Children’s mental health would be focus of new U of M program

When a child goes to the doctor, you might typically envision them dealing with a cold, fever or stomach ailment. But, increasingly, their problem is depression or anxiety. And, if that doctor graduated from a typical pediatric medicine program, that’s something they may not be prepared to diagnose and treat.

But that might change.

HF1540 would appropriate $540,000 for a new University of Minnesota mental health training program for pediatric residents. Sponsored by Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester), it would place aspiring pediatricians on multidisciplinary teams and train them in common mental health conditions.

On Wednesday, the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Division approved the bill and referred it to the House Ways and Means Committee. Its amended companion, SF1702, awaits action by the Senate Health and Human Services Finance and Policy Committee.

Rep. Tina Liebling

Lest you think that scenario of a doctor encountering a young patient with depression or anxiety to be unusual, the American Academy of Pediatrics has said that 40 percent of outpatient general pediatric visits are for behavioral and mental health concerns. The Minnesota Psychiatric Society says that 1 in 5 Minnesota high school juniors had a chronic mental health problem in 2016 and that 12 percent of teens in Minnesota seriously considered suicide that year.

The professionals trained in dealing with such issues are child psychiatrists. But there’s a severe shortage of them: Minnesota has only 142; 66 counties don’t have one, nine other counties have only one. It typically takes months to see a child psychiatrist in Minnesota, with some children only seeing one once they’ve been hospitalized.

So this new program – a grassroots effort of a group of University of Minnesota pediatricians and child psychiatrists – would better equip doctors to recognize mental health problems and get their young patients the help they need. As 70 percent of Minnesota’s pediatricians are trained at the university, the hope is that the training program will have a major impact on children’s mental health in the state.

One of the leaders of the initiative is Dr. Emily Borman-Shoap, program director of the University of Minnesota’s pediatric residency program.

“This would really put us at the leading edge for treating mental health care issues in children,” she said. “It’s a health care workforce issue and an education issue, an intersection of the two. … I think I counted there were 60 bills coming from the House and Senate that had mental health as key terms. I think it’s something we’re all thinking about a lot.”