Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1460433
12 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Children's Hospital Colorado's 1st mental health-in- chief on the 'now or never' moment facing the US By Lauren Jensik and Alia Paavola L ast May, Children's Hospital Colorado declared a state of emergency in pediat- ric mental health aer seeing its emergency department and in- patient units "overrun with kids attempting suicide" and suffering from other mental health condi- tions. As part of the declaration, the hospital made a commitment that it would address the worsen- ing crisis. One of the major shis included creating a new leadership role, the mental health-in-chief. K. Ron-Li Liaw, MD, assumed the inaugural role at Children's Hospi- tal Colorado in September 2021. In her role, which is on the same level as a pediatrician-in-chief or surgeon-in-chief, she is tasked with en- suring pediatric mental health is top of mind in every decision made at the hospital. Dr. Liaw, a pediatric psychiatrist, also serves as chair of the organi- zation's Pediatric Mental Health Institute. She previously spent 14 years as a clinical associate professor for the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU Langone in New York City. During her tenure, she was the director of the Sala Institute's Child-Family Services and Resilience Programs and chief of service for child and adolescent psychiatry. Here, Dr. Liaw shares with Becker's more about the inaugural mental health-in-chief role, her top goals for 2022, the biggest challenges we need to overcome and the "now or never" opportunity to create the mental health infrastructure needed to address the pediatric mental health crisis. Editor's note: Responses were edited for length and clarity. Question: The role mental health-in-chief is a unique C-suite role for health systems in the U.S. How did this position come about? Dr. K. Ron-Li Liaw: Looking at how children's hospitals are struc- tured, especially the executive leadership team, you're 100 percent right that this is very unique and I think a first-of-its-kind role. I do applaud Children's Hospital Colorado's leadership under our CEO Jena Hausmann and department chair for psychiatry, C. Neill Epper- son, MD, at the university's medical school. Because of the elevated awareness of the pediatric mental health crisis in Colorado and na- tionally, these two leaders and the executive team at Children's Hos- pital Colorado really raised this as a priority to make sure we have the right mental health leadership in every conversation. at meant creating a new role, the mental health-in-chief, who would sit at all of the decision-making tables for strategy and partnerships with state and local agencies and the federal government. e role is designed to bring mental health research and discovery to our clinical continu- um of care, training programs and workforce development initiatives. ose leaders really placed mental health at the center of everything that we do in children's healthcare, which I, as a child psychiatrist, am so grateful for. I am excited for the opportunity to step into this role, because there's not one like it in the country. Q: What are the main goals and priorities for you as mental health-in-chief in 2022? KL: We just kicked off an envisioning and planning process for chil- dren's mental health for both Children's Hospital Colorado as well as Colorado University Anschutz Medical Campus. Our goal is to build a best-in-class, high-quality, highly coordinated children's mental health system for Colorado in partnership with local, state and federal agencies as well as community partners. We are obviously facing an incredible mental health crisis, particularly at our emergency department and our higher levels of care. ere is a new behavioral health administration for Colorado. I'm meeting with the new director of that agency as well as other members of Gov. [Jar- ed] Polis' leadership team to really think about how we can reimagine and redesign children's mental healthcare as part of child well-being and children's healthcare at large. at redesign and the way in which we think about mental healthcare means not just investing in acute and emergency services but really thinking about prevention and early intervention. at upstream mentality is where we'll be focusing our strategic plan. Also, we have a critical shortage of mental health providers, child physiatrists and care team members nationally. I think the stat is 9.75 child psychiatrists per 100,000 kids. But what we really need is, at a minimum, 47 child psychiatrists per 100,000 kids. Even with 47, that means for me as a child psychiatrist, I would be caring for or oversee- ing the care of 2,000 children. It's just shocking. So another priority for me is addressing this. ere's a really diverse workforce of potential to bridge the gap. For example, we could tap masters-level clinicians, social workers, licensed professional counselors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and community mental health folks to create a diverse mental healthcare team that represents the diversity that we see in our society. Mental health professions are different from being a cardiologist or an ophthalmologist. ere's very unique things that you have to un- derstand. People come from different backgrounds and face different challenges. It's very local, so it is important to have people who are from the community helping. So, in short, I am really focused on sys- tems design, partnerships and really building a different kind of men- tal health workforce that reflects the diversity in our communities. Q: What do you anticipate being your biggest challenges in trying to accomplish these things? KL: ere's the vision, and then there's the reality. I think the biggest challenge will be making sure that we are moving in the same direc- "I'm excited for the opportunity to step into this role, because there's not one like it in the country." Dr. K. Ron-Li Liaw, Children's Hospital Colorado