCI provider to call for the information.
Mobile Crisis Intervention is the youth (under the age of 21) -serving component of an emergency service program (ESP) provider. Mobile Crisis Intervention will provide a short-term service that is a mobile, on-site, face-to-face therapeutic response to a youth experiencing a behavioral health crisis for the purpose of identifying, assessing, treating, and stabilizing the situation and reducing immediate risk of danger to the youth or others consistent with the youth’s risk management/safety plan, if any. This service is provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Click here for a handy flyer for providers. Click here for a handy flyer for families.
If you have a patient who is in crisis, please remember that this resource is available. This is an alternative to hospital emergency departments.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
John Straus, MD
VP Medical Affairs
Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project

---------------

Pretty cool. Good to link MCPAP and CBHI.

Anxious? Click here

From TEENSCREEN:

------------------------------------------

Anxiety & Adolescents: Recognizing and Managing Teen Anxiety in the
Primary Care Office

Thursday, March 31, 2011
1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time

While adolescence is known as a time of normal stress and transition, clinical anxiety disorders can impair a teen’s life and contribute to distress, academic failure and social dysfunction. Left untreated, these disorders often lead to major depression or substance abuse.

Anxiety disorders are among the most common of mental illnesses in teens, but only 18% of adolescents with clinical anxiety ever receive treatment. Identifying and managing adolescent anxiety can be challenging. Symptoms and the focus of anxiety are varied and are often misidentified in primary care as somatic complaints due to “normal” teenage stress.

Anne Marie Albano, PhD, ABPP is a leading expert on child, adolescent and young adult anxiety and mood disorders. She is associate professor of clinical psychology in psychiatry in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders. She is also President of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology of the American Psychological Association and is Past President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT).

Dr. Albano will discuss ways to effectively identify anxiety disorders, available evidence-based treatments, strategies primary care providers can use with teens who suffer from anxiety disorders, and helpful resources that can be accessed for providers and parents.

Please click here to register.

From SAMSHA: A reminder that policies have consequences.

SAMSHA sent me a reminder today, that, in two months, it will with be Children's Mental Health Month. They included this graph, from some research out of ASPE in the last administration. In the accompanying report, it was pointed out that the way to prevent this from happening was to strengthen the social network around parents and children. So why are budget cuts in the current House Continuing Resolution targeting programs that support that very network? Full report available here.

"Young children exposed to five or more significant adversities in the first 3 years of childhood face a 76 percent likelihood of having one or more delays in their cognitive, language, or emotional development. The likelihood of delay increases in nearly a straight line with the number of risks.¹

However, research has shown that caregivers can buffer the impact of stress and promote better outcomes for children even under stressful times when the following Strengthening Families Protective Factors² are present:

• Parental resilience
• Social connections
• Knowledge of parenting and child development
• Concrete support in times of need
• Social and emotional competence of children

Need help navigating the system? Sometimes a kid needs a lawyer.

50 years ago, Leonard Bernstein captured the essential dilemma of the juvenile justice system in the song "Office Krupke", where a youth on the street goes from police officer to social worker to psychiatrist to judge in an eternal circle of ineffective care. Health Law Advocates has been trying to break that circle through the Mental Health Guardian Ad Litum program. Can be useful sometimes to have someone looking for a way out. (By the way, doesn't Lenny look great on YouTube? Really miss having him around...)

---------------------------------------------

HLA and Children's Mental Health

One of HLA's leading initiatives is our Children's Mental Health Access Project (CMHAP). Since we launched this initiative, HLA's work in this area has helped scores of families to overcome obstacles to securing diagnoses, treatment, and follow-up care for their children with unmet mental health needs.

A major component of HLA's CMHAP is our Mental Health Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) program which focuses on helping juvenile court-involved children who need mental health care. HLA attorneys are appointed by Juvenile Court Justices in select locations as Mental Health GAL for children in court who are falling through the cracks of the mental health system. The Mental Health GAL's role is to identify the child's unmet mental health needs, advocate on behalf of the child's interests and recommend judicial actions.

Numerous studies have measured a high incidence of mental illness among children in the juvenile justice system. The enormous cost of not diagnosing and treating mental illness in these children is apparent. Children who do not get the care they need are at greater risk of entering and remaining in the juvenile detention system and eventually the adult justice system, resulting in substantial social and economic costs to families, communities, and public agencies.

HLA's Mental Health GAL Project is currently supported by the Klarman Family Foundation and has received past support from the Jesse B. Cox Charitable Lead Trust, the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, the Nord Family Foundation and the Massachusetts Bar Foundation.

Reforming CHINS is not easy

I guess it is harder to reform CHINS than it looked. Secretary Bigby sent this out today.

----------------------

Letter from Secretary Bigby

Sent:Wednesday, February 23, 2011 7:50 PM

Subject: A Message from Secretary Bigby

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to keep you informed and engaged in an exciting effort to strengthen the many services and supports we provide to children, youth and families. Since I became Secretary, I have heard from a diverse range of stakeholders - including families we serve, agency staff and advocates - about the need for a more integrated and coordinated system of services. I have also heard the need for services that strengthen families through a respectful approach that is holistic, responsive to each family's unique needs, and community-focused. In numerous forums, including the Human Service forums hosted by Governor Patrick in 2009 and 2010 and the recent Children's League Advocacy Day at the State House, advocates and stakeholders encouraged the Patrick- Murray Administration to address the "current maze of agencies" to make the service delivery system more closely coordinated and with a single access point for families seeking services.

Governor Patrick has heard the repeated requests from numerous sectors of the child-serving community to strengthen service access and coordination and has asked EOHHS to engage with a broad range of stakeholders to define how to reform the Commonwealth's services for children and families. We began discussions with agencies and with some stakeholders. In the coming weeks we will continue our discussion about how we can together streamline and strengthen the services and supports we offer to children, youth and families. We look forward to engaging in a thorough and thoughtful series of discussions about our ideas for improving service delivery. State employees, so many of whom are on the "front lines" of service delivery, will play an integral role as we refine our plans and we plan to engage Union leadership throughout this process. I welcome your input and feedback and will be in touch with you again soon with more information about this process.

In the meantime, thank you for the work you do each and every day on behalf of all of our consumers and for your commitment to working with us to strengthen the services and supports we offer.

JudyAnn Bigby, M.D.

Secretary

JudyAnn Bigby, M.D.

Secretary, Executive Office of Health and Human Services

One Ashburton Place, Suite 1109

Boston, MA 02108

617 573-1800

Assistant: Mary Skahen (mary.skahen@state.ma.us)