Optimizing Treatment for Youth Anxiety and Related Disorders Over Telehealth
When: Wednesday, November 8 - 12:00 PM
Duration: 1 hours 30 minutes
Location: Zoom
Event Details:
There is a rapidly burgeoning literature around telehealth’s effectiveness and potential to increase engagement in care for youth with anxiety and related disorders. However, there is virtually no data on the effectiveness of hybrid approaches to care (i.e., treatment courses that include a mix of both telehealth and in-person services for a single client) nor guidance about what youth characteristics should suggest use of one modality over another. Thus, with increasing resumption of in-person therapy services alongside the continuation of telehealth, clinicians are left with little guidance about how to make recommendations for whether a given client would most benefit from therapy services delivered via telehealth versus in-person versus hybrid.
This webinar first will provide an overview of gold standard treatment recommendations for anxiety and related disorders in youth. Then, it will offer practice-based recommendations guided by the three-legged stool for evidence-based practice in psychology to aid clinicians in making decisions on how and when to proceed via telehealth or not for anxious youth:
Leg 1: A review of the research evidence for the efficacy of psychotherapy via telehealth services, as compared to in-person services
Leg 2: An exploration of how clinicians’ experiences and expertise can guide decision-making about service modality
Leg 3: A discussion of the factors that may shape client treatment preferences for families of youth with anxiety and related disorders
Following this, content will cover how clinicians can integrate these components alongside principles of shared decision-making for youth mental health care to inform clinical recommendations about whether to provide mental health care services to youth with anxiety and related disorders via telehealth or in-person. Case examples from community mental health practice will illustrate principles presented.
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
- State the gold standard of psychosocial treatment recommendations for anxiety and related disorders in youth
- Describe the current evidence for the effectiveness of telehealth services for anxiety and related disorders in youth as well as limitations of the current evidence base
- Apply principles of shared-decision making to make recommendations to youth and families about treatment modality
About the Presenter
Emily Becker-Haimes, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Mental Health. She is also the clinical director of the Pediatric Anxiety Treatment Center at Hall Mercer (PATCH), which is the only specialty anxiety clinic in Philadelphia dedicated to serving youth in the public mental health system. She is an implementation scientist and clinical psychologist whose research and clinical work is dedicated to improving mental health service quality in specialty mental health settings for youth. She has particular expertise in the implementation of exposure therapy for pediatric anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders across settings and the application of exposure therapy for youth with complex comorbidities. Her work is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the International OCD Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trust. Dr. Becker-Haimes received her doctoral degree in child clinical psychology from the University of Miami. She completed her predoctoral internship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.