Mental Health Block

Welcome to the BCRP Mental Health Block

In light of the increasing prevalence of pediatric mental health disorders, a national movement towards integrated behavioral health in primary care, and a national shortage in child psychiatrists, the BCRP feels a strong responsibility to improve residency training in pediatric mental health. As such the BCRP created a two week mental health block for senior residents in conjunction with intentional integration of a longitudinal mental health curriculum over the three years of residency. 

Rotation Learning Objectives

Chronic/Primary Care Setting

  • Understand validated screening tools for depression, anxiety and ADHD in the outpatient settings for various age groups

  • Diagnose and initiate medical management and referral for therapy for depression, anxiety and ADHD in the outpatient setting

  • Utilize resources in the primary care setting and the literature to titrate medications for depression, anxiety and ADHD in the outpatient setting

Children in Crisis

  • Observe and apply skills in pediatric crisis intervention/behavioral de-escalation in the pediatric emergency department and inpatient units

  • Triage patients with acute psychiatric/behavioral presentations in the community and in the emergency department

  • Integrate knowledge of systems based issues in psychiatric care to consider appropriate triage and placement

Mental Health Block Syllabus - link here

Required reading before starting the block! The Mental Health Block Syllabus lists and describes the various activities in the mental health block. The words in parentheses indicate how the activity will be listed on your individual Lightning Bolt Schedule. The descriptions include instructions for the activity but if you have any questions please contact the Chief Resident, Brenna Chase.

Self Directed Learning (MH SDL)

Although much of your learning this block will be experiential, we hope that some self-directed pre-work can help you make the most out of these experiences.

Prior to participating in the Integrated Behavioral Health clinic at BMC (IBH BMC), we require that you familiarize yourself with the Pediatric and Child Psychiatry guidelines for ADHD, Depression and Anxiety.

2011 AAP Clinical Practice Guideline - ADHD

2007 AACAP Clinical Practice Guideline - ADHD

2007 AACAP Practice Parameters - Anxiety

2007 AACAP Practice Parameters - Depression

2015, Pediatrics, Pediatric Psychopharmacology (ADHD, Depression, Anxiety)

Below are some additional materials that we think would be helpful as your go through your mental health experience.

Here are Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program has developed guidelines surrounding ADHD, anxiety, and depression - find them at the following links:

ADHD: https://www.mcpap.com/Provider/ADHD.aspx#

Anxiety Disorders: https://www.mcpap.com/Provider/AnxietyDisorders.aspx

Depression: https://www.mcpap.com/Provider/Depression.aspx

PTSD: https://www.mcpap.com/Provider/PTSD_Charie.aspx#

Here is an antidepressants side effects table that can be used as a reference!

Here is a comprehensive list of available mental health screening tools for primary care. This would be helpful to peruse before your IBH BCH session where you will be using many of these tools.

The AAP’s Behavioral Health Initiative has a wealth of resources that will be useful during the block and throughout your career- see here!

For the AAP resources below, you need to first LOG-IN with your AAP username and password to view the content and toolkits. Every resident has an AAP account so reach out to Brenna if it’s not working!

The AAP recently came out with:

  • A Mental Health Toolkit, that you can find here!

  • An ADHD toolkit, that you can find here!

  • An Autism toolkit for Autism, that you can find here!

Here is a list of social workers at BCH who work tirelessly to help our patients and their families, particularly those with mental health care needs. Please feel free to reach out to any of them to learn how to build resilience in the kids you care for every day!

Here is a new article regarding best practices for evaluating and treating agitated children in the ED. This may be particularly valuable prior to your ED, BEST, and BRT experiences.

Required Assignments:

(1) You are required to log at least 5 self-directed learning activities during your 2 week rotation. They can be activities of your choosing. Please use this link to log: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQkwoG1Au7YOdzJj1lySh4kqmkkroOBap2iKv2Z0a9xETnIA/viewform

(2) You are required to find and read an article relating to mental health in your field of interest (ie NICU, Pulm, Cards, etc) and come up with 3-5 summary learning points for future residents to learn from. 

Please post your article and summary points here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H6oWxHR0MYj3Qu7xVcGJc7_wqvF8hNKqrzHxFFzw0e0/edit#gid=0