Addressing the Behavioral and Mental Health Needs of Children :

Given the shortage of mental health professionals in the United States and the high prevalence of children and adolescents with mental and behavioral health problems, there is a critical need to educate future pediatricians in this critical area of child health. But how best to do that? To answer that question the American Board of Pediatrics and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a meeting of stakeholders including chairs, program directors, parents, patients and trainees in 2018 to better understand barriers and facilitators for enhanced training of pediatric residents in behavioral and mental health. The results are captured in a special article by McMillan et al (10.1542/peds.2018-3796) that not only summarizes this landmark meeting, but also reports on one-year follow-up of changes made within departments and organizations who attended the meeting. Many of these changes are better integrating the teaching of behavioral and mental health in ways that improve access of children and families to these services. If you want to consider some innovative integrative changes your local residency program might make in strengthening teaching in behavioral and mental health, then read this important special article and see what develops in terms of the changes you might want to implement in your own training program or practice. There is an abundance of great information in this article—so check it out and see what develops as a result.