Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Dr. Arturo Brito, President and Chief Executive Officer of Children's Health Fund

Transcript

Dr. Arturo Brito, President and Chief Executive Officer of Children's Health Fund · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

0:00
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- This is Chris. So with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast,
0:30
I'm thrilled to be joined by Dr.
0:31
Arturo Brito, president
0:33
and Chief Executive Officer of the Children's Health Fund.
0:36
Arturo, thank you for joining us today.
0:38
- Thank you for having me, Chris. Pleasure to be here.
0:42
- Arturo, would you please introduce yourself
0:44
and tell us a bit more about your background?
0:47
- Yeah, so I'm, I'm a community pediatrician
0:49
with a population health focus.
0:51
I received my medical degree from the University
0:53
of South Florida College of Medicine.
0:55
Uh, completed my pediatric residency, um,
0:58
at Emory University
0:59
and affiliated hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia,
1:01
including at Grady Memorial Hospital,
1:03
the Safety Net Hospital, uh, for Atlanta.
1:07
I then went on as I was working as a community pediatrician
1:10
to receive my master's
1:11
of public health degree from the University
1:13
of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
1:15
As you said, I'm president
1:16
and CEO of Children's Health Fund.
1:18
I rejoined the fund back in September of 2021,
1:21
a little over two and a half years ago, um,
1:24
having previously served of between 2006
1:27
and 2011 as Chief Medical Officer.
1:29
Uh, and those approximately 10 years in
1:31
between those two roles of the current one.
1:34
And the previous one, I served as deputy commissioner
1:37
and lead physician, uh,
1:38
for the New Jersey Department of Health.
1:41
Then went on to become the executive director
1:43
of the Nicholson Foundation,
1:44
a family foundation focused on early childhood
1:48
and healthcare in New Jersey.
1:50
Um, so my clinical
1:52
and leadership career has always been focused on underserved
1:56
populations and healthcare equity.
1:59
Um, immediately after residency,
2:01
I worked in southwestern Alaska
2:03
for the Indian Health Service, providing care to UIC people,
2:06
a native Alaskan population,
2:08
living in ro remote areas of the state.
2:10
Quite an experience I've learned a lot there about
2:13
what it means to be a marginalized population, what it means
2:17
to live in a remote part of the country, that access
2:20
to healthcare is a big challenge.
2:21
You know, after that, I spent the next 11 years
2:25
as the medical director
2:26
of the South Florida Children's Health Project.
2:28
This is one of the early partnering program
2:31
of Children's Health Fund,
2:32
and a continues to be one
2:34
of now 24 programs in 15 states, Puerto Rico
2:38
and Washington dc um, that form our national network.
2:42
Um, throughout our network, we provide care
2:44
to more than a hundred thousand, uh, individual children
2:46
every single year through nearly 500,000 clinical visits
2:51
on mobile clinics via telehealth.
2:53
And at more than 400 schools
2:54
and other community sites, four out of five kids served
2:59
by our national network are black
3:01
or brown, all live in low income households.
3:05
Um, so like many of our other partners,
3:07
when I was in South Florida, we had a custom design,
3:10
38 foot long mobile medical clinic,
3:13
a doctor's office on wheels, if you will.
3:16
Um, this was my medical office.
3:18
I worked alongside mental health providers, social workers,
3:21
nurses, nutritionists
3:22
and others, uh, to provide comprehensive healthcare
3:25
for children growing up in under-resourced communities
3:28
throughout Miami-Dade County.
3:30
It was also a great opportunity to teach medical students
3:34
and residents who rotated on that, uh, uh, mobile clinic
3:38
and throughout our sites on a regular basis.
3:41
And this is University of Miami's, uh, teaching program
3:44
for community pediatrics.
3:46
Um, so my diverse leadership
3:48
and clinical experience, um, helped me in my current role
3:52
as president and CEO of CHF.
3:55
It's really about carrying forward a more than 36 year
3:59
history of chfs values about focus on
4:03
under-resourced communities and marginalized populations.
4:07
What's most important to us is that we believe
4:09
that every child in this country,
4:12
every child in the United States, deserves quality.
4:15
And I emphasize the word quality here, right?
4:17
Healthcare, you know,
4:18
our current strategy builds on the more than 36 year
4:22
history of innovation.
