Enhancing Pediatric Mental Health and Trauma Care in Emergency Departments: The Collaborative Care Model - (2024)

Mental health and trauma concerns among pediatric patients presenting at emergency departments (EDs) have become increasingly prevalent, demanding innovative approaches to optimize medical and psychosocial care delivery. This presentation explores current approaches to caring for this population, emphasizing the demonstrated effectiveness of a collaborative care model to support pediatric behavioral health and trauma patients in the ED. In this context, the integration of child life specialists has shown promising results in improving patient outcomes and overall quality of care. Child life specialists play a crucial role in helping children and families cope with the stress and anxiety of being in the ED, providing age-appropriate explanations about medical procedures, and offering therapeutic interventions to support emotional well-being. Additionally, the speakers will highlight opportunities for program quality improvement in existing child life practice models that can further enhance the care provided to pediatric patients in the emergency department.

Suggested Domain: Intervention
1.0 PDU

Learning Objective(s):

- Understanding the Collaborative Care Model: Learners should be able to comprehend the key principles and components of the collaborative care model for pediatric mental health and trauma care in emergency departments.

- Evaluating the Efficacy of the Collaborative Care Model: Learners should be able to assess the effectiveness of and outcomes associated with the collaborative care approach in enhancing pediatric mental health and trauma care.

- Identifying Areas for Improvement: Learners should be able to identify specific areas for improvement within the collaborative care model or the existing practices in emergency departments for supporting this population.

- Recognizing Strategies for Optimal Pediatric Care: Learners should be able to recognize, evaluate, and begin to implement e potential strategies and recommendations derived from the collaborative care model.

Please note: All webinar contents and its certificate will expire on 5/8/2027 regardless of when it is purchased, accessed, or completed. At that point, contents will no longer be available in any form, including as an archive or as a PDU certificate. It is the responsibility of the learner to complete the contents and download and save the certificate for their records prior to 5/8/2027.