Surviving and Thriving in Children's Mental Health Care Settings

Registration Opens: July 14, 2023

In-person workshop.

Description: The first half of the workshop will focus on highlighting and discussing the unique challenges, barriers, and stressors associated with working in children's mental health care. Challenges encountered at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels will be included, as well as presentation of insights from existing literature, the presenter's original research on this topic, and discussion among the presenter and workshop participants on lived and observed experiences in the field. Strategies to minimize and navigate these challenges based on literature and lived experience from the presenter and group will be shared. The second half of the workshop will focus on the challenges and stressors faced by practitioners in work settings serving children and families with mental health concerns. Common challenges reviewed in literature, as well as lived and observed experiences of practitioners will be highlighted and discussed. The workshop will also include research-based and anecdotal strategies for overcoming the identified challenges and to improve professional well-being and sense of success in difficult work settings.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will identify and recognize common challenges encountered by professionals working in children's mental health care settings.
2. Participants will identify and discuss strategies for minimizing challenges and barriers in work with children and families, as well as for maintaining professional well-being and sense of success in challenging settings.
3. Participants will identify the role and purpose of boundaries in working with children and families pertaining to creating safe and predictable therapeutic spaces and supporting self-care.

Research: 

1. Becker, K., Boustani, M, Gellatly, R., & Chorpita, B. (2018).  Forty years of engagement research in children’s mental health services: Multidimensional measurement and practice elements. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 47(1), 1-23. DOI: 10.1080/15374416.2017.1326121
2. Drent, H., van den Hoofdakker, B., Bildt, A., Buitelaar, J., Hoekstra, P., & Dietrich, A. (2020). Factors related to parental pre-treatment motivation in outpatient child and adolescent mental health care. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 29, 947-958. https//doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01391-9
3. Haine-Schlagel, R., et al., (2019) Parent mental health problems and motivation as predictors of their engagement in community-based child mental health services.  Children and Youth Services Review, 104, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.06.005
4. Lowthian, E., Anthony, R., Evans, A., Daniel, R., Long, S., Bandyopadhyay, A., John, A., Bellis, M.A., & Paranjothy, S. (2021). Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: An electronic birth cohort study. BMC Medicine, 19(172), 1-13, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x
5. Kazdin, A. (2018). Annual research review: Expanding mental health services through novel models of intervention delivery. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60(4), 455-472. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12937
6. Tripi, B.A. & Semanchin Jones, A. (2022, November). Engagement of Young Children and Caregivers in Outpatient Mental Health Services: Facilitators and Barriers. Paper presentation at the Council on Social Work Education 68th Annual Program Meeting, Anaheim, CA.

Target Audience: social workers, mental health practitioners, creative arts therapists, marriage and facility therapists, psychologists, addiction professionals, case managers, and other interested individuals.

We are happy to respond to any concerns or questions you may have. Please contact us at by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or by phone at 716-829-5841.

ADA Accommodations: If you require any support for your ADA needs in the United States, please contact us by email at least 3 weeks prior to the event by email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu or by phone at 716-829-5841.

Registration open until: 9/8/23