Spearheading Integrated Mental Health Care
Our future leaders need healthy minds.
Children’s National’s commitment to comprehensive care integrates physical and mental health. The pandemic turned the existing mental health crisis into an emergency. Depression, disordered eating and substance abuse increased sharply. So did domestic and gun violence.
Trauma and toxic stress harm children and lead to many health problems. Campaign support advanced our work to change this trajectory and intervene before a crisis occurs.
Mental health innovations and program expansions are helping kids thrive — before birth by supporting maternal health, and through childhood, adolescence and beyond.
Sloane's Story
Sloane is a talented, social child. She also has autism. When isolation during the pandemic made it hard for her to relate to her peers, a social communication group at Children’s National Hospital helped get back to making, and keeping, friends. It also helped her family enjoy time together more.
Transform Mental Health Care Across Our City
Broaden Outreach and Support for Families
Kids need skills, tools and the support of trusted, informed adults to navigate their lives. We’ll expand services through the Early Childhood Innovation Network, our Parent Navigator Program, and other groups. This support will foster greater child and family resiliency.
Embed Mental Health Specialists in All Clinics
We will strive to unburden families of the stigma of seeking help for mental health by pairing it alongside our world-class primary and specialty care. We’ll add psychiatrists and psychologists to our teams of clinicians and social workers in all six primary care locations and across our specialty clinics.
Engage Our Community
We will train local primary care providers across the region in mental health care. This will enable us to identify more kids and families with mental health needs, treat them in their trusted medical homes and connect them with specialized resources. Our vast community network will be a powerful force to intervene before a crisis occurs.
Expand Screenings and Care Coordination
We will screen for maternal, caregiver and child mental-health issues in our primary care locations, emergency departments, NICU and specialty clinics. Then, we’ll intervene swiftly.
Increase Access to Trauma-Informed Mental Health Care
We will grow our Child and Adolescent Protection Center team. We’ll also offer wellness services for our staff, who often experience chronic emotional stress in caring for child abuse and trauma survivors.
Philanthropy provides concrete ways to reach families and help them get the services they need. It's not that we're curing their mental health issues. We're providing them the mental wellness to be able to live with difficulties and thrive because they've gotten the treatment that they've needed.
Bhavin Dave, M.D.
Co-Director, Early Childhood Behavioral Health Program