This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Elizabeth Wallis about addressing mental health concerns related to children and teens in primary health care visits. Dr. Wallis is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry and she’s the Medical Director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. As mental health concerns have risen in recent years, there's been a push for primary care doctors and pediatricians to provide more mental health care for children and adolescents. Dr. Elizabeth Wallis is here to talk about addressing mental health concerns related to children and teens in health care visits. Dr. Wallis is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, and she's the Medical Director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at MUSC. Dr. Wallis, what are some of the common mental health concerns or issues related to children and teens that parents may want to bring up with their pediatrician or primary care provider?
Dr. Wallis: For many families, their primary care doc or their pediatrician is the first stop for all kinds of things, whether it be medical or physical health or mental health. And some of the more common mental health concerns that families might come with are things like behavioral concerns or concerns about ADHD or learning or concerns about anxiety or PTSD or depression.
Conner: And why are primary care doctors being asked to provide more mental health care for children?
Dr. Wallis: Well, it's a mixture of things. There's the fact that rates of mental illness in children and adolescents is going up in this country, particularly during the pandemic where there was a lot of social isolation and things like that. There were more kids in need of care. But we've also always had not enough child psychiatrists and not enough mental health providers to provide those services. And so ideally, the pediatrician, the primary care doc, could do a lot of the more routine stuff then that would leave child psychiatrists available for the more complicated pathology and the more complicated medication management and things like that.
Conner: What's the key to getting children and adolescents to feel comfortable talking about mental health issues with their primary care doctor or their pediatrician?
Dr. Wallis: For many primary care docs, they actually have an advantage in that they have known a child or a family for a period of time, sometimes many years. And so that child or that adolescent is more likely to feel comfortable because it's somebody that they've worked with over the course of a long period of time. You know, being comfortable yourself as the primary care doc in talking about these things and being able to talk about them in a way that's comfortable and non-judgmental is the way to get kids comfortable doing it.
Conner: Are pediatricians and primary care doctors getting on board with this expanded mental health role that they're playing?
Dr. Wallis: Traditionally, mental health wasn't something necessarily that was built into training in the way that really prepared folks to go out and do primary care mental health. That's changing. Residency training programs are starting to look at this as something that's important, and there are also more and more standalone training programs. The great thing about pediatricians is that they're really committed to kids. And so, I think many, many of them are willing to take on some of this mental health because they know it's the right thing to do for kids.
Conner: Dr. Wallis, thanks for this information about addressing children and adolescents mental health issues in primary care.
Dr. Wallis: Thanks so much for having me.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
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