Welcome to the APPD EMPOWER Curriculum!
As the pediatric mental health crisis grew accompanied by many calls to action throughout the pediatrics community, we set upon a journey to create a standardized curriculum for behavioral and mental health (BMH) that would be available to all pediatric trainees in the US. With the mission of improving trainees’ BMH knowledge and skills by narrowing gaps in institutional resources for teaching these topics, the EMPOWER curriculum was developed. The acronym “EMPOWER” represents “Education in Mental Health improves Patient Outcomes, Well-being, and Emotional Resiliency”. We believe that empowering the next generation of pediatricians by enhancing their competency and comfort in managing behavioral and mental health issues in their patients at an early level of training will lead to long-term improvement in patient outcomes.
We have been fortunate to work on this project with a multidisciplinary team of content experts from many backgrounds - general pediatricians, developmental pediatricians, psychologists, and child psychiatrists - who share a passion for advancing mental health care for children through improved competence in our learners. Building the EMPOWER curriculum on the framework of the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP) Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) for Behavioral and Mental Health has kept the curriculum content grounded in the expectations of the ABP for pediatricians to assess and manage patients with common behavioral and mental health problems. As the EPA states, “pediatricians must be able to assess behavioral wellness and address prevention as well as anticipate, identify, and manage the behavioral and mental health needs of patients through young adulthood, recognizing when further consultation from a mental or behavioral health specialist is needed”. It is our hope that the EMPOWER curriculum will play a role in achieving the objectives of the Behavioral and Mental Health EPA by enhancing the education of pediatric learners across the country.
Editors-In-Chief:
Elizabeth Chawla, MD
Kenya McNeal-Trice, MD
Sue Poynter, MD, MEd
American Board of Pediatrics, General Pediatrics BMH EPA
Assess and Manage Patients with Common Behavior/Mental Health Problems
https://www.abp.org/sites/abp/files/pdf/gen_peds_epa_9.pdf
Special Thanks to the APPD Behavioral and Mental Health Workgroup:
Marilyn Augustyn, MD
Ann Burke, MD, MPH
Hanein Edrees, MD
Elise Fallucco, MD
Mary Gabriel, MD
Mary Margaret Gleason, MD, FAAP
Melissa Hopkins, MD
Jeff Hunt, MD
Sansea Jacobson, MD
Alison Manning, MD
Robyn Mehlenbeck, PhD, ABPP
Keith Ponitz, MD
Lisa Rasmussen, MD
Robert Voigt, MD
Matt Weingard, MD
Carol Weitzman, MD
Elizabeth Chawla, MD
Kenya McNeal-Trice, MD
Sue Poynter, MD, MEd
Special Thanks to APPD LESSON:
Linda Waggoner-Fountain, MD, MEd
Pamela Carpenter, MEd
Tatum Colburn, DO
This curriculum has received so much support from the APPD Executive Leadership and Board of Directors, we would like to especially thank:
Laura E. Degnon, CAE, Executive Director, APPD
Colleen Hughes, Associate Executive Director, APPD
Patricia Poitevien, MD MSc, President APPD (2022 - 2024)
Becky Blankenburg, MD MPH, President APPD (2020-2022)