Mental illnesses are associated with a large disease burden with increased morbidity, mortality, and financial costs. In the United States, three of the leading illnesses associated with pediatric disease burden are psychiatric (depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia). Psychiatric illness in children and adolescents is a key risk factor for completed suicide. Approximately half the adults with mental illness received the diagnosis before age 15. At least 1 in 10 children require mental health services. Most youngsters do not receive them….
Dear friends,
Thank you for visiting my fundraising page! In less than two weeks, I will be running my first marathon and doing so in honor of Partners in Health and Paul Farmer for giving me the courage to believe in myself and pursue my dream of contributing to social science by researching ways in which to translate human goodness into metrics that sharpen our perspective of human compassion and kindness.
When Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl first travelled to Haiti, a country said to be “the poorest on earth,”…
The positive effects of integrated medical and behavioral health care are confirmed by an ever growing body of evidence. The literature claims that effective integration has the potential to improve patient health and significantly lower costs. Yet it offers few practical tips for start-ups. Is integrated care feasible only for well-funded practices with unlimited academic support? Ample resources and support do help, but in certain situations it is not the dearth of resources, but rather the dearth of imagination that limits robust growth in health care….
“I was hearing your heart beating across the road.”1
The aim of my blog is to stress the importance of making “continuum of care” a core goal in any child welfare system by re-visiting the topic of child abandonment and orphanhood.
According to UNICEF, at least 2.2. million children around the world live in orphanages. Despite global initiatives and government policies to deal with the problem, the number of children living in orphanages appears to be on the rise….
As a physician working primarily with children for more than two decades, I fully understand that children’s health is more than just a medical issue. I feel privileged to be a doctor and, at the same time, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to work towards making a better health care system for this vulnerable part of our population.
There is drastic shortage of child psychiatrists for our nation’s 75 million children and teens. Currently there are only 8,300 child psychiatrists nationwide, some 30,000 short of what is needed. In Massachusetts, waits of four to six weeks for a child psychiatry appointment are common, and several community mental health centers report three month waits.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) has worked hard to make the government aware of the crisis of limited access to child psychiatrists. I was inspired by AACAP’s legislative program to get involved in persuading policymakers to address the shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists.
In the spirit of doing my part to address the crisis in access, I have also signed up to volunteer with the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics to provide free care to homeless women and chidren in greater Boston area and I have created my website as a place where stakeholders can interact and come together on behalf of our children.
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