Psychologists and Pediatricians in the Primary Care Sandbox: Communication is Key to Cooperative Play.

Recent literature, public policy, and funding opportunities call attention to the need for better increased integration of health and mental health care services in primary care settings so as to best meet the needs of children and families. There are many benefits to such integration, but pediatric primary care providers (PCPs) face multiple barriers to identifying and managing patients with mental health difficulties. One way to address this problem is through the integration of psychologists into primary care settings who can collaborate with PCPs to provide integrated behavioral health care to youth and families. However, there are challenges to collaboration, which include differences in training, professional cultures, and expectations held by professionals from various disciplines. Effective communication is a key component in supporting interprofessional collaboration between primary care providers and psychologists working in primary care settings. This paper reviews aspects of pediatric medicine culture, critical components of communication, and strategies to improve communication. Three case examples are presented in which some of these challenges have been successfully addressed. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Changes in sleep and fatigue in newly treated pediatric oncology patients.

BACKGROUND: Fatigue has been reported as one of the most distressing symptoms in oncology patients, yet few have investigated the longitudinal course of sleep and fatigue in newly diagnosed pediatric oncology patients. PROCEDURE: To longitudinally assess presence and changes of sleep complaints and fatigue, we administered questionnaires designed to measure sleep complaints, sleep habits, daytime sleepiness, and fatigue to parents of pediatric oncology patients ages 2-18 and to pediatric oncology patients, themselves, ages 8-18 within 30 days of diagnosis (n = 170) and again 8 weeks later (n = 153). RESULTS: Bedtimes, wake times, and sleep duration remained relatively stable across the first 8 weeks of treatment. Sleep duration and fatigue were not related for the entire sample, though children's self-reported sleep duration was positively correlated with fatigue only at the baseline time point. Parent reports of fatigue significantly decreased for leukemia patients but remained rather high for solid tumor and brain tumor patients. CONCLUSIONS: Because fatigue remained high for solid tumor and brain tumor patients across the initial 8 weeks of treatment, this may highlight the need for intervention in this patient population.

The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: a meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions.

This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students. Compared to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. School teaching staff successfully conducted SEL programs. The use of 4 recommended practices for developing skills and the presence of implementation problems moderated program outcomes. The findings add to the growing empirical evidence regarding the positive impact of SEL programs. Policy makers, educators, and the public can contribute to healthy development of children by supporting the incorporation of evidence-based SEL programming into standard educational practice.