Children's Hospitals Today - Spring 2022 - 28

FEATURE / BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Creative workforce
expansion
A workforce shortage and increase in
need for services is straining a pediatric
behavioral health system that
is already challenging to access. For
example, a 2019 study published in
Pediatrics found there is an average
of 9.75 child psychiatrists per 100,000
children in the U.S. The American
Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry projects the country
needs 47 child psychiatrists for every
100,000 kids ages 0-19 to effectively
meet the needs of the pediatric population.
Influencing the pipeline of behavioral
health care providers such as
social workers, nurses, psychologists
and community navigators is a longterm
effort, but children's hospitals
are looking at where they can access
more workers in the short term. One
field on the list: teaching.
It takes about four years to become
a teacher, during which future
educators complete a bachelor's degree
and teaching certification exam.
There's one gap in training, however.
" Teachers come out of school prepared
to teach, but a lot of their time
is actually spent on behavioral management
in the classroom, " Wilmoth
says. " They're not always prepared for
that. " Wilmoth says this gap is an opportunity
for children's hospitals, and
Akron Children's developed a teacher
training program, which is philanthropically
funded, to boost these
skills.
Through a series of opportunities,
teachers learn trauma-informed
strategies
challenges,
drawal
and
disengagement,
for managing classroom
such as
student withclass
work
aversion, verbal and physical
aggression, hyperactivity and social
isolation. Where teachers start in the
program is dependent on school culture.
" It depends on where the school
is in their adoption so we may need to
start with awareness, " Wilmoth says.
Akron Children's presents school
districts with a menu of options to
personalize the training. After completing
basic training, other continuing
education opportunities include
in-classroom consultations, lectures
and small group coaching. There are
opportunities for a certified trauma
and resilience practitioner to join the
classroom to observe and collaborate
with teachers to demonstrate how different
strategies can help them manage
classroom behavior. " To be able to
enhance teachers' levels of confidence
in behavioral management of the
classroom can reduce their stress and
lead to teacher retention, " says Doug
Straight, clinical operations director,
Psychiatry and Psychology at Akron
Children's. " A healthy workforce leads
to healthy outcomes for children. "
But working with teachers isn't the
only area of opportunity. Liaw sees
a potential
pipeline of workers
in
the dwindling workforce outside of
health care-professionals who have
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CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Spring 2022
Children's Hospitals Today - Spring 2022

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