VCU Virginia Treatment Center for Children to hold Pediatric Mental Health Conference

By Sathya Achia Abraham

The Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Treatment Center for Children will hold the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics Collaborative Conference to address access to pediatric mental health services statewide.

The event for psychiatrists, pediatricians, family practitioners, nurse practitioners, policy makers, and leaders in child mental health will take place Wednesday, April 25 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Maymont Nature Center, Garden Hall, 2201 Shields Lake Drive in Byrd Park.

Featured speakers will include Thomas F. Anders, M.D., president of the American Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California Davis’ M.I.N.D. Institute; and Read Sulik, M.D., president, Minnesota regional council for the American Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Anders will present “Setting the Stage: Workforce Shortage Issues in Child Mental Health: Challenge for the Decade.” Sulik will present “Envisioning, Strategizing and Successfully Implementing: The Minnesota Project: A collaborative model between child psychiatry and pediatrics.”

Participants will have breakout sessions to learn how they can collaborate to build a model for Virginia that links primary care to child psychiatry and to gain insight for future steps.

The conference is sponsored by the VCU Virginia Treatment Center for Children, the Department of Psychiatry, the VCU Health System, Capital Area Health Education Center, Medical Home Plus, and Regional Councils of the American Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Association of Psychiatry.

For more information, call Bela Sood MD, M.S.H.A., (804) 828-4058 bsood@mcvh-vcu.edu, or Colleen Kraft (804) 559-0447.