4:23
Um, the use of a mobile clinics as a pediatric medical home,
4:27
for example, was unique in 1987 when we began,
4:31
and when we established
4:32
and used the first one to serve children
4:35
and families living in squalor
4:36
and deplorable conditions in homeless
4:38
shelters throughout New York City.
4:40
We continue that work today throughout, um, uh,
4:43
New York City, uh, in those mobile clinics, uh,
4:46
through our flagship pro program,
4:47
the Bronx Health Collective,
4:49
who also have a state-of-the-Art, uh,
4:52
fixed site clinic in the South Bronx, uh, hunts Point, one
4:55
of the poorest congressional districts in the country.
4:57
We were also at the forefront
4:58
of developing electronic health records as early as 1989
5:02
to ensure that healthcare services were comprehensive
5:05
and included social drivers of health.
5:08
We didn't call it that back then,
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but they were social drivers of health, such
5:12
as addressing food insecurity,
5:13
transportation needs, and housing.
5:16
We've also developed the award-winning education materials
5:19
such as our Asthma guide that make it easier for parents
5:22
and physicians alike to follow evidence-based
5:24
national guidelines to better control this chronic disease
5:28
and help children stay active
5:30
and out of emergency rooms and hospitals.
5:33
In short, because our focus has always been about working in
5:36
under-resourced communities, working
5:38
to serve underserved populations
5:41
and marginalized populations, we've been able
5:43
to really create this niche of really ensuring that
5:48
as many kids in this country as possible,
5:50
getting the quality healthcare they they need
5:51
and deserve to thrive and succeed.
5:53
Um, in 2000, uh, 14, to continue our innovations,
5:58
we developed and established healthy and Ready to learn.
6:01
This is a program that addresses health barriers
6:04
to learning within the school setting.
6:06
Um, I would give a little more detail about that later
6:08
because it's one of our goals this year to grow
6:10
that program, not only within New York City
6:12
where it currently exists, but
6:14
outside New York City and into other states.
6:16
Um, and just a few years ago,
6:18
we developed our community health equity
6:20
and engagement roundtables.
6:22
This is all about really listening to community members, uh,
6:27
including youth, not just necessarily patients,
6:30
but community members who really understand, have a pulse
6:33
of what's going on in their community
6:36
and to drive programs that serve their needs.
6:41
Um, and it's, everybody talks about, uh, equity
6:43
and everybody talks about creating a voice.
6:46
Uh, we're actually walking the walk here
6:48
with our Chairs program.
6:50
Uh, so I often get asked, you know,
6:54
what drives me to do this work?
6:55
Why have I, I spent my entire professional career focused
6:59
on children living in under-resourced communities.
7:02
Well, I'm an immigrant myself from Cuba VI Nicaragua,
7:06
initially Columbus, Ohio, if you can imagine that.
7:08
Back then, we were one of the first
7:10
Latino families in that part of the country.
7:13
Uh, when I was seven years old, you know, I saw firsthand
7:16
what it's like to be discriminated against
7:18
not having access to quality of healthcare.
7:20
And I watch how my parents had to work, as they say, twice
7:24
as hard to get half as far.
7:25
And I also want to make sure I build on that to make sure
7:29
that all children in this country have the
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opportunity to thrive and succeed.
7:35
- Arturo, given the vast scope of your career already,
7:38
and who knows what's, what's ahead really,
7:40
and given the scope of what the Children's Health Run wants
7:43
to do, it certainly seems like they have the right person
7:45
in in that position.
7:47
Uh, you touched on some of the organization's goals.
7:50
Uh, would you mind right now getting into the top three
7:53
goals that you have for just this year?
7:55
- Yeah, yeah. So, first off, okay, uh, we want
7:59
to increase the number of children served
8:01
by our national network.
8:03
Um, eventually we wanna get to at least 150,000 children,
8:07
uh, annually.
8:08
Right now, this last year, we're at 118,000.
8:11
So over the next few years, we wanna increase that.
8:13
So our goal is to get more resources
8:15
so we can expand our network, both, uh, adding new partners,
8:20
but also giving more resources
8:22
to our current partners so they can see more children.
8:24
The need is definitely out there. Okay. So that's one goal.
8:27
The other one is we know there's a huge mental health crisis
8:31
with our youth and children.
8:32
There's no question about that.
8:34
There's a lot of evidence and, and, and data around that.
