The Development and Implementation of an Emotional Health Screening Program for Children with Serious Medical Illnesses in a Pediatric Tertiary Care Setting: A Four-Year Battle Worth Fighting

Sarah McCarthy, PhD

INTRODUCTION

Sarah McCarthy is a clinician-researcher with a Ph.D. in psychology, a decade of experience in caring for children with serious illness and their families, and personal experience as a parent caregiver of a child with a rare combination of cancers who died from complications of her cancer treatment. She is the director of the Pediatric Psychology Consultation Liaison Service at the Mayo Eugenio Litta Children’s Hospital where she oversees the psychological care of children in the hospital. Dr. McCarthy's research focuses on (a) developing and evaluating theory-based interventions to improve the reliable uptake of psychosocial care, (b) improving health outcomes for children with serious medical illnesses and their caregivers, and (c) reducing the harmful effects of unaddressed psychosocial distress and its substantial human and financial costs. This research program has been funded by AHRQ, PCORI, and multiple internal research awards. Dr. McCarthy has published over 40 academic papers and is a sought-after speaker at national and international research meetings. She is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon conclusion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) and their importance as an essential component of evidence-based clinical practice for individuals with serious medical illnesses (SMI).
• Evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing clinically actionable measures to screen patients with SMI for distressing symptoms, and how this data can be utilized in aggregate to monitor and improve clinical practice.

ATTENDANCE / CREDIT
Text the session code (provided only at the session) to 507-200-3010 within 48 hours of the live presentation to record attendance. All learners are encouraged to text attendance regardless of credit needs. This number is only used for receiving text messages related to tracking attendance. Additional tasks to obtain credit may be required based on the specific activity requirements and will be announced accordingly. Swiping your badge will not provide credit; that process is only applicable to meet GME requirements for Residents & Fellows.

TRANSCRIPT
Any credit or attendance awarded from this session will appear on your Transcript.

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