Oral

The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world and routinely scores near the bottom of industrialized nations in our overall health status. Preventing and managing chronic disease is a dominant strategy for controlling costs and improving overall health status. Mental health and substance use conditions are among the earliest onset chronic diseases with median age of onset of 14 and an average latency to treat of 10 years. Compromised educational and later occupational achievement, and development of other health conditions are predictable sequelae of our failure to prevent and promptly treat these disorders. Moreover, failure to prevent and treat such disorders negatively impact family health for generations. The Institute of Medicine and National Research Council recently released reports that summarize the state of the science behind prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders among youth. The reports offer effective strategies for preventing the predictable effects of untreated parental depression on the developing child. In this presentation members of the IOM committees that produced these reports will briefly summarize the findings and recommendations of the reports while the respondents from the responsible federal agencies will highlight strategies for implementing the recommendations of the committees. Current efforts for overall health care reform could provide the impetus to promote implementation of the reports’ recommendations. Presenters will issue a call to action from the public health community to support these interventions and to more vigorously pursue systemic research in prevention and promotion of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders for parents and youth.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)