8:37
So, we wanna expand our integrative mental health services
8:40
through our mobile clinics, through telehealth
8:43
and at school-based centers that, uh,
8:44
our national network partners, uh, serve.
8:47
Um, and like I said, we wanna duplicate our Healthy
8:49
and Ready to Learn program to school
8:51
districts beyond New York City.
8:53
So, I wanna talk a little bit about that program.
8:54
If, if it's okay, Chris, um, you know, this unique program,
8:58
it, it, it, and I wanna talk about it
9:00
because it's being requested from our partners
9:02
and others from around the country about
9:04
how they can duplicate it.
9:06
Well, our Healthy
9:07
and Relearn program is built around addressing health
9:12
barriers to learning within the school setting.
9:14
What this means is if a child has asthma
9:17
that's uncontrolled,
9:19
we make sure they're getting their medication
9:21
and have the right provider
9:22
so they can focus more in school, stay outta the hospital
9:26
and not miss so many school days.
9:28
'cause we know, uh, that's a big reason
9:30
kids miss, uh, school.
9:31
Another reason kids miss school a lot is
9:33
because of dental issues.
9:35
Te uh, they, they have problems with, uh,
9:37
oral health issues like, uh, cavities that are causing a lot
9:40
of pain, abscesses, et cetera.
9:42
So we wanna make sure that kids have dental services,
9:47
and I don't mean just screening,
9:48
but actually taking care
9:49
of the dental problems in the school setting,
9:51
particularly in the poorer parts
9:53
of the country under-resourced communities.
9:55
Um, in this case, in New York City, right now,
9:57
we're in the Bronx, the South Bronx,
9:59
but we want to go elsewhere,
10:00
and we're looking at, uh, expanding it in New Jersey
10:03
and maybe other parts of the country.
10:05
But we believe this program has a big chance
10:09
of becoming something that could be a model program
10:13
to tie in to bridge, if you will, the health
10:16
and educational sectors
10:18
that are often live in their own silos.
10:21
And among the biggest issues is something I already
10:23
mentioned about the growing mental health crisis.
10:26
We need more mental health providers,
10:29
we need more mental health services, uh, whether
10:31
through telehealth or in school settings at the school sites
10:35
where healthy and ready to learn are,
10:37
this is the biggest request we get from the teachers,
10:39
the principal, and other school personnel,
10:41
because a lot of the kids that we see have a lot
10:44
of trauma in their lives that has been exacerbated
10:46
during the COVID-19 pandemic and surrounding social issues.
10:51
Um, and then the,
10:52
so those are the three goals, just to reiterate.
10:54
So we wanna increase the number
10:55
of children served by our national network.
10:57
We wanna expand our integrative mental health services,
11:00
and we want to take our healthy and regular Learn program
11:03
and replicate it in school districts outside
11:06
of New York City and throughout the country.
11:08
Um, we're looking for the resources to do that.
11:11
So it all takes resources,
11:13
but in the end, those resources will pay dividends
11:16
because the kids will be healthier.
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So the communities are healthier,
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and our country as a whole is healthier.
11:22
- Thank you, Arturo. I'm sure anyone who has a child
11:25
or is simply interested in the mental health
11:27
of their community is behind the goals that you guys have.
11:30
Uh, you mentioned a little bit about the partnerships
11:33
that the Children's Health Fund has.
11:36
So at this time, um, I'd like you, if you don't mind, uh,
11:39
to get into the main benefits of these partnerships as far
11:42
as your organization is concerned.
11:44
And how can leaders of other organizations
11:47
see if they're a good fit and maybe work
11:49
with the Children's Health Fund?
11:51
- Yeah, so I,
11:53
I learned a lot about this when I was at the Nicholas
11:55
Foundation, and we, we worked hard, um,
11:59
in partnering with the government sector,
12:02
New Jersey State Government in that case, you know,
12:05
government has a broader reach than the private sector.
12:09
So that's the advantage of working with government.
12:11
You may have a great idea, you may have a great program,
12:13
but you can reach a lot more people by partnering
12:16
with the right government agency at the right time.
12:19
The private sector can bring innovation and more depth
12:22
because government often doesn't have the
12:25
personnel be able to do that.
12:26
Um, so they have the broader reach.
12:29
Private sector can bring the innovative ideas and depth.
12:33
Um, so when design right,
12:35
they can compliment each other, right?
