First Friday Forum: Pediatric Disaster Preparedness and Response:Toolkit Review and Personalized Action Plans for Mental Health Professionals

Friday, September 9, 2022

This program will be held virtually via Zoom. Details with instruction on how to view the webinar will be sent to all registrants the day before the program (9/8).

Friday Forums are cosponsored with the Metropolitan State University Psychology Department.

Speakers: Carolyn Landis, Ph.D., LP, DBSM; Kimberly Burkhart, Ph.D.. LP

About the Program:
Workshop participants will acquire an operational knowledge of the Pediatric Disaster Preparedness and Response Toolkit for Mental Health Professionals assembled during the COVID-19 pandemic by an intra-professional group of national experts from HRSA’s Pediatric Pandemic Network (PPN) and the ASPR Pediatric Disaster Centers of Excellence. The toolkit consists of professional trainings for obtaining credentials, webinars, pediatric patient/family info-graphics, telehealth licensing options, and empirical research papers/systematic reviews. Led through the toolkit by case vignettes, attendees will intermittently break off into moderated small groups to create individualized action plans to become subject matter expert responders. The U.S. government has identified an urgent need for a whole child, whole community, and whole population concept of operations that systematically includes children at all levels of disaster education starting at the community level. Even though children make up 25% of the population, planning for whole community threats or disaster response and readiness rarely considers children. Multiple federal grants and initiatives, including the newly funded PPN, are supporting subject matter experts to bring specialized education and training to all professionals caring for children. The data gathered via ASPR's Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence establish the urgency of this need to "ensure children are never left out of disaster prevention, protection, mitigation, and response and recovery operations."
This program qualifies for 3.0 continuing education credits.

Participants will be able to:

1. Recognize the federal grants and initiatives that are supporting disaster preparedness and response for children and their families.
2. Become familiar with the Pediatric Disaster and Response Toolkit for Psychologists through the lens of various specific case illustrations.

3. Apply the skills for creating an individualized action plan in a small-group setting using Qualtrics that includes specific timelines to be better prepared for both current and future pediatric disasters, particularly in their roles as subject matter experts.

About the Presenters:
Carolyn Levers-Landis, Ph.D, LP, DBSM, is a licensed clinical psychologist, Diplomate in Behavioral Sleep Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, UH Cleveland Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University. She received her Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in clinical psychology and has a clinical and research specialty in pediatric psychology, including child/adolescent sleep disorders. Dr. Levers-Landis has served since October of 2019 as the Co-Chair of the Behavioral Health Committee of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)-funded Eastern Great Lakes (now Region V) Pediatric Disaster Care Center of Excellence. Dr. Levers-Landis is also a Behavioral Health Domain co-lead for the Pediatric Pandemic Network. She has been an expert speaker for national webinars for ASPR TRACIE (Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange) and for the 2021 Preparedness Summit conference.

Kimberly Burkhart, Ph.D., LP, is a clinical child psychologist at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and associate professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Toledo. Clinically, Dr. Burkhart specializes in the assessment and treatment of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and trauma-and stressor-related disorders. Her research interests include autism spectrum disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), parent training, and integrated care. Dr. Burkhart has been either a principal investigator or co-investigator on federal, state, and foundation grants focused on trauma-informed integrated care, violence prevention and intervention, and behavioral health disaster preparedness and response. Dr. Burkhart serves as Co-Chair of the ASPR Behavioral Health Committee for FEMA Region 5 and Behavioral Health Domain Lead for the Pediatric Pandemic Network.

The speakers have no conflicts of interest to report

The Minnesota Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Minnesota Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS:  If you need disability related accommodations to make this event accessible, please contact the Metropolitan State University Center for Accessibility Resources, 651-793-1549, or [email protected].