Narrative Report

My research, teaching and clinical expertise focuses on the collaboration between education and psychiatry. I was first inspired through my work in Harlem, New York as a science teacher for an innovative elementary school in between college and medical school. I learned that a child’s barrier to learning was created by a combination of uneven access to resources, broken promises, and mental anguish. Now I have the privilege to work with public school administrators and teachers to provide them with critical support and a framework about how to challenge students while also suggesting strategies useful in overcoming systemic obstacles. I chose Cambridge Hospital for my child psychiatry training because I recognized their commitment to community psychiatry. I selected my chief residency at the Teen Health Center at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School as it was one of the first school-based health centers in the nation and it seemed an ideal opportunity to explore providing quality clinical care for high risk students. Over the next five years, I designed and implemented an advising program in the high school. The goal of the advising program was to understand how the mentoring role of teachers can increase student motivation and academic engagement; the program is now institutionalized in the high school. I am often asked to provide direction to other school systems regarding implementation of advising. My clinical work at the teen health center has focused me on improving the continuity of care between schools and Cambridge Health Alliance and to concentrate on fortifying interdisciplinary provision of services.

I currently assist the Cambridge Public School system with professional development required for crisis management and how to establish viable protocols for emergency situations. I designed numerous courses for Cambridge teachers and Malden teachers regarding psychopharmacology, differential diagnosis, adolescent development, and instructional strategies for disruptive students. I also collaborated with the Special Education Director in the Cambridge Public School system to develop a unique risk assessment of violent and aggressive children who are at risk of suspension or expulsion in Cambridge Public Schools. These assessments address the question of the students’ safety to return to school and suggest therapeutic interventions and modifications in educational plans to improve students’ potential for success. From my clinical assessments I recognize that there are frequent gaps in services for these vulnerable high acuity children and adolescents. I want to research about how to enhance school engagement for these vulnerable students and to increase the safety net of integrated service delivery. With my work on the National level with the Work Group on Schools of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry I was able to craft the substance of the practice parameters that was endorsed by AACAP. Nationally I have been asked to make multiple presentations about the relevant school arenas that I have developed clinical expertise: school violence, school based health centers and managing high acuity adolescents.

My commitment to teaching child psychiatry fellows derives from recognizing that effective child psychiatrists need a familiarity with how schools operate, as this is where their child and adolescent patients spend the majority of their time. With supervision and didactic material I like to expose them to the rewards of the collaborative process in effectively advocating for their patients. I also want to share the excitement about supporting school teachers and administrators’ effort to address complex problems and the possibility for shaping the lives of students at a crucial point when they are defining their potential.