Casting a Wide Net to Nurture Mentally Healthy Children
Robert L. Hendren, D.O.
AACAP President-Elect

I’m proud to announce that my presidential initiative is the development and implementation of eAACAP. eAACAP is a Web-based educational resource that will make the unique knowledge of child and adolescent psychiatry accessible to far broader audiences. Additionally, it will provide a powerful platform to address the pressing issues in our field. I have chosen eAACAP because it fills a critical need at a critical time. More specifically, I have chosen this because of the following: 

Shortage of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists (CAPs) 
The AACAP has long identified recruitment into child and adolescent psychiatry as its top priority and the primary mode to address the marked shortage of CAPs. In 1980, the projected need for CAPs in the United States was 30,000 by the year 2000. While the AACAP has grown from 3,000 members in 1980 to approximately 7,600 members today, recruitment remains far short of the goal. While growth must remain a priority, new innovative strategies to address the critical clinical needs created by the numbers gap must be developed. 

Results of Shortage 
The biggest threat of this shortage is that the vital care and skills that only CAPs can provide will not be available to many of those who need it. The current trends suggest the CAPs will increasingly be pushed into being tertiary psychopharmacologists for the most impaired patients or private therapists for the wealthy. These limits will undercut our value and deny our critical services to the far broader population that needs them. 

Strength of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 
Child and adolescent psychiatry blends the biopsychosocial and developmental models for understanding the complex and interactive forces in the progression of a child’s mental health. This involves neurodevelopmental processes, such as genetics, brain growth, and metabolism; temperament, personality, physical endowment; the family, and the cultural and environmental container surrounding and interacting with this development. Our knowledge base involves all of these factors, something well beyond the scope of any other specialty or discipline. It is this unique multi-dimensional expertise which, in large part, accounts for the marked demand for our services. We must find new ways of extending our impact, beyond the limits of face-to-face contact. 

Defining Our Field 
Regrettably, much of the world does not appreciate what we know or what we do. We are often confused with other professionals. It is our responsibility to educate the public about our unique value and expertise. 

AACAP’s Resources and Knowledge Base 
The AACAP has extensive resources and a powerful knowledge base about child and adolescent psychiatry. Inspired Work Groups, Committees, Task Forces, meeting presenters, and scientists have developed it. This information is increasingly being shared with and used by our members, other practitioners, educators, and interested families through our Web site, www.aacap.org. However, as with most Web sites, the information has been difficult to catalogue. We want to change this to an intuitive and interactive format that conveys and integrates the fascinating complexities of our knowledge and skills. 

eAACAP—Creating a Web-Based Resource for Decision Guidance 
The goal of eAACAP is to develop an intuitive knowledge resource and decisionmaking tool utilizing state-of-the-art information management. It will provide guidance for child and adolescent psychiatrists, other physicians and health care providers, educators, and families who are looking for information to help them make good decisions about how to nurture mentally healthy children. Each audience will have a unique portal of entry even though some of the requisite knowledge and decision-making processes may be the same or very similar. eAACAP will be a dynamic tool, constantly evolving and improving, both in the content and in the processes for managing the information. 

eAACAP’s Mission 

1. To develop the AACAP Web site into an easily accessible, intuitive, step-wise learning platform and consultation resource. 
2. To increase the public/professional awareness and reach of AACAP; eAACAP will become an electronic resource/messenger offering the most up-to-date information and expertise on all child and adolescent mental illnesses. 
3. To develop learning, consultation, and informational materials which capitalize on current technology and seize the evolving niche in the marketplace.

I have been working closely with the current AACAP Executive Committee, including Virginia Q. Anthony, Executive Director, to create the management structure for this initiative. AACAP directors and staff whose jobs are related to educational programs, information development and dissemination, and fundraising have been involved in the first stages of developing this integrated AACAP resource. We recognized the need to have a leader of operations and late last year selected Bennett L. Leventhal, M.D., from a pool of outstanding applicants to be the start-up medical director for eAACAP. He will dedicate one day a week to the operations. Currently, our core operations team consists of me, the team leader, along with Bennett, Heidi Fordi, AACAP Deputy Executive Director and Senior Director of Meetings, Continuing Medical Education, and Development, and Elizabeth Hughes, AACAP Assistant Director of Education and Recertification, with the support of Thomas Anders, M.D., AACAP President, and Virginia Q. Anthony, Executive Director. 

Development of eAACAP The operations team has developed a dynamic timeline of goals and implementation objectives to achieve the mission. Gabrielle Carlson, M.D., has agreed to serve as the Project eEditor for our first program on bipolar disorder. To do this, she will edit video recordings and other AACAP materials into a comprehensive learning program and will link to materials such as Facts for Families and the AACAP Practice Parameters. 

I recently appointed an Advisory Board comprised of representatives from key Work Groups and Committees that interact with eAACAP, along with several appointments of consultants. They include:

• Alan Axelson, M.D.—Work Group on Access 
• Jeff Bostic, M.D.—Continuing Medical Education Committee 
• Oscar Bukstein, M.D.—Work Group on Quality Issues 
• David DeMaso, M.D.—Committee on Collaboration with Medical Professions 
• David Fassler, M.D.—Assembly of Regional Organizations 
• Glenn Kashurba, M.D.—Work Group on Consumer Issues 
• James MacIntyre, M.D.—Executive Committee, Presidential Appointment 
• Neal Ryan, M.D.—Program Committee 
• John Schwartz, M.D.—Consultant, Presidential Appointment 
• Sandra Sexson, M.D.—Work Group on Maintenance of Certification 
• Mike Slosberg—Consultant, Presidential Appointment 
• Dorothy Stubbe, M.D.—Work Group on Training and Education 

We also have started a consulting relationship with a high profile group in New York City to develop a plan for branding and marketing, and are moving into phase one of this consultation. Finally, we are meeting with potential funding sources for eAACAP. 

Robert Hendren, D.O., is AACAP’s President-Elect. He is the executive director of the University of California at Davis’sM.I.N.D. institute, an international,multidisciplinary research organization developing better treatments for neurodevelopmental disorders. He is also a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California at Davis. 

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding eAACAP 

1. Are you sure you will call it eAACAP? 
   No, we are asking our branding/marketing consultant to help us consider the most appealing names and taglines. 
2. Will eAACAP take over the functions of certain Committees and Work Groups? 
   No, quite the contrary. eAACAP will serve as a linking function that is highly dependent on continuation of the excellent work that has been done in developing educational materials for the AACAP. 
3. What are the future plans for eAACAP? 
   eAACAP originated in the Task Force on Intellectual Property, where a three-step development plan was recommended. Our first step is putting CME programs online. Second, we have selected a medical director and advisory board and are now developing linked educational programs. Third, we will consider the optimal structure for eAACAP, either within the AACAP structure or as a separate but related entity. 
4. What is unique about eAACAP? 
   The strength of eAACAP is the rich resources we have in our highly productive contributing members. These experts have generated our educational information and will lead the field into the future. The unique strength of eAACAP is in linking information to guide decisions for better mental health outcomes. 
5. Can you say all this in one short paragraph? 
   Sure. eAACAP, the electronic Academy, will provide information and learning packages from existing and future AACAP programs and activities, about childhood mental illnesses. Learning programs will be prepared for separate portals of entry for parents and family members, health and education professionals, and child and adolescent psychiatrists. eAACAP is an outgrowth of the AACAP’s many effective and hardworking work groups, committees, task forces, and our Annual Meetings and Institutes. Bennett, AACAP directors and staff, and I are working together to develop what we hope will be a valuable and enduring resource to “nurture mentally healthy children” and hope that you will share in our enthusiasm.