12:37
Having worked in both sectors, I understand
12:40
that it takes a certain patience
12:41
and strategic thinking to make it work.
12:43
Um, so when I was the Nicholas Foundation, uh,
12:46
we worked not only with the government sector,
12:49
but we also work with other private, um, not-for-profits
12:54
to unite our resources to do
12:59
demonstration models that would lead to, uh,
13:02
changes in systems.
13:03
In fact, that the Nicholson Foundation are, tagline wise,
13:06
change in systems, changing lives.
13:08
We wanted to change systems,
13:10
so our investments would have long-term
13:12
and sustainable impact.
13:14
I can give you a couple of examples.
13:15
One of the things we did, we did a demonstration model on
13:18
the value Okay.
13:21
Of community health workers for the state of New Jersey.
13:24
Um, and what that led to was eventually
13:27
after a two year, uh,
13:28
demonstration model alongside other foundations, was that
13:32
like we have seen around the country, uh,
13:35
there was an improvement in healthcare outcomes.
13:38
There was a decreasing of disparities
13:41
and lowering of healthcare costs by the,
13:43
with the use of community health workers.
13:45
And eventually, uh, New Jersey, like a lot
13:48
of other states have done, moved to, uh, reimbursing
13:51
through Medicaid for community health workers forming
13:54
and establishing a community health worker training
13:57
institute, um, that would really follow
14:00
what we did together there.
14:02
So that's one example.
14:03
So again, the potential impact of that institute
14:09
is, you know, population
14:10
of New Jersey, about 9 million people.
14:11
It could potentially reach, you know, millions
14:13
of those people, particularly those
14:15
that are on the lower income level
14:17
and that need those services.
14:19
Um, so what I would say
14:21
to somebody about other organizations,
14:23
and we actually put together, um, a, a, a guide on this,
14:28
if you will, at the Nicholson Foundation, glad to share
14:30
with anybody if they want to contact us about how
14:33
to know if you're ready to do this
14:34
and how you can assess it,
14:36
and how do you know if the government entity is ready?
14:39
Well, I think you have
14:40
to have both partners interested in making
14:42
that long-term impact
14:43
and ready to let go of, of a lot
14:46
of their preconceived notions about each other
14:49
and figure out what strengths each has in that case.
14:53
But again, generally speaking, government has
14:56
a broader reach that can reach more people,
14:58
and the private sector can bring the innovation, uh, to them
15:03
and working together, they can really, uh,
15:05
have substantial impact.
15:06
What I would also say in Encourage is
15:09
for not-for-profits out there that are writing the checks
15:12
for organizations, um, to do the work is to work
15:15
with other not-for-profits,
15:17
because that makes it easier for government too.
15:19
If they have one body of people working together as opposed
15:23
to five different entities coming to them at different times
15:26
with similar ideas or even the same idea.
15:29
It's a lot easier just to work with one,
15:31
because people in government are generally very, very busy
15:34
and o overworked and understaffed.
15:37
So I would just suggest that, so to know if you're ready,
15:39
if you're ready to make those changes and understand,
15:42
and these things take time, they take a few years,
15:43
you're not gonna get the same result.
15:45
But eventually that result will be longer lasting
15:48
and have more depth, uh, and a broader reach.
15:53
- That definitely makes sense. Arturo,
15:54
and I'm glad you mentioned the innovation elements of this.
15:57
That leads me to my next question,
15:59
and that is, in terms of technology, I mean,
16:01
everyone these days inundated with AI or virtual reality
16:05
or telehealth or anything else
16:07
that is just flooding the industry at the moment.
16:10
So what technology excites you most in terms of helping,
16:15
uh, assist communities and the organization's mission?
16:19
- Yeah, so there's a lot going on,
16:21
and I'm gonna say this about Children's Health Fund,
16:24
and we've had a long history of being at the forefront
16:28
of using technology for under-resourced communities
16:32
and underserved populations.
16:34
It's really important that this didn't
16:35
just start when I arrived.
16:37
In fact, when I was in South Florida Children's Health
16:39
Project, serving as a medical director working there, uh,
16:43
I recall that, uh, children's Health Fund,
16:45
think about this on a mobile clinic,
16:47
they had developed these third iteration, I believe,
16:51
of an electronic health record
16:53
that we could use on mobile clinics, even in areas
16:56
where access to wifi was limited.
