February 2022
Mental Health Program Updates
CHKD continues to progress towards its goal of improving access to high-quality mental health services for our region’s children, increasing the number of outpatient visits offered, and opening a new medical psychiatric inpatient unit and a new section of the emergency department specifically for mental health patients.
Outpatient Growth
In the outpatient arena, the organization’s recruitment efforts and our improved mental health intake process have helped us respond to referrals from primary care pediatricians and allowed us to provide 21,175 outpatient therapy, psychiatry, and psychology visits in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021, a 28 percent increase over the previous year. After two quarters, we are on track to provide just over 29,000 visits this year, with a projection of being able to offer 40,000 visits in FY23. The charts below show the number of referrals received per month and the number of visits provided per month over the past year.
Referrals Per Month
Outpatient Visits Per Month
New Patient Care Areas
The
medical-psychiatric unit is located in the main hospital and is designed to provide safe hospital care to young people who have concurrent medical and mental health conditions. The unit consists of seven private rooms designed to provide a safe environment even when patients may be struggling with thoughts of harming themselves or others. A multipurpose area provides space for therapeutic group activities. Another room on the unit provides a place where patients can use sensory stimuli like music to help manage their emotions.
Many of the patients admitted to the unit will begin their CHKD journeys in the new Mental Health Emergency Services (MHES) section of the emergency department. The six-bed unit, also designed with safety in mind, gives patients more privacy, and is staffed by a nurse, a mental health coach, a social worker, and a mental health technician.
These two areas are important components of CHKD’s comprehensive mental health initiative, the centerpiece of which is the
$224 million Children’s Pavilion currently under construction on the hospital’s Norfolk campus.
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Education
Dupilumab Reduces Length, Frequency of Hospital Stays for Patients With Atopic Dermatitis
By Richard Gawel, with perspective from CHKD's Kelly Maples, MD
Five Things Patients and Physicians Should Question
By American Academy of Pediatrics-Section on Orthopaedics and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America
Welcome to the CHKD Family!
Join us in welcoming
Janelle Fox, MD, to the CHKD family.
Dr. Fox earned her doctorate from UC San Diego School of Medicine. She completed her residency at Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education and a fellowship at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Her special interests include kidney stones in children, genitourinary trauma and reconstruction, pediatric robotic surgery, refractory voiding dysfunction, pediatric renal transplant, and difference and disorders of sex development.
Practice:
Children's Urology
Join us in welcoming
Bianca Tribley, NP-C, to the CHKD family.
Bianca began working in pediatrics in 2014 as a pediatric registered nurse in San Antonio, Texas. She then began working as a pediatric travel nurse, during which time she earned a master's degree at St. Louis University.
Her experience as a nurse and nurse practitioner has allowed her to give specialized care and attention to many different children and their families.
Practice:
Developmental Pediatrics
Join us in welcoming
Keisha Baxter, PMHNP, to the CHKD family.
Keisha earned her MSN from Walden University and then went on to complete her PMHNP at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
In 2010, Keisha began her career as a psychiatric nurse at Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center. She then went on to become a family nurse practitioner in 2016 where she again found her passion for mental health care and decided to pursue a career as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
Practice:
Mental Health
Join us in welcoming
Michelle Eynon, PMHNP, to the CHKD family.
Michelle earned her bachelor's degree from Old Dominion University. She then attended Liberty University to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and is now double board certified.
Her clinical interests include depression and anxiety disorders, ADHD, substance abuse, education of patients and their families, and diverse populations.
Practice:
Mental Health
