PediaLink Course: Using Telehealth to Support Mental Health Care in Pediatrics

This is a nine-unit course intended to support pediatric clinicians in providing telehealth for mental health care in pediatrics, as part of the medical home model of care. Each unit addresses considerations for providing telehealth care for specific pediatric populations. Learners can complete all nine units or pick and choose units based on their interests.

The course is free to the general public, including non-AAP members. Learners will only be required to create an AAP login (if they don’t already have one) to obtain access to the course.

See below for a list of learning objectives for each module. Note: Course does not offer CME credit. Certificate for completion not provided/available.

Click on the title below to access the PediaLink course:

Using Telehealth to Support Mental Health Care in Pediatrics

Module 1: Considerations for Providing Telehealth Care for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Queer/Questioning (LGBQ+) Adolescents

• Recognize the unique mental health needs that impact LGBQ+ adolescents.
• Create a telehealth environment of affirming care for LGBQ+ adolescents.
• Address important issues of safety and confidentiality specific to LGBQ+ adolescents within a telehealth environment.
• Gain strategies for working with families/caregivers in a telehealth environment that are struggling to accept their adolescent's sexual orientation.

Module 2: Telehealth Care for Children and Adolescents With Diverse Gender Identities

• Recognize the unique mental health needs of children and adolescents who identify as transgender, nonbinary, gender diverse or who are questioning their gender identity.
• Create an environment of affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse children and adolescents in telehealth practice.
• Address important issues of safety and confidentiality specific to transgender and gender-diverse children and adolescents in a telehealth environment.
• Gain strategies for working with families/caregivers in a telehealth environment who are struggling to accept their child or adolescent’s diverse gender identity.
• Understand the role of telehealth in supporting coordination between a primary care medical home and specialty care clinics for transgender and gender-diverse children and adolescents.

Module 3: Supporting the Mental Health of Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) and Their Families via Telehealth

• Distinguish unique considerations in caring for CYSHCN with co-occurring mental health symptoms during telehealth visits.
• Develop knowledge around virtually co-managing patient care with mental health service providers working in systems of services for CYSHCN.
• Enhance techniques for supporting families/caregivers of CYSHCN with co-occurring mental health needs during telehealth.
• Discuss common evidence-based practices and available resources utilized for CYSHCN with co-occurring mental health conditions during telehealth visits.

Module 4: Supporting the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents Within the Education System via Telehealth

• Understand the importance of leveraging telehealth for school-based mental health care.
• Examine the value of collaboration via telehealth with mental health clinicians and the education system.
• Examine implications of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in using telehealth to collaborate with school systems.
• Consider how to leverage telehealth practice to support and empower children, adolescents, and their families with techniques that address mental health and educational needs.

Module 5: Addressing Adolescent Mental Health Needs in a Telehealth Environment (Part 1)

• Engaging adolescents in telehealth, including discussing safety, resiliency and treatment with families/caregivers.
• Assessing adolescent and family/caregiver strengths and risks via telehealth.

Module 6: Addressing Adolescent Mental Health Needs in a Telehealth Environment (Part 2)

• Screening and assessing for adolescent mental health needs in a telehealth environment.
• Adapting telehealth visits to identify strategies, resources and supports for managing adolescent mental health concerns.
• Facilitating warm-handoff referrals to community supports using telehealth, and linking adolescents to age-appropriate resources for mental health treatment.

Module 7: Considerations for Engagement, Screening, Brief Intervention and Treatment for Adolescent Substance Use in a Telehealth Environment

• Identify opportunities to discuss substance use with patients and families via telehealth.
• Determine and discuss the limits of confidentiality with patients and families and develop strategies to help adolescents feel more comfortable sharing information about substance use during telehealth visits.
• Integrate substance use screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) into a telehealth environment.
• Interpret screening results to guide brief intervention (which can occur in-person or via telehealth).
• Leverage telehealth to increase primary care clinician capacity in for coordinating care with specialty SUD treatment as needed.

Module 8: Using Telehealth to Support the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in Child Welfare

• Identify opportunities for pediatric clinicians to support the mental health needs of children and adolescents in child welfare via telehealth.
• Develop knowledge around virtually co-managing mental health care with service providers from the child welfare system.
• Recognize the unique mental health challenges of children/adolescents in child welfare and consider ways to engage children, adolescents and families/caregivers during telehealth visits.
• Apply knowledge of trauma-informed care and support prevention of additional trauma through telehealth visits.

Module 9: Caring for Behavioral, Social and Emotional Needs in Infancy and Early Childhood in a Telehealth Environment

• Illustrate how to adapt the screening process to assess behavioral/social/emotional needs in infants and young children during telehealth visits.
• Review considerations for discussing behavioral/social/emotional concerns and assessing for social determinants of health (SDOH) when caring for infants, young children and their families/caregivers in a telehealth environment.
• Discuss how the telehealth environment can be leveraged to support culturally sensitive observations of the child’s environment and relationships.
• Review various practice models that leverage telehealth to incorporate screening, feedback and services both within the practice and through use of community supports.

This module series was developed in partnership with The Institute for Innovation and Implementation at the University of Maryland Baltimore. We are grateful for their subject matter expertise in mental/behavioral health for children and youth and in instructional design, and for their commitment to social justice and to building culturally-responsive child-, youth- and family-serving systems throughout the development of this module series.

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $6,000,000 with no percentage financed with nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS or the US Government.