MISSION AND SCOPE OF SIG

HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

CONTACTS

RESOURCES

COMMUNICATIONS

MISSION AND SCOPE OF SIG

The mission of the Pediatric Consultation-Liaison Special Interest Group (PEDIATRIC-CL SIG) is to promote discussion, education, research and networking among pediatric psychologists who provide inpatient consultation-liaison services to pediatric patients and their families. Issues of relevance to PEDIATRIC-CL SIG activities include:

• Pediatric CL service quality improvement (QI) projects
• Specific clinical protocols tailored to pediatric inpatient populations
• Clinical innovations, including applications of technology to inpatient consultation-liaison (Internet-based, use of video, gaming technology, tele-psychology, etc.)
• Promotion and sharing of clinician- and hospital-friendly assessment/ evaluation protocols and interventions
• Pediatric CL outcomes projects
• Professional and training activities relevant to pediatric CL and inter-professional functioning
• Pediatric CL program development, organization of clinical services and workforce analyses
• Applications of evidence-based interventions in “real world” settings
• Addressing potential barriers and solutions to meet the needs of diverse populations seen on the pediatric CL service
• Critical analyses of professional practice issues
• Funding/reimbursement patterns and the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and medical cost offset of pediatric CL activities
• Developing research models appropriate to pediatric CL service activities
• Fostering cooperation and multidisciplinary collaboration among professionals in meeting the psychosocial needs of hospitalized children and their families

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HISTORY AND STRUCTURE

The Pediatric-CL SIG began as an interest group at the last meeting of the Midwest Conference on Child Health Psychology held in Milwaukee in 2010. In 2011, Suzanne Thompson, PhD was lamenting with Michael Roberts, PhD about the lack of pediatric psychology inpatient consultation-liaison (CL) resources. Dr. Roberts mentioned that SPP would be developing SIGs and suggested that Dr. Thompson develop a CL SIG. Dr. Thompson recruited Bryan Carter, PhD to join her as co-chair, and the CL SIG held its first meeting at the 2011 National Conference of the Society of Pediatric Psychology in San Antonio, TX. SIG members expressed how pleased they were to have the opportunity to network and collaborate with fellow psychologists working in inpatient hospital settings. The group enthusiastically outlined needs and a wish list of proposed initiatives to promote high quality clinical care, teaching, and research. From this meeting, the Pediatric Practitioner Resource Bank for Inpatient Pediatric CL was born and a collaborative national CL survey project was initiated. Drs. Carter and Thompson remained Co-Chairs until 2014 and 2015, respectively.

In order to address the growing needs and interest of the membership, at the SPPAC 2014 meeting in Philadelphia the SIG was restructured. The Chair position terms were staggered and additional leadership roles serving two year terms were added in Intervention Projects (Amy Williams, PhD), Research Projects (Kevin Tsang, PsyD), Secretary/Membership (Megan Shelton, PhD), Webmaster (Bryan Carter, PhD) and Student Representative (Courtney Craig, PhD). As almost the entire leadership group was about to turn over, to establish continuity the Intervention and Research Projects Subcommittees were combined to create the Research, Intervention, and Outcomes Committee at the 2016 SPPAC in Atlanta. Staggered two year terms were established as Co-Chairs of the committee moving forward. As a testament to the growth of the CL SIG, in addition to maintaining a web-based clinical resource bank and publishing results of the collaborative national CL survey, by 2016 the SIG had produced several clinical handouts to enhance inpatient care; started a CL student mentorship program; produced twice yearly newsletters; provided poster awards at SPPAC; and presented a CL symposium and CL workshop at SPPAC meetings.

Kevin Tsang, Psy.D., and Christine Brady, Ph.D., currently serve as Co-Chairs of the SIG; Laura Judd-Glossy, Ph.D. is the Secretary and Membership Coordinator; Bryan Carter, Ph.D. is our Webmaster; Anne Reagan, Psy.D. and Nicole Schneider, Psy.D. serve as Co-Chairs of the Research, Intervention, and Outcomes Committee; and Gillian Mayerson, M.S. is our current Student Representative.

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