16:58
Um, it was as effective as it could be,
17:01
but they were at the beginning, 1989,
17:03
as far back developing their first set
17:05
of electronic health records.
17:07
And the reason CHF has been at the forefront is
17:10
because of our focus on populations that frankly, a lot
17:13
of people have forgotten about or don't care about.
17:16
Um, and we needed those tools.
17:18
You can't carry around paper charts on mobile
17:21
clinics, you, there's a limit.
17:23
So that was one of the, um, reasons that that was developed,
17:26
but also because they, the type of people that come to work
17:28
for Children's Health Fund, like our current, uh,
17:30
vice president, uh, of our innovation lab,
17:33
something we developed last year, uh, Jen Pruitt, um,
17:36
you know, these are people that have it in their heart, uh,
17:40
to do the right thing for every child in this country
17:43
and also have, have the brain.
17:45
She's wicked smart and very creative about
17:48
how we approach things, uh, often
17:50
with limited resources in the communities we serve.
17:53
So, to answer your questions, I'll just give you some
17:55
of the potential, uh, projects of our innovation lab
17:58
or things we're working on
17:59
and looking for the resources to work on, um,
18:02
health education apps.
18:03
Like I mentioned before, we have award-winning education
18:06
materials that we've developed over the years,
18:08
and they're award-winning
18:09
because they are written at a level that anybody, anybody,
18:13
even me as a pediatrician who I've read all the, uh,
18:16
national guidelines, my goodness, you know,
18:18
I've used these materials forever since I worked on
18:20
that mobile clinic in South Florida.
18:21
It just makes it so much easier, less complicated,
18:24
and more direct to make sure
18:25
that kids are getting the asthma care they need and deserve.
18:28
We want to take, uh, those, these,
18:31
those education materials and turn 'em into apps.
18:33
Just about anybody now has access to smartphones
18:36
or a phone that they can easily look at an app so
18:38
that parents and their pediatrician,
18:40
their child's pediatricians alike,
18:42
can follow along together, uh,
18:44
and make sure that the children are receiving their, um,
18:47
you know, the medications they need to control their asthma,
18:50
keep 'em outta the hospital, keep 'em healthy,
18:51
and keep 'em in school, right?
18:53
Um, so that's one example.
18:54
There's other health education apps we'd like to develop.
18:57
What we're interested in morning thing is this digital
18:59
divide that I worry, worry, uh, you know, you talk about ai,
19:04
but who's gonna benefit from AI most
19:06
and who is gonna bear the burden?
19:08
I worry, like a lot of things have happened historically
19:11
that certain populations reap the benefits of advance
19:15
of technology and other populations actually don't read the
19:18
benefits, and even worse, they often bear the burden.
19:20
We wanna make sure that the digital divide, we have, um,
19:26
we do our part to make sure our, uh, service sites are
19:31
not, uh, excluded from any of the benefits that AI has
19:35
to offer or any other technological advances.
19:38
So one example is with our Healthy
19:40
and Ready to Learn, uh, program that I talked about
19:43
before, we've also created a resource
19:46
and training center to make, uh, quality materials, uh,
19:49
available to educators, health staff,
19:52
and school health advocates, even in schools we're not, uh,
19:57
physically in, uh, so that we can support their work
20:00
and ensure students are healthy and ready to learn.
20:02
Um, we're gonna, we want to continue
20:04
to develop this resource center, um,
20:06
adding new target audiences topics and interactive tools.
20:10
Um, so we also wanna produce a national child health
20:14
resource and training center, um, along those same lines
20:17
that this will provide a platform for materials
20:19
and information sharing, uh,
20:21
across disciplinary collaboration
20:23
and other interactive tools, um, directed though
20:27
to physicians and residents serving
20:30
under-resourced communities.
20:32
So, um, those are the main things we're
20:34
focused on for this year.
20:35
But I believe this innovation lab, you know,
20:37
the sky's the limit on it, uh, with the right resources
20:41
and with our leadership that we have here and, um,
20:44
and the dedication that we have
20:45
for the populations we serve.
20:48
- Uh, thank you, Arturo. It just seems
20:49
so simple the way you put it in terms of, Hey,
20:51
here's this healthy and ready to learn program
20:54
so we can keep kids, give them the very basics, right?
20:56
Let's keep them in the classroom.
20:59
And sometimes it's more difficult than it might seem,
21:01
certainly in these communities
21:02
that you're trying to help the most.
