Child & Adolescent Related Content

Pathways Academy: Meeting the Needs of Students With Autism

Every child deserves and must have the opportunity to learn and reach their full potential…” Started in 2000, McLean Hospital’s Pathways Academy is a year-round, 216-day school designed to meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of students, aged 6 to 22, with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)...

Mentoring Tomorrow’s Mental Health Providers

Many students know their career path from the day they enter college, if not before. But for those who find themselves pondering their next steps as graduation approaches, McLean Hospital now offers an opportunity to road test some of their ideas. The Post-Baccalaureate Child and Adolescent Clinical...

Compassionate Caregiving Born From Childhood Experience

“Compassionate curiosity.” It’s a philosophy that has guided Sophia L. Maurasse, MD , along her journey from a 10-year-old in war-torn Liberia—who was trying to understand why some soldiers could be helpful while others were threatening—to her current role working with children and adolescent girls...

Tackling the Mental Health Crisis Among Young People—One Intern at a Time

You need only turn on the nightly news to be reminded of the mental health crisis facing today’s young people. According to Daniel P. Dickstein, MD, FAAP , chief of McLean’s Nancy and Richard Simches Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, providing access to care in an efficient, affordable...

Child and Adolescent Mental Health: Q&A With Daniel P. Dickstein, MD, FAAP

Daniel P. Dickstein, MD, FAAP , newly minted chief of McLean’s Nancy and Richard Simches Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, has a big vision. His enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Dickstein, a physician-scientist who is uniquely triple board-certified in pediatrics, adult psychiatry...

McLean Offers Support and Expertise to Massachusetts Schools

After a two-week stay at a psychiatric facility, a ninth-grader was scheduled to return to school. But she begged to be allowed to stay home that first day, and her parents acquiesced, worried that returning too soon would trigger a rehospitalization. A day turned into a week, and the school...

Improving Child and Adolescent Care With “Big Data”

All too often, getting to the right diagnosis and treatment plan for a mental health disorder is a time-consuming, confusing, and stressful progression of guesswork, trial and error, and missed opportunities. This painful scenario is only intensified when it’s a child who is struggling. Dr. Alex De...

Teaching Kids How To Manage Anxiety and Families How To Help

As some reports suggest that anxiety disorders may have more than doubled during the pandemic, the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program (MAMP) has been at the vanguard of treating children and adolescents who struggle with a wide range of disorders, including social anxiety, panic attacks, agoraphobia...

Addressing the Surging Psychiatric Needs of Youth

“Thank you for everything. I thought I’d lost her.” As the program director at McLean’s newly launched adolescent inpatient program in Middleborough, Massachusetts, Joyce Velt, LICSW , has had dozens of notes, letters, and phone calls from grateful parents expressing similar sentiments. The idea of...

A Career Caring for Young People

“I knew right from the beginning I wanted to be in psychiatry,” said Kristen Lancaster, RN . “I’ve been in the mental health field ever since.” Lancaster, nurse director for McLean SouthEast Adolescent Services and McLean SouthEast at Oak Street Adolescent Inpatient Program , has dedicated her...

How One Clinician Helps People Find Their Path

Teaching, mentoring, and helping others comes naturally to Fairlee C. Fabrett, PhD . As director of clinical training for McLean Hospital’s Adolescent Acute Residential Treatment (ART) Program , she supervises and supports post-doctoral fellows and clinical trainees, helping them gain the experience...

New Fellowship Helps Launch Research Careers of Young Investigators

Julianne Wilner Tirpak, PhD, an early career psychologist, understands that dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is the gold-standard treatment for young people who struggle to manage their emotions, particularly those who exhibit self-harm or suicidal behaviors. As the inaugural recipient of a unique...