Child Mental Health Now Versus the Past

Of note, this post is adapted from a similar one that appeared last week in my Psychology Today blog. From many headlines today, it is easy to get the impression that children and adolescents are struggling more than ever these days.  At the same time, the mental health system designed to help our kids and […]

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Age 5 Behavior Linked to Maternal and Child Nutrition

Many studies have found associations between specific nutrition deficiency states or gross malnutrition and child behavior, but lacking are more global studies that examine the link between more typical diets in general and behavioral outcomes. The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study is a prospective study that recruited mothers when they were pregnant and followed […]

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Primary Care Phone and Email Consultation Program Begins Second Year

The Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families at FAHC/UVM, in partnership with VCHIP, is pleased to announce we are entering our second year of the Child Psychiatric Phone and Email Consultation Program.  The goal of this program is to provide healthcare providers with curbside phone and email consultation to assist in the management of […]

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Recent Child Mental Health Summit Explores New Ideas

This week, a group of people involved in all aspects of child mental health care in Vermont met in Shelburne to share ideas and visions about how to improve access and quality of behavioral healthcare for Vermont families.  The group included parents of children struggling with emotional behavioral problems, counselors, psychiatrists, primary care clinicians, educators, […]

Eliza’a Wellness Pearls – Say No! to a Summer Filled with Screen Time

(Editor’s Note:  I am very pleased to begin a new series of posts by our clinic’s family coach and social worker, Eliza Pillard, entitled “Eliza’s Wellness Pearls,” featuring tips for child wellness and health promotion.  Stay tuned for more posts in the future and please feel free to suggest topics – DR) March is the […]

Why “Just” is Such a Dangerous Word in Mental Health

How many times have you heard a psychiatric diagnosis questioned based on the possibility that the behaviors are JUST something else.  You know the drill: “C’mon doc, are you sure this ADHD thing isn’t a fancy label for kids who are JUST (insert lazy, bad, spoiled, etc.)?” Another common one is “Can’t a kid JUST be […]

Thoughts on Mental Health Awareness Month

In case you missed the Hallmark commercial, May is Mental Health Awareness month and May 9 is Children’s Mental Health Awareness day.  Organizations are planning events across the country, including the Child Mind Institute’s, Speak Up for Kids campaign in which various professionals give free talks next week at different community sites.  My own talk […]

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Access to Child Mental Health Care in Times of Shortage

It is no surprise to anyone working in primary care or mental health that access to child psychiatrists and other mental health experts is very difficult.  Here at the VCCYF, our own waitlist has grown to many many months despite everyone working on all cylinders.  Frustrations by parents, clinicians, and (yes) those of us here […]

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Antiquated Psychiatric Terms: Time to Retire “Organic,” “Functional,” “Acting Out,” and “BioPsychoSocial”

21st century neuroscience has done much to bring psychiatry and mental health into the modern age.  Our language, however, still lingers behind.  Four terms in particular deserve our scrutiny and, in the opinion of many in our field, some alterations. ORGANIC Why it doesn’t work:  This word used to be invoked when behavioral symptoms were […]

Prescribing Exercise

By Eliza Pillard, LiCSW One of the most important components to our Family Based Treatment Approach to child psychiatric issues here at the VCCYF is to “prescribe” our patients engagement in physical activity. Often this takes the form of recommending that a child be enrolled in a team sport, ideally every season.  For some families […]

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