Dr. Naomi A. Schapiro
“As a faculty teaching PNP students enhanced behavioral health assessment skills, I have been proudest when students have been able to apply and disseminate these skills,” Dr. Schapiro said. “One of our recent PNP graduates was in a community primary care practicum when an adolescent thinking about suicide walked into the clinic with her father. Her preceptor wasn’t sure how to proceed, when the student said, ‘Wait! We just practiced this in class.’ The student pulled up her course website, and she and her preceptor walked through the assessment together, developed a safety plan with the teen and her father, and connected the teen with a therapist, avoiding an unnecessary ER visit and potential fragmentation of care.”
The need and expectation that pediatric PC providers incorporate MH services is well documented.2,12,13 PNPs who have additional training and expertise in assessing, diagnosing, and managing MH care are an excellent solution for addressing this problem. The benefits of this team-based approach to the pediatric health care home include decreasing stigma, increasing access, and providing comprehensive MH care to children and their families.
Dr. Haut works at Beacon Pediatrics, a large primary care practice in Rehoboth Beach, Del. She works part-time for Pediatrix Medical Group, serving the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit medical team at the Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore, and she serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, also in Baltimore. Other contributors to this article were Dawn Garzon Maaks, PhD, CPNP, PMHS; Naomi Schapiro, PhD, CPNP; Susan Van Cleve, DNP, RN, CPNP-PC, PMHS; and Laura Searcy, MN, APRN, PPCNP-BC. Ms. Searcy is on the medical staff at WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center in Marietta, Ga., delivering care to newborns. Dr. Haut and Ms. Searcy are members of the Pediatric News Consultant Advisory Board. Email them at pdnews@mdedge.com.
References
1. “Best principles for integration of child psychiatry into the pediatric health home,” AACAP Executive Summary,2012, pages 1-13.
2. Pediatrics. 2009 Apr;123(4):1248-51.
3. Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Children’s Mental Health Data and Statistics.
4. MMWR Surveill Summ, 2016. doi:10.15585/mmwr.ss6506a1.
5. Pediatrics. 2015;135(5):909-17.
6. JAMA Pediatr. 2015;169(10):929-37.
7. “Integrating child psychology services into primary care,” by Tynan D, Woods K, and Carpenter J. American Psychological Association, 2014.
8. J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc. 2005;11(5): 276-82.
9. J Nurse Pract. 2013;9(4):243-8.
10. J Pediatr Health Care. 2013; 27(3):162-3.
11. Advanced Nursing Education Health Resources Service Administration grant (#D09HP26958).