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If you are a pediatrician serving Medicaid managed care patients in California, then you are required to use the Staying Healthy Assessment or an alternative IHEBA (Individual Health Education Behavioral Assessment) at all well-child visits. The bad news is that getting approval to use an alternative IHEBA is a tedious process. The good news is that as of October 27, 2016 the Whole Child Assessment (WCA) is available for use in English and Spanish. Most importantly, the WCA has been...

As pediatricians, we champion the need to address social determinants of health, such as poverty and food insecurity, in an effort to achieve health equity. We emphasize screening for toxic stress. In our conversations about equity, we include data about racial and ethnic disparities. Because of our commitment to work for the health and well-being of all children, pediatricians are uniquely positioned to consider and address the needs and concerns of the at-risk communities for whom we care.

Paternity leave can make a big difference in a dad's long-term engagement with the child, doctors find. Paid family leave also fosters breastfeeding and reduces the incidence of maternal depression. As part of All Things Considered's series Stretched: Working Parents' Juggling Act , NPR talked with Dr. Benard Dreyer , a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at the New York University School of Medicine and president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, to get a better sense of what the...

[Photo by Juhan Sonin ] Non-pharmacologic strategies and tactics to ease a child's pain may help expedite treatment and improve care in this challenging population, clinicians said here. With both increased pressure to decrease waiting times in the ED and minimize the use of pharmacologic therapies due to the opioid abuse crisis, providers have been forced to get creative, according to presenters at the annual Pain Week conference. This may mean turning to certain behavioral and...

The first bullet under Early Diagnosis and Intervention of today’s release of Hillary Clinton’s mental health agenda is titled “ Increase public awareness and take action to address maternal depression, infant mental health, and trauma and stress in the lives of young children.” It states “We also know that infant mental health depends on children forming close and secure relationships with the adults in their lives, and that too many children are growing up in environments that cause them...

Dr. Beth Grady, a pediatrician at South San Francisco Clinic, developed a course called: "Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress in Medical Care: Promoting Health and Healing throughout the Lifespan". She did the presentation on June 15, 2016, and the webinar was posted on June 22, 2016. The termination date for the webinar is June 22, 2019. Instructions for earning 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit TM for this enduring material: Watch the video of the presentation, which can be accessed via this...

A new report finds that children whose parents or caregivers misuse alcohol or have a substance abuse problem face an increased risk of medical and behavioral problems. The study calls for pediatricians to take an active role in assessing a child’s risk and to support the family to get the help they need. Experts have known that children whose parents or caregivers misuse alcohol or use, produce or distribute drugs face an increased risk of medical and behavioral problems. In the new...

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) today announces a new initiative in the wake of the recent killings of two black men in St. Paul, Minn., and Baton Rouge, La., and of five police officers in Dallas. The AAP will convene a group of pediatrician experts to identify new approaches to protect children, adolescents and young adults from the epidemic of violence occurring in their everyday lives. The initiative's members, agenda and goals will be shared in the coming days, and will address...

A new report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provides state-by-state results on adolescents (ages 12-17) who experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year. Based on combined 2013 and 2014 data, the report shows the prevalence of major depressive episodes among adolescents residing in various states – from a high of 14.6 percent (annual average) in Oregon to a low of 8.7 percent (annual average) in the District of Columbia.

Bullying and cyberbullying are major risk factors for teen suicide. And both the bullies and their victims are at risk. That's according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics that urges pediatricians and family doctors to routinely screen teenagers for suicide risks. "Pediatricians need to be aware of the problem overall," says Benjamin Shain , a child and adolescent psychiatrist and lead author of the report published online Monday in the journalPediatrics. "They should be...

Rahil Briggs, a child psychologist, is walking the corridors of the Pediatrics department at the Montefiore Comprehensive Healthcare Center . We’re in the South Bronx, New York. It’s one of the poorest urban areas in the country. Crying babies don’t faze Briggs. She looks serene — like she’s just finished a yoga class. Briggs says babies’ brains are “sticky.” “Their brains are disproportionately receptive. So whatever we throw sticks. That’s why they can learn Spanish in six months when it...

Antidepressants don’t work for everyone, and having a history of abuse during childhood may signal a low likelihood that the drugs will improve an adult’s symptoms of major depression, a recent study suggests. While there are few reliable predictors of which people will respond to specific antidepressants, lots of previous research links a history of trauma early in life with how well people tend to do on these drugs, researchers note in the journal Translational Psychiatry. "The presence of...