Mental Health Blog

When parents’ mental health affects children

• January 23, 2024
• The REACH Institute
• Parents, Patient communication, Pediatric primary care

“When we’re thinking about children’s mental health, we’re also thinking about the health of the family unit,” explains Alyx Holden, MD. “In order for children’s neurobiology to develop, they need the support and context of healthy caregivers.”

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Managing challenging behaviors in children

• December 14, 2023
• The REACH Institute
• Assessment & screening, Parents, Patient communication

  “There is a lot of research on programs to help parents manage their children’s behavior. It is not complex for clinicians to learn key evidence-based principles and share them with parents, even in brief office visits,” explains Elena Man, MD, a board-certified pediatrician and faculty member at The REACH Institute. We asked Dr. Man…

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How to help families awaiting an autism diagnosis

• November 20, 2023
• The REACH Institute
• ADHD, Autism, Patient communication

“Wait times to get a formal autism diagnosis from a qualified program range from six months to two years. It’s very frustrating for parents and their children who need services,” explains Dr. Mark Wolraich, MD, a REACH faculty member and retired professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. 

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Navigating the ADHD stimulant medication shortage

• October 31, 2023
• The REACH Institute
• ADHD, Child mental health, Parents, Patient communication

“The ADHD stimulant medication shortage is affecting patients, families, pharmacists, and clinicians,” explains Andrew Adesman, MD, a developmental pediatrician specializing in ADHD.

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Sleep Smart: Back-to-School Edition

• August 25, 2023
• The REACH Institute
• Child mental health, Parents, Patient communication, Pediatric primary care

REACH faculty, Dr Kowatch, emphasizes that it’s essential for caregivers to recognize the challenges that can arise when transitioning from summer to a more structured school routine. “Parents have got to anticipate there may be an adjustment period for the first week or two.”

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How Social Media is Impacting Teens

• June 27, 2023
• The REACH Institute
• Anxiety, Child mental health, Depression, High-risk children & youth, Parents, Patient communication

The most important question that we can ask teens isn’t if they use social media, it’s how. Just last May, the Surgeon General’s advisory on social media use in youth exposed some shocking statistics: Among 13 to 17-year-olds, up to 95% use social media, with 35% saying they use social media “almost constantly.”

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Supporting mental health needs in rural areas

• April 20, 2023
• The REACH Institute
• ADHD, Anxiety, Child mental health, Depression, Eating disorders, High-risk children & youth, LGBTQIA, Parents, Patient communication, Pediatric primary care

Rural healthcare providers can be overwhelmed—and understaffed with specialists. Discover how REACH inspired Elizabeth Wallis, M.D., to build a community to support her patients.

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8 Tips for Working with Mental Health Therapists

• October 20, 2021
• The REACH Institute
• Child mental health, Parents, Patient communication Pediatric primary care,

Many patients who have mental health conditions need talk therapy in addition to the treatment you provide as the pediatric primary care provider (PCP). If you practice in an area where therapists are available, we hope you have developed referral relationships, as you learned in your REACH training. You may also see patients who are already working with a therapist.

In either case, the communication between you and the therapist makes a huge difference in the quality of care the two of you provide.

To learn how PCPs and therapists can collaborate to improve the mental health of children and adolescents, we talked with clinical psychologist Kevin Stark, PhD, a founder of The REACH Institute’s CATIE program, and pediatrician Hilary Bowers, MD, director of behavioral and mental health services at Children’s Primary Care Medical Group, a large pediatric practice in San Diego and Riverside counties in California.

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Getting through to difficult patients and families

• September 8, 2021
• The REACH Institute
• Parents Patient communication,

It’s 10:30 Monday morning, and you’re 45 minutes behind. Earlier, you had to confront a receptionist about coming in late again. You have to get out today by 4:30 so you can get to your daughter’s softball game. Beating under all this stress is worry about your mom, who has been diagnosed with stage 2B breast cancer.

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Back to school for special populations

• March 22, 2021
• The REACH Institute
• Anti-racism Patient communication,

Although some schools have been open in person for months, some larger districts are just beginning to welcome students back on campus. Children, families, educators, and medical professionals have mixed feelings. To help you support different patient populations as they return to school, we talked to Jennifer Walton, MD, MPH, a co-author of a call for an “URGENT Coordinated Effort to Re-Open Schools” by the National Medical Association (NMA). Dr. Walton is chair of the NMA’s Pediatric Section, an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at The Ohio State University, and a developmental behavioral pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

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Working with challenging families

• October 13, 2020
• The REACH Institute
• Parents, Patient communication Pediatric primary care,

You’re in the consultation room with Anita, who first brought her 15-year-old son Vic to you two weeks ago. Vic has been suspended from school several times for increasingly dangerous behavior. Anita uses a wheelchair because she has multiple sclerosis. Today she is distraught. Last night, she forbade Vic to leave the house, but he went anyway. He didn’t come home last night or go to school this morning. Anita has called everyone she can think of, but no one knows where he is. The police won’t help until he has been missing at least 24 hours. Anita has come to you as a last resort. When you saw Vic, you were troubled by his history of uncontrolled behavior and his uncooperative stance. You were hoping to get him to open up in a follow-up visit. But now Anita is here alone, frantic because she doesn’t know where Vic is. What do you do?

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