Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Supporting Youth Mental Health in a Digital World with Dr. Megan Moreno

Transcript

Supporting Youth Mental Health in a Digital World with Dr. Megan Moreno · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

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  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
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  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris
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  - Sosa, your host, and I am thrilled today
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  - to be joined by doctor Megan Moreno. She's
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  - vice chair of academic affairs for the department
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  - of pediatrics at University of Wisconsin Madison and
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  - co medical director of the AAP Center of
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  - Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.
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  - Doctor Moreno, thank you for joining us today.
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  - Thanks for the invitation.
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  - Wonderful. We have so many things to talk
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  - about. But first, could you give our audience
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  - a little bit more about yourself and your
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  - background?
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  - Sure.
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  - My initial training was in pediatrics, and I
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  - then did a fellowship in adolescent medicine. So
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  - my clinical practice is in adolescent and young
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  - adult medicine. So I sometimes joke I'm one
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  - of the few folks that sees,
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  - patients on both sides of the house, the
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  - adult side and the pediatric side. And I'm
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  - also a researcher.
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  - Do you run into my colleagues who have
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  - that type of experience, doctor, with both sides
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  - of the house as you put it?
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  - Definitely in the family practice world and in
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  - the med peds world. But in terms of
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  - pediatric subspecialties,
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  - there's only a few specialties, maybe cardiology,
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  - allergy, and and us in adolescent medicine.
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  - Makes sense. Well, like I said, we have
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  - many, many things to talk about today. I'm
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  - so glad you're here.
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  - So as far as mental health needs in
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  - particular, the first question I wanna ask you,
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  - doctor, is, what are hospitals and health systems
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  - systems,
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  - I should say, still getting wrong about caring
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  - for teenagers,
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  - whose conditions span both physical and mental health
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  - needs?
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  - Lot you can go with... Lot of directions
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  - you can go with that question. Doctor, take
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  - it away.
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  - Yes. I love that question. I think,
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  - adolescence is just such an incredible
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  - time from from a developmental
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  - standpoint,
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  - from, from a health standpoint.
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  - Youth are really at that age finding their
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  - voice. They're very curious about their health. They're
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  - they're thinking about their health really differently. And
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  - what research shows is that teens want to
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  - be involved in their healthcare visits.
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  - They want to ask questions and they want
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  - the questions to be asked of them.
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  - But what's interesting is healthcare
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  - systems
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  - have largely left it to individual
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  - providers to decide how they're going to approach
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  - this. How much do they involve adolescents?
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  - When and how do they see adolescents?
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  - So I do think systems could do more
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  - to harmonize or standardize
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  - approaches to the adolescent patient
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  - so that adolescents have health care questions asked
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  - of them rather than a caregiver,
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  - And then all adolescents have part of their
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  - outpatient and inpatient
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  - visits
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  - on their own so they can start that
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  - process of learning how to navigate their own
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  - care.
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  - Those are such excellent points, doctor Moreno, especially
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  - when you consider,
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  - in this day and age, it seems like
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  - everyone, obviously, not just adolescents,
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  - feels more comfortable, I think. I should say
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  - not everyone. But a lot of patients feel
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  - more comfortable with their medical visits being a
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  - two way street and not as much, you
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  - know, hey, here's... I'm the physician. Here's what
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  - you should do. But so many people come
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  - in with... Armed with so much more information
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  - than they used to.
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  - I think that's so true. And and youth
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  - are so savvy about their own health care
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  - and often have done some looking online and
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  - curiosity and
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  - really engaging with them can give them that
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  - foundation of, hey. It's okay to look online,
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  - but I'm the person you should be talking
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  - to about health decisions.
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  - Certainly. So we're gonna expound that a little
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  - bit here. So
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  - as I get into my next question for
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  - you, doctor,
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  - so as we mentioned, you'd co direct an
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  - AAP center of excellence.
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  - So when we talk about a healthy digital
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  - ecosystem,
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  - what does that look like in practice, and
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  - what role do you think health systems should
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  - play in building such it?
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  - I think a healthy digital ecosystem
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  - means that youth have offline
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  - support
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  - to use online tools safely and towards improving
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  - their health rather than
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  - having more risk.
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  - So we we do know from lots of
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  - research over decades
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  - that youth use online tools to learn about
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  - health topics,
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  - particularly topics they think might be embarrassing or
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  - stigmatizing.
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  - So that's often mental health or reproductive
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  - health. And so that means sometimes youth are
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  - going to doctor Google or now the new
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  - the new doc on the scene, doctor chat
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  - g p t, to find answers to their
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  - health questions. So I think this is a
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  - place where systems could do more to
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  - promote accurate health resources for patients,
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  - either making those in house or providing links
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  - to existing patient facing resources.
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  - At the American Academy of Pediatrics, we have
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  - an entire website called healthychildren.org
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  - that is all
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  - pediatrician
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  - written articles on topics that patients have asked
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  - us.
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  - Doctor, so when you consider
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  - AI in particular,
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  - what are the positives you think
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  - of patients going to
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  - those resources
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  - as they are today?
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  - I like how you clarified as they are
