Conferences
2003 NAMI NH Annual Conference:
"Children's Mental Health Summit - Integrating Mental and Physical Health Services"
On November 20th almost 150 people attended a conference sponsored by NAMI NH and the NH Psychiatric Society, NH Pediatric Society, NH Medical Society, NH Psychological Association, Behavioral Health Network, Inc., and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. This conference was a year in the planning and focused on the issues of integrated health care for children. Pediatricians, mental health providers, psychiatrists, parents and educators were all represented. The goals of the conference were to: 1) enhance the communication between and among families, primary care physicians, psychiatrists, mental health providers and educators; 2) help families more effectively navigate through the maze of the health care systems and; 3) help participants learn new ideas and improve skills for integrating health care.
The Summit was structured to provide participants with a common understanding with which to begin to think about the Summit topic set out and goals for the day. Dr. Jeff Bostic, Director of School Psychiatry Rotation @ Harvard Medical School, provided the keynote presentation. His data demonstrated that the demand for child psychiatry far outweighs the supply of trained psychiatrists and often the burden falls to the local PCP to deal with the psychiatric as well as the medical needs of children. This is not the most effective approach to the treatment issues. He illustrated a novel school based program as a way to understand that early intervention can make a difference in the lives of children with budding symptoms and acting out behaviors. Additionally, Dr. Bostic spoke about the benefits of telepsychiatry as a model for helping PCPs gain information through consultation and education provided by trained child psychiatrists. This keynote presentation led to stimulating dialogue among the panelists responding as well as the participants who spoke from their diverse perspectives. Participants both added to the discussion and raised challenging questions for the keynote speaker and panelists.
The morning session motivated the audience and set the groundwork for the detailed afternoon workshops, which gave more focus to the topic of integrated healthcare. These workshops focused on psychiatric medication for children, overcoming communication barriers across disciplines, overcoming the barriers of culture and language to mental health care, and implementing a "systems of care" approach to service delivery in New Hampshire.
The participants also gained the opportunity to network with their colleagues and hear from other participants about their work, service delivery issues, funding, and access problems for pediatric health care in New Hampshire. The informal communication opportunities added value to the formal presentations and motivated many to continue interest in overcoming the barriers to effective integrated healthcare.
The Planning Committee is scheduled to meet in the next week to review the conference evaluation results. They are also hoping to find among the participants those that will use their new knowledge, continue to pursue the unanswered questions, and make recommendations to policy makers for changes to improve care for children and their families. NAMI NH will continue down the path of planning and sponsoring Summits on this topic of Integrated Health Care. In January 2004 a new planning committee for next year's summit will begin meeting. The focus will be on health care for adults with psychiatric and co-occurring medical problems. Building on what we learned form this conference, we are hoping to have an even bigger and better conference next year.