21:05
Les you did mention mental health,
21:07
and certainly that is on everyone's mind.
21:09
Don't real pun intended in that way.
21:11
Um, but yeah, if you don't mind getting into a little bit
21:14
about, about
21:15
how Children's Health Fund can go about
21:17
addressing that in communities.
21:19
- Yeah. So we know we have a huge mental health
21:21
crisis, okay?
21:23
We also know that, um,
21:26
even if you have all the money in the world,
21:27
there aren't enough right now enough, uh,
21:30
mental health providers for every community in this country.
21:33
Um, the problem is even more staggering for, uh,
21:37
marginalized communities,
21:38
marginalized populations like the L-G-B-T-Q, uh, children
21:41
and youth in our country, uh, that we have a number
21:44
of programs that are serving them.
21:46
Um, so there's, there's a couple things I wanna say about
21:49
how improving communities mental health, um,
21:53
you know, what we can do.
21:54
And I also wanna talk about advocacy
21:56
because I haven't talked about how we translate, uh,
21:59
lessons learned on the ground into, um, informed policy
22:03
and advocacy to make the right changes.
22:04
So, let, let, let's let, let me start first with what we do
22:09
through our national network
22:11
and through our healthy and learning program.
22:12
So we bring mental health
22:15
and other services directly into communities with the use
22:18
of mobile clinics, telehealth,
22:20
and through school-based clinics.
22:22
Okay? Um, we're also advocating for change at these clinics
22:28
and in schools in particular, uh, for
22:32
states around the country.
22:33
And some have moved in this direction to adopt, uh,
22:38
what is referred to as the, uh, CMS
22:42
or the Centers for Medicare
22:43
and Medicaid Services Administration,
22:45
the Federal Administration, uh, free care rule reversal.
22:49
What this refers to is back in 2014, CMS, um,
22:53
allowed now, uh, for the reimbursement
22:58
of services, clinical, medical,
23:02
mental health, and others in the school settings to expand
23:06
beyond just children on individualized education, uh,
23:10
programs or plans, right?
23:12
Um, in the past, before 2014, uh,
23:15
CMS would only allow you to get reimbursed
23:18
as a provider in a school setting to, um,
23:22
for children who were on those plans.
23:24
And that's about 18% very state to state,
23:26
but about one in five children, uh, that are on that plan.
23:29
So basically, you were excluding four outta five, uh,
23:32
kids from getting me needed services like mental health,
23:36
which is one of the biggest requests we get.
23:39
And since 2014, they said, oh,
23:42
now you can, uh, change that.
23:44
But it's up to each state.
23:46
We're working right now in New York to, uh,
23:50
have the Medicaid office adopt that change.
23:54
Uh, we're like to go to other states like New Jersey
23:57
that haven't adopted that change.
23:59
A little over 20, I believe at
24:01
to this date, have adopted that.
24:02
But there's a lot of states that haven't,
24:03
and we believe that's the starting point for widening.
24:09
Um, the access to mental health services
24:12
for kids they spend most of their day in school, why not,
24:15
uh, allow providers to go there to do that?
24:18
And it should be available both in person and telehealth.
24:22
Telehealth is a great way
24:24
to reach more kids when you have a diminished number
24:27
of mental health providers at the moment.
24:29
Um, and in youth in particular, they are teen, preteen,
24:34
teen and, and young adults.
24:36
It's been shown over
24:37
and over to be widely effective, just as effective in many,
24:39
most cases, as in-person.
24:42
Um, I also wanna say something else about the message
24:46
that we send communities
24:48
by bringing our mobile clinics into them.
24:50
Um, you know, one thing that's anecdotal
24:53
and something that I wish, uh, we could quantify,
24:59
uh, better, um, is that there's a subtlety
25:04
to the use of mobile clinics as a very intimate way
25:08
of providing healthcare in a community.
25:12
It forces you as a provider to really understand
25:14
and listen to those community needs, something
25:16
that we truly value here.
25:19
It also sends a message to the school
25:21
or other community sites you park at, that
25:25
you really do care about that community,
25:27
and it really helps build relationships, particularly with
25:30
teachers, um, and other staff at schools.
25:34
So, in a subtle way, it also helps
25:37
with the mental health aspect
25:39
of the needs of that community.
25:41
Now, having said that, we need to figure out as a country
25:45
how we're gonna have more providers of mental health.