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  - today. Well... And as they are today, as
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  - we both know, they aren't always providing the
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  - most accurate and up to date answers to
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  - questions. So
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  - I I do think that sometimes
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  - youth who use AI
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  - can use it to practice,
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  - to kind of practice asking questions, practice figuring
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  - out how to ask a question,
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  - and that can be beneficial because it can
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  - potentially
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  - make it more likely that they would feel
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  - comfortable asking that question in clinic.
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  - But what what I tell patients is it
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  - it shouldn't be the place where you go
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  - for the final answer.
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  - Yeah. That's such a great point, doctor Moreno,
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  - about bridging that
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  - communication gap between, you know, what a teen
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  - or an adolescent might understand
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  - and how
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  - a physician,
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  - such as yourself might answer that question.
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  - I I don't know if that's communicated
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  - or considered all that much, at least not
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  - in... Until this point.
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  - Yeah. I I think sometimes we underestimate
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  - how
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  - much
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  - skill and experience
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  - are part of learning just how to ask
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  - questions in clinic and that that can be
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  - really nerve wracking for youth. They don't know
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  - if they're asking it right. So having a
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  - place where they can practice that or type
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  - it out or kinda see what kind of
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  - answers might come up and then knowing the
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  - right way to ask their provider.
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  - Doctor Moreno, next, you've touched on this topic
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  - a little bit, as we've gone on today.
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  - But I do wanna ask you a a
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  - little more directly. So
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  - when you look about...
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  - Look at, I should say, digital media risks,
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  - there there are plenty of them out there.
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  - So what do you think the role of
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  - health system leaders, clinicians such as yourself
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  - and your peers, how do you communicate these
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  - risks in a way that's evidence based?
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  - This is the million dollar question,
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  - and it... It's a million dollar question because,
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  - this this is a topic that there's a
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  - lot of polarization around. It's a topic that
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  - bridges our work lives and our personal lives,
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  - and people,
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  - I think, often feel like they have to
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  - choose a camp. They have to be in
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  - the pro tech camp or they have to
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  - be in the no tech camp. And there's
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  - just a lot of opinions and feelings and
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  - judgment
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  - around which camp you're... You belong in,
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  - but I think what we forget is that
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  - there's this wide open space between those camps
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  - where we can think at the system level
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  - about
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  - how do we optimize these tools for patients,
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  - how do we use these tools in our
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  - work so that we can be more efficient,
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  - and how do we make sure that these
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  - tools aren't making our work bleed completely over
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  - into every provider and administrator's personal life?
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  - Easier said than done, obviously,
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  - doctor Moreno, but, you know, that's why we're
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  - having these conversations to to move that... The
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  - ball forward, so to speak.
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  - So, doctor, I do wanna mention, of course,
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  - that you just wrote... Cowrote a book, I
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  - should say.
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  - It's called connecting, raising kids in a digital
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  - world. So it takes what you described as
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  - a strength based approach grounded in love and
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  - connection.
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  - So on that topic, why would you say
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  - that you chose that framing, you and your
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  - coauthor,
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  - and how can pediatric clinicians
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  - use it with families?
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  - Well, pediatricians
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  - are very adept at using strength based approaches
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  - with patients.
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  - That includes supporting families through other
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  - complicated topics like sleep training,
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  - toddler
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  - tantrums,
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  - adolescents navigating puberty, and we really wanted to
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  - take an approach
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  - like that with this topic, especially knowing that
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  - patients and parents in particular
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  - are so stressed about this topic. We really
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  - wanted to put it in a framing that
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  - felt familiar
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  - and that they knew that there's a lot
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  - of ways to do this right.
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  - Doctor, just to close out our conversation, what
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  - else
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  - excites you about
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  - where tech is going,
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  - where research is going as it relates to,
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  - the digital
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  - and medical ecosystem?
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  - I think one thing that excites me is,
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  - when I see adolescent patients,
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  - they're very thoughtful and very skeptical
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  - about tech use. I know we often think
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  - adolescents are glued to their phones, but
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  - when you really sit down and talk to
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  - them, they have a lot of thoughts and
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  - they've been watching their parents glued to their
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  - phones.
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  - And as they get older and bring that
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  - skepticism and that desire for real world connection,
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  - I think we're gonna see a whole new
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  - way that we look at,
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  - hopefully, a little better balance in our online
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  - and offline world.
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  - I certainly think all of us can use
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  - that, doctor Moreno, as as someone who is
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  - occasionally glued to his phone more than he
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  - needs to be. But it's good to hear
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  - that,
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  - their children and adolescents and other young people
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  - out there who are
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  - coming to this realization that maybe there's a
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  - lot more to be experienced
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  - outside of that. And, yeah, hopefully, you and
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  - your colleagues in your new book, of course,
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  - can point at people in that direction.
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  - I hope so. I hope it'll open up
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  - some great conversations.
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  - Certainly. Well, doctor Marino, thank you so much
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  - for being on the podcast today, and I,
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  - for one, very much look forward to the
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  - next time I pass across. Thank you so
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  - much.