Institute forges a new alliance to promote an “academy of educators” for child psychiatry

The shortage of child psychiatrists in the United States is nothing new, but the problem seems to be getting worse. Demand for their services is on the rise as parents grow more accepting of mental health diagnoses for children such as depression and bipolar disorder, schools identify more troubled children, and the use of medication to combat children’s emotional problems becomes more common. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) has made increasing the ranks of child psychiatrists its top priority, and a new partnership with the Harvard Macy Institute will help member psychiatrists enhance their teaching abilities in order to better promote the attractiveness and importance of their field.

Dr. Thomas Anders

The partnership between the Institute and AACAP was spearheaded by Dr. Thomas Anders, professor of psychiatry at the University of California-Davis. Anders, the president-elect of AACAP and co-chair of its steering committee on workforce issues, is at the helm of a major effort to reform training curricula as well as to develop new portals into child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) training in order to make the field more attractive to medical students. In 2001, the organization identified as its primary objective the increase of the CAP workforce by 10 percent per year starting in 2004. The U.S. Bureau of Health Professions projects that at past_issues/Nov_Dec_2004 recruitment levels, the nation will have only two-thirds of the child and adolescent psychiatrists needed to meet the demand by 2020.

Anders says that a major factor in the shortage is that medical students receive little exposure to the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. “Most medical schools have courses in the first or second year on human behavior, and these are often taught by a member of the psychiatry faculty. But there aren’t enough child psychiatrists on the faculty to teach these courses, so developing some master teachers will make them more likely to be chosen to teach those courses,” said Anders.

Elizabeth Armstrong leads a session of the Program for Health Science Educators.

The Harvard Macy Institute’s Program for Health Science Educators (formerly known as the Program for Physician-Educators) is tailor-made to help child and adolescent psychiatrists who are dealing with the challenge of attracting new students through education, on top of the rigors of practice and research. Anders, in collaboration with Elizabeth Armstrong, PhD, director of the Institute, has established a program that will select six individuals from AACAP to attend the Program for Health Science Educators each year for the next three years. The group will develop educational projects related to the needs of the child and adolescent psychiatry field. The program alumni will form a core cadre of teaching scholars within AACAP who will teach other CAPs in their home institutions as well as mount Teacher Training Institutes at Annual Meetings. The AACAP Teaching Scholars will have an annual retreat, as part of the AACAP Annual Meeting, on common areas of interest that affect CAP teaching/training and continue to participate as alumni in the Harvard Macy Program.

Anders notes that like many of the medical educators who attend the Harvard Macy programs, the first group of AACAP psychiatrists who have been selected to attend the Program for Health Science Educators have not been trained as educators. “They have done traditional teaching of residents, but do not have much experience with large-class case-based adult learning,” he said. “The scarcity of child and adolescent psychiatrists on the faculties of most medical schools means that they simply don’t have the time to teach first-year medical students. We hope that the Harvard Macy Institute can not only enhance the expertise of these educators, but also help them develop strategies that enable them to generate more time to teach about the field. Learning what strategies are most effective is central to helping them make the most of their teaching time.”

The partnership with AACAP, the first of its kind for the Harvard Macy Institute, represents another opportunity for the Institute to broaden its impact, says Armstrong. “The AACAP has set up a model that could be transferable to other specialty groups that are interested in developing and nurturing master teachers,” she said. “Program for Health Science Educators introduces strategies that help medical educators not only transfer knowledge in a way befitting today’s health care environment, but also become better role models for junior faculty and students.”

The first group of faculty selected by AACAP will come to Boston in January 2005 for the initial session of the Program for Health Science Educators.