Latest / Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health / Dr. Karin Price, Chief of Psychology at Texas Children’s Hospital

Transcript

Dr. Karin Price, Chief of Psychology at Texas Children’s Hospital · Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health

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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Mariah
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  Taylor, assistant editor, and I'm thrilled to be
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  interviewing Karen Price,
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  chief of psychology for Texas Children's Hospital on
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  the podcast today. Karen, thank you so much
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  for joining me. Now as probably all of
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  our listeners have heard, there's been some pretty
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  devastating flooding down there in Texas. And I
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  know Texas Children's has been really on the
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  forefront of trying to help those communities as
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  they both recover from what's happening and process
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  everything that's gone down in these communities.
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  And I really just wanna kind of understand
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  what you all have been seeing in the
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  last few weeks after these floods hit. So
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  can you share a little bit about
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  kind of what you've all been doing in
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  these initial weeks from your perspective
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  kind of services,
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  the way your staff have been impacted,
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  and then how you've been involved on the
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  ground?
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  Absolutely. So, unfortunately,
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  we here at Texas Children's have had experience
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  with disaster response, thinking about hurricane Harvey back
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  in 2017,
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  of course, with the COVID nineteen pandemic,
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  and then, the school shooting here in Uvalde,
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  Texas.
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  We've had the opportunity to really,
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  think through our strategy and think through the
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  best way to impact our community and to
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  share information.
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  So one of the things that we've learned
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  is that there are a lot of very
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  well meaning people and organizations that jump in
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  to help in the immediate aftermath of a
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  disaster, which is wonderful.
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  But sometimes even to the point of oversaturation.
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  And we definitely saw this with the Central
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  Texas flooding where,
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  the different community organizations needed to ask people
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  to stop sending
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  physical donations and stop kind of coming into
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  the counties because it was impeding the relief
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  efforts.
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  And so really what we have learned at
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  Texas Children's is that that's the time that
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  we need to spend,
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  first really having an immediate response of compassion
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  and support,
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  for the community, but also really for our
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  employees. So here in Houston at Texas Children's
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  Hospital, we have about 20,000 employees, some of
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  whom were directly impacted and some of whom
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  are are figuring out how to talk with
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  their children and their friends and their neighbors
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  about what happened. And some of them are
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  trying to figure out how to talk with
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  their patients,
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  who are coming to see them about what
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  happened. So
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  our first immediate response is to to share
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  our compassion and support for the community
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  and then to really make sure that we
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  are sharing education
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  and resources, whether that's through the media
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  or through,
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  live presentations on social media.
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  Sometimes it is doing education with our medical
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  partners and our pediatrician partners who are on
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  the front lines of seeing lots and lots
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  of kids every day.
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  And the idea is that we spend some
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  time partnering with community organizations
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  and having discussions
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  about the needs on the ground, both immediate
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  and anticipated.
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  That way,
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  after many other resources are redirected
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  and as life gets back to normal for
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  those who aren't immediately impacted,
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  we want to be there to fill the
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  gaps and address the needs in the long
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  run.
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  Perfect.
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  Now while
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  physical rebuilding is underway, I know that the
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  emotional and kind of behavioral recovery process can
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  span quite a bit of a longer time
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  frame. What mental health or psychological support initiatives
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  has your system implemented to help families and
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  staff navigate this phase?
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  So one thing we've been doing, as I
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  mentioned, is just spreading a lot of information
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  about how to talk with children who have
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  experienced this trauma,
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  how parents
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  can take care of themselves as they support
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  their children,
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  how we can
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  talk to our patients and talk to our
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  neighbors and our community members about
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  coping skills, how to know what responses
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  children might have that are typical or normal
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  for somebody that's gone through a trauma,
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  and what are some signs that a child
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  might need,
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  professional help.
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  We then have offered immediate availability
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  for,
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  trauma and grief services
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  through our traumatic stress and resilience program
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  here in Houston as well as at our
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  Austin campus.
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  We have availability for immediate appointments in person,
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  but also through telehealth so that families who
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  are impacted
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  have that immediate access to a professional. So
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  all of that is really about
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  what our response has been to date, but
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  it's also anticipating
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  the different things that are coming up and
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  planning for those things ahead of time.
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  Perfect.
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  And then kind of looking at the broader
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  nation, I think we've all seen kind of
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  an increase of these sorts of climate related
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  disasters, and it feels like flooding particularly
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  is much more common. So what preparedness strategies
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  or response protocols from your system do you
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  believe could help serve as a model for
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  other health care organizations?
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  I think the first thing we've done is
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  really identify teams and team members who are
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  available to be part of that emergency outreach.
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  What happens is if you're in a busy
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  professional place like we are, everybody's schedules are
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  full to the brim. We're always working hard
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  to ensure access to all of our services.
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  But if you don't have an emergency outreach
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  team, what ends up happening is when you
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  do have a crisis, you're pulling people away
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  from their
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  regular patient care activities. And so in order
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  to have that availability
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  for fast response,
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  you need to have people identified as being
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  on emergency outreach teams. It really helps to
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  have a mobile team. For example, here at
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  Texas Children's, we have a mobile behavioral health
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  unit, a vehicle that can travel to different
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  locations and offer therapy services on-site in a
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  private,
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  and stigma free environment. So those things are
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  really important ahead of time to make sure
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  that you have those people identified and that
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  those
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  providers have the right expertise
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  in providing trauma care, providing grief care, and
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  making sure that, they're having the correct
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  developmental approach to helping kids of different ages
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  to deal with these,
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  very difficult issues.
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  The other thing I would say is that
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  we need to really be engaging with our
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  community in a continuous way,
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  in terms of building community resilience ahead of
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  disasters.
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  And related to that, really building communication
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  mechanisms for us to gather real time information
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  about needs that might be occurring, whether that
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  is
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  in schools or school districts, whether that's in
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  places of worship, community organizations.
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  Different camp associations have been reaching out to
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  us, really thinking about what happens when,
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  children and camp counselors who are at camp
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  now sort of leave what they call their
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  camp bubble and come back into the real
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  world,
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  and have to deal with all of the
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  information that we are are having shared with
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  us on a daily basis. That's truly
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  heartbreaking and tragic. I think we need to
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  think about what happens when kids go back
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  to school and for those that are directly
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  impacted, maybe some of their classmates are not
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  there
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  or they are
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  interacting with siblings of children that passed away
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  or families that have been directly impacted.
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  And then down the line thinking about even
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  next year when it's time for kids to
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  go away to camp, how are we going
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  to help children and families cope with the
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  stress that comes with that?
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  Some really good advice.
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  Well, thank you so much for being here
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  today and sharing everything you all are doing
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  there at Texas Children's.
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  I know your communities have definitely appreciated your
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  support, and we here appreciate you sharing all
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  of the great work that you're doing down
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  there. So thank you for joining me on
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  the podcast today. Thank you.