TouroCOM and St. Lukes-Roosevelt Hospital Center Address Adolescent Mental Health
Fifty Students Participate in Ground-Breaking Presentation on Treating Children
Approximately 50 students, faculty and staff from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, and the local medical community participated in a forum held recently at TouroCOM titled: “Adolescent Mental Health: A Triad of Intervention.”
A panel of behavioral health experts convened to discuss interventions with children and adolescents who suffer from mental illness. They also discussed how untreated and preventable chronic illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease can be aggravated among this population by poor health habits, such as inadequate physical activity, poor nutrition, smoking, substance abuse, and challenges in navigating complex healthcare systems.
Panelists Jeffrey Gardere, Ph.D., course director and assistant professor of behavioral medicine at TouroCOM, and Dr. Yair Maman, Ph.D., chair of Programs in Counselor Education at the Touro College Graduate School of Psychology (GSP), stressed the need for psychiatrists, pediatricians, community and school-based mental health professionals to come together in identifying mental health conditions in children and adolescents.
Panelists emphasized that school and community counselors are often on the front lines of mental health care and can possibly help to prevent incidents of violence. This dialogue hit a chord with panelist Dr. Maman, and as a result, a GSP task force will be formed to tackle mental health issues in America’s schools and communities.
Kenneth Steier, DO and clinical dean at TouroCOM, was pleased to host the collaboration between the Department of Psychiatry at St. Lukes-Roosevelt and TouroCOM. Other featured panelists included keynote speaker Madeline Zivian, M.A., project director, New York State Office of Mental Health, and moderator Ulrick Vieux, DO, M.S., medical director, Children’s Community Mental Health Services and director, Mental Health Services within School-Based Clinics, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Additional panelists from St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center included Nelly Boggio, M.D., director, Pediatric Hospitalists/Inpatient Service and medical director, School-Based Health Clinics; Daniel Medeiros, M.D., director, Child and Family Institute, and chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Hunter McQuiston, M.D., chief, Division of Outpatient Community Psychiatry/ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health; and Cathy Passman, LCSW, director, Children’s Community Mental Health Services, The Child and Family Institute. Spearheaded by Dr. Vieux, the event was organized by Remi Odunsi, of the TouroCOM Department of Clinical Education.
