• Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn
  • LOGIN
  • DONATE NOW

  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Annual Report 2019
    • History
    • For the Media
    • Board of Directors
      • Peter S. Jensen, MD
      • Alan Axelson, MD
      • Deborah Buccino, MD
      • Wynford Dore
      • Seth J. Finkel, JD, LL.M.
      • Steve Holsenbeck, M.D.
      • Sunmee Huh
      • Robin Hulshizer, Esq.
      • Laura A. Jones, JD
      • Robert Marshall, Esq.
      • Matthew Raimondi
      • Charles G. Ray, M.Ed.
      • Elizabeth Reagan
      • Erica Rubach
      • Réka Shinkle
      • Marley Spector
      • Whitney Watson
    • Staff
    • REACH Faculty
      • PPP Faculty
      • CATIE Faculty
    • Donors and Funders
  • Services
    • For Healthcare Organizations
      • Staff Training
        • Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care
          • Training dates
          • How to schedule a course
          • Sites trained
          • What our trainees are saying
          • Faculty
        • Child/Adolescent Training in Evidence-Based Psychotherapies (CATIE)
          • How to schedule a training
          • Sites trained
          • What our trainees are saying
          • Faculty
        • Parent Empowerment
          • How to schedule a training
    • For Primary Care Practitioners
      • Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care
      • Adult Behavioral Health in Primary Care
      • Course Dates and Registration
      • What our trainees are saying
    • For Mental Health Practitioners
      • Child/Adolescent Training in Evidence-Based Psychotherapies (CATIE)
      • Dr. Greene’s Approach
    • REACH Scholarship
    • REACH Video
    • Online Courses
  • Get Involved
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
      • Opportunities
      • Application
  • Help for Families
    • Advocating for Your Child
    • Child Mental Health: Fact vs. Fiction
    • Helpful Resources
    • REACH-Trained Practitioners
  • Trainees & Alumni
    • PPP Trainees & Alumni
      • Rating Scales
  • Newsletters
  • Contact Us

Home Newsletters "Now people have a place to go”

"Now people have a place to go”

  • Print
  • Email
photo of alumni of REACH training

In the absence of a single child and adolescent psychiatrist anywhere in Cape May County, New Jersey, The REACH Institute training enabled Rainbow Pediatrics to help families who had nowhere else to turn.

"It has increased our volume," said Thomas Dierkes, DO, FAAP. "But the big benefit is that we're all on the same page, all using the same screening tools and the same methods to treat children with mental health issues."

Rainbow Pediatrics, which has three locations in southern New Jersey, has sent every one of its clinicians to The REACH Institute’s three-day Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care (PPP) training. Among the many tools PPP graduates take back to their practices is a set of screening tools for common pediatric emotional disorders, from ADHD and depression to anxiety and oppositional defiant disorder. "I use at least one of those screening tools every day," said Kirby Tompkins, RNP.

Another valuable tool the physicians at Rainbow use regularly is one-page guides on medications for common psychiatric disorders. "These tools may be common sense, but we can't do without them in a fast-paced pediatric practice. These tools to assess, diagnose, evaluate treatment modalities--they enable us to initiate with speed but also with a deliberateness and confidence that would otherwise have taken years to develop," noted Tompkins.

To Dierkes, another big advantage is that PPP standardized the practice's approach to emotional issues. He pointed out that treating psychiatric illness is largely a matter of trial and error. After participating in REACH training, he said, "We're all on the same page about what to try first and what are the next steps."

"Getting everyone trained took a while, because we all had to travel to different locations," Dierkes said. "But it was definitely worth the time and expense."

He described the satisfaction of being able to treat, for example, a child whose anxiety keeps him from being able to go to school. "Now we can screen them, easily treat with FDA-approved medications, and monitor so that the child doesn't have to stay on medication long term. The important thing is that now this child can go to school."

PPP also helps clinicians to find treatment options beyond medication. For example, physicians learn to build a team of professionals who offer such treatment options as cognitive behavioral therapy. They also learn strategies they can teach to children and parents themselves. Tompkins, who had previously run a clinic for children and adolescents with emotional disorders, appreciated knowing that "there was good data behind the recommendations and decisions."

Even more, he said, he appreciated what he called "the nuances of the REACH experience," which he summed up this way:

"How do you approach a little human being who is a hot mess?"

Tompkins noted that, especially in dealing with emotional and behavioral issues, it's important to establish trust. "You can't just say, 'I understand.' You have to show that you understand. You say to the parent, 'I can't imagine how you’re dealing with all this. Tell me more.'"

Patient-Centered Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care uses interactive teaching methods to demonstrate ways to establish trust. Trainers and participants role-play common scenarios of the issues parents and children bring in. "There was some hilarity!" said Tompkins of the training he attended in 2016. "We all recognized the ways these parents presented their child's problems." But the value lay in the opportunity for the participating clinicians to practice listening and showing compassion--and then to see how formerly frantic, angry, or disengaged "parents" reacted in ways that would make them better able to participate in their child's healing.

Asked to sum up how his practice has benefited from REACH training, Dierkes said,

"We've had tremendous success. We now have a legitimate way to find the right treatment that works for children with psychiatric issues."

Has your practice benefited from The REACH Institute’s PPP training? If so, please share this page with a colleague who could also benefit.

Details
Last Updated: June 12, 2018
May 24, 2018
|
Author: The REACH Institute
|
Pediatric primary care, Child mental health
  • Prev

Filter by Category

  • ADHD
  • Anti-racism
  • Anxiety
  • Assessment & screening
  • Child mental health
  • coding
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy
  • College transition
  • Culturally responsive
  • Depression
  • Foster care
  • Grief
  • High-risk children & youth
  • Medication
  • Parents
  • Patient communication
  • Pediatric primary care
  • School refusal
  • Sleep disorders
  • Suicide
  • Trauma
  • Show All Categories

Filter by Date

  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • Show All

Contact Us

The REACH Institute
404 5th Avenue
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10018

Phone: 212-947-7322
E-mail: info@thereachinstitute.org

Stay Connected to REACH

Put your e-mail and click Submit.

Copyright 2021 The Reach Institute