25:48
And we, on our advocacy side, you know,
25:51
bringing services directly to community sites with the use
25:53
of mobile clinics, with telehealth or at schools
25:56
and advocating for more mental health, uh,
25:59
services in school settings, particularly,
26:01
is gonna go a long way to improving, uh, the health
26:05
of children in the under-resourced communities.
26:08
So we also need to look beyond traditional model, where I,
26:12
as a pediatrician, see a child with a behavioral problem
26:16
or a mental health issue,
26:17
and then refer them out to a mental health provider.
26:20
That model has a lot of challenges,
26:23
even though it's gotten better over the years,
26:24
there's still a lot of stigma
26:26
around mental health providers, transportation issues,
26:29
getting to mental health providers, scheduling issues,
26:31
and so on so forth that we all know about, right?
26:35
A better model is to have mental health providers
26:40
that are part of a healthcare team,
26:42
just like we did in South Florida,
26:43
just like our national network partners, um, continue to do.
26:47
For instance, I worked alongside,
26:49
uh, I can still remember Dr.
26:51
Christina, we called her a psychologist, and she
26:53
and I would just see patients sometimes together.
26:56
And there was a part where people would say,
26:59
wait, who's the pediatrician?
27:01
Who's the psychologist? Who's the best compliment?
27:03
Because I learned a lot about mental health
27:05
and behavioral issues in children,
27:07
and she learned a lot on the medical side.
27:09
And to work as a team in an integrative model like
27:12
that is gonna, uh, be a lot more effective.
27:15
It doesn't mean that every patient
27:16
needs a mental health provider.
27:17
It doesn't mean that every patient
27:18
that needs a mental health provider is gonna see
27:21
that psychologist, but she can make a better determination
27:24
and advise parents and,
27:26
and through this process also reduce any stigma
27:29
that is still out there about mental health,
27:32
particularly in a lot of the populations we see,
27:34
even though, uh, again, things have gotten better,
27:36
there's still populations out there that, uh,
27:39
they don't want people to know
27:40
they're seeing a mental health provider.
27:41
So that's integrative models like that.
27:43
And then the use of telehealth, like I said earlier,
27:45
increasing that because you can see a lot more kids,
27:48
particularly our youth, um, uh, through that model,
27:51
that it can be very effective.
27:53
And there's also, um,
27:54
developmental models like Healthy Steps
27:57
where a developmental specialist is integrated into, um,
28:02
the healthcare team
28:04
and where they can identify developmental issues in babies
28:07
and toddlers at a much earlier age, uh, than most
28:11
of us would in the traditional healthcare setting,
28:14
and refer them to the right places.
28:16
And then guide the parents about
28:18
what they can be doing at home
28:19
to stimulate their child's, uh, development.
28:21
Um, so we have to look at different models,
28:24
but then there's also what we refer to as community health.
28:27
You know, we need to work together
28:29
with the communities we're in,
28:31
and we're doing that in places like Baton Rouge
28:33
where they're working with the local police department,
28:36
for instance, um, to really, uh, build safer areas
28:41
and address safety issues that really add
28:43
to the trauma a lot
28:44
of kids are under right now, and families.
28:47
Um, and we need to be talking about that
28:49
and working with, um, you know, local police departments,
28:53
working with educators to destigmatize mental health issues,
28:58
lessen the trauma by creating safer spaces for children, uh,
29:01
and families, uh, to live, work, learn, play, uh,
29:06
and just, you know, be themselves.
29:09
- Ur thank you for being so generous with your time
29:12
and insights today.
29:13
We absolutely cannot wait to share them with the audience,
29:15
and we look forward to connecting with you soon.
29:17
- Well, uh, thank you Chris.
29:19
And you know, I, I don't know if you have,
29:20
if you can do this, but if you, if, if those listening want
29:24
to know more and have more information about us, I,
29:26
we're all on social media follow Children's Health Fund.
29:29
You can find us just by Googling, uh, children's Health Fund
29:32
and we're on LinkedIn, Facebook X,
29:34
formerly Twitter and Instagram.
29:36
Um, and you can also visit our website,
29:39
children's Health Fund, no,
29:40
apostrophe children's health fund.org,
29:42
and you can learn more about us.
29:44
And, uh, I, I appreciate the time with you
29:46
and, uh, it's really my pleasure to have been here.
29:49
Thank you.