Mental Health Education and Training

Find information to help you deliver the best mental health care to your patients and families.

Video Series and Telehealth Resources

Pediatric Mental Health Minute Series: These quick yet in-depth videos are designed to provide support in caring for children and adolescents with mental health concerns and promoting healthy mental development.

Promoting Telehealth Modules: A communications toolkit of telehealth resources is available that includes downloadable graphics and videos and links to HealthyChildren.org articles to help parents and caregivers understand the basics of a telehealth appointment and how to get ready for one, including for behavioral/mental health. Under development are online modules that support behavioral/mental health care during a telehealth visit.

AAP Online Courses

Trauma-Informed Care and Resilience Promotion 

CALM for Pediatric Providers: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means to Prevent Youth Suicide

Recovery-Friendly Care for Families Affected by Opioid Use Disorder 

Click here to see the current online courses available on mental health.

EQIPP Courses

ADHD – Diagnose, Treat, and Monitor: This course helps guide primary care clinicians (PCCs) in the evidence-based processes for diagnosing, treating, and monitoring of children and adolescents with ADHD. It provides practical ways to measure and improve the quality of ADHD care delivery.

EQIPP: Bright Futures - Infancy to Adolescence: This course helps guide pediatric healthcare professionals on how to organize and improve health supervision visits using the AAP Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents, 4th Edition and core materials. This course focuses on key measures related to selected health supervision visits.

AAP Live and Virtual Education Courses

The AAP offers a number of continuing medical education courses, both live and virtual, for general pediatricians, family physicians, pediatric subspecialists, and any pediatric provider interested in the care of children with mental health concerns. Click here to see the list of currently available current live and virtual courses such as,

• 2023 Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Pediatric Mental Health Disorders 

Project ECHO

Project ECHO is a telementoring program designed to create communities of learners by bringing together health care providers and experts in topical areas using didactic and case‐based presentations, fostering an “all learn, all teach” approach. Current ECHO course that are ongoing include:

• Behavioral Health
• Healthy Mental Development
• Suicide Prevention
• Anxiety and Depression
• Rural Mental Health

Past ECHOs include:

• Adolescent Substance Use
• Addiction Treatment

Motivational Interviewing Video Resources - Implementing Mental Health Priorities in Practice

Engaging families to uncover and clarify mental health needs, give effective advice, and have therapeutic encounters with patients and families requires skill and practice. This resource is designed to leverage the techniques of motivational interviewing (or in the case of substance use, a brief intervention) to provide practical skills needed to elicit accurate mental health information and create behavior change in patients. Supported by the  Friends of Children Fund.

This resource consists of 6 videos demonstrating examples of patient/family encounters that encompass the most difficult conversation areas for the following mental health topics:

• Social Emotional Problems in Children Birth to 5 
• Depression 
• Inattention and Impulsivity 
• Disruptive Behavior and Aggression 
• Substance Use 
• Self-Harm and Suicide​​ 

These videos are intended to provide a positive example of the techniques demonstrated. They may not fit every situation or the style of every provider, and may need to be adapted for particular patients' cultures, genders, or family structures.

For those unfamiliar with or in need of a refresher on motivational interviewing, the series also provides access to an instructional video on motivational interviewing produced by the PROS (Pediatric Research in Office Settings)/University of Michigan BMI2 (Obesity Prevention) Study. Throughout the demonstration portions of the topic videos, cues will appear on screen indicating the motivational interviewing or other key techniques being used at that moment.​

Contributors

The Editorial Board for the series includes:

• Rebecca Baum, MD, FAAP, Nationwide Children's Hospital
• Cori M. Green, MD, MS, FAAP, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center
• Larry Wissow, MD, MPH, FAAP, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
• Sebastian Kaplan, PhD, MSEd, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

Advisors for substance use video:

• Sharon Levy, MD, MPH, FAAP, Boston Children's Hospital
• Sheryl A. Ryan, MD, FAAP, Yale-New Haven Primary Care Center Pediatrics​​

The series is hosted by:

• Nerissa Bauer, MD, MPH, FAAP, Indiana University School of Medicine

The doctors in the demonstrations are portrayed by:

• Gerri L. Mattson, MD, MSPH, FAAP, Wake County Health Department – Depression, Inattention and Impulsivity
• Cynthia J. Mears, DO, FAAP, Advocate Children's Hospital - Substance Use
• Alison S. Tothy, MD, FAAP, University of Chicago - Social Emotional Problems in Children Birth to 5
• W. Watkins, MD, MPH, FAAFP, Community Care of North Carolina - Disruptive Behavior and Aggression, Self-Harm and Suicide

All patients and parents in the demonstrations are portrayed by actors.

External Educational Opportunities

• Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) Collaborative Removing Obstacles Webinar Series 

Publications

Visit ShopAAP for a wide variety of clinical titles, CME & MOC educational resources and patient education materials for purchase on the topic of Healthy Mental Development.