2023-2024 Recordings

Communication challenges remain one of the earliest concerns of parents whose children eventually receive an autism diagnosis. Many existing measures in autism only characterize communication differences but are not designed to monitor improvement over time or support clinical decision making. This presentation will describe a new tool, the Early Communication Indicator for Autism (ECI-A), which is based on an existing norm-referenced, validated measure and can be easily used within clinical practice. The objectives of this presentation are to:

1. Describe how early communication skills in autism can be used to support early identification and diagnosis.
2. Describe a brief, play-based assessment designed to measure early communication skills of children with or at high likelihood of receiving an autism diagnosis.
3. Compare the early communication skills of autistic children to their non-autistic peers.

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Description & Learning Objectives

A safe, nurturing, and responsive caregiving environment during the first 1000 days of a child’s life is critical in setting a strong foundation for lifelong growth and development. Prolonged hospital stays during these early years can have a profound impact on child outcomes including neurodevelopment, emotion regulation, and relational health. Unfortunately, the intersection of pediatric psychology and infant/early childhood mental health has largely been overlooked, with little attention placed on the child-parent dyad in the medical setting. Nevertheless, it is imperative that mental health professionals working in inpatient and outpatient settings are equipped to assess, recognize, and respond to the effects of prolonged inpatient medical intervention on children and caregivers to promote relational health and family resilience. The learning objectives for this session are to:

1. Describe the unique needs of children and families facing early and prolonged inpatient medical intervention.
2. Recognize the clinical utility in dyadic and relational-focused interventions in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
3. Identify ways to integrate this relational, trauma-informed framework into current clinical practice, research, and education.

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Continuing Education

This program has been approved for one Continuing Education Credit Hour by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapist, Professional Counselor, and Licensed Psychologist Licensure renewal. Additional information will be provided at the live event.

The issue of health disparities is well known and documented in our health systems and disparities in Suicide are no exception. These rates have increased significantly for those of historically marginalized identities. In 2021, the CDC reported that suicide is the first leading cause of death for Asian Americans ages 15-24 and the second leading cause of death for Latine youth. The rates for Black youth are increasing faster than any other racial/ethnic group and have been for over 20 years.

Research indicates that suicide is preventable through a comprehensive public health approach that includes implementation and evaluation of multiple tailored prevention strategies. Amanda Calhoun, MD, MPH; Anamaria Orozco, LCSW; and Eunice Yuen, MD, PhD will share their expertise and experience providing racially and culturally responsive assessment and prevention with AAPI, Black/African American, and Latine Youth.

The learning objectives for this session are for participants to:

1. Better understand the factors that have contributed to the increase in suicide rates for AAPI, Black/African American, and Latine youth
2. Learn specific culturally/racially informed assessment and treatment considerations for each group
3. Learn culturally and racially informed strategies to rebuild trust to engage caregivers who likely have experienced racism and discrimination in their own healthcare journey

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Description

Findings will be presented from a series of studies looking at different aspects of higher level control and their link to mechanisms of resilience in developmental and adult samples. First, a large randomized-controlled trial seeking to improve cognitive control or response speed in 265 typically developing children and looking at a host of behavioral and neural outcome measures will be discussed. Second, several experiments on the role of our subjective sense of control or agency and its link to stress and mental health will be addressed.

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Description

It can be challenging on multiple levels to experience the death of a patient by suicide. This presentation will address the multi-factorial risks for suicide as well as postvention actions that can be utilized by both affected clinicians and organizations following a patient suicide. Establishing a culture of acknowledgement and addressing the loss in a timely and proactive manner is essential to ensure affected practitioners and family members feel supported and individual and organizational risk is minimized. Learning objectives for this session are to:

• Demonstrate understanding of a scientifically informed view of the multi-factorial risks for suicide
• Identify individual strategies that can be utilized to support clinicians' experiences following a patient suicide
• Determine organizational strategies that optimize postvention response following a patient suicide.

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

This virtual session will be the first in a new quarterly leadership-focused lecture series, Exploring and Enhancing Leadership in the Academy, coordinated by YCSC Assistant Professor Daryn H. David, PhD in collaboration with YCSC Chair Linda Mayes, MD and the department's Grand Rounds committee.

The inaugural speaker will be Pamela Sutton-Wallace, MPH, who serves as executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Yale-New Haven Health System. Additional details will be shared when available.

The new series will provide an open forum with leaders at the Yale School of Medicine and beyond who are committed to principles of collaboration and service. These talks will be further promoted throughout the YCSC, at 230 South Frontage Road and 350 George Street, through leadership-themed posters designed by Skyler Rapacioli, an undergraduate graphic design student.

Learning objectives for this new series are to:

• Introduce foundational principles of service leadership, generativity, and coaching for effectiveness within the academy and health care
• Highlight the service-oriented practices of prominent leaders within YSM, the Yale-New Haven Health System, Yale Medicine, and external institutions
• Invite audience members to reflect on their own leadership practices, with an eye toward how service leadership principles could enhance their efforts

While institutional wellness programs have been implemented in health professions education for many years, there have been numerous challenges in implementation. One of the challenges to existing wellness programs relates to how stigma against help-seeking limits prevention and early identification of distress. When experiencing the warning signs of psychological distress, individuals often do not seek support due to self-stigma which relates to fears of retribution, or appearing vulnerable or weak to others. Common approaches to stigma reduction, however, typically involve increasing knowledge to challenge biases and stereotypes which has not led to sustained or meaningful change. Emerging research on implicit and structural forms of stigma may provide unique insights that transform how we address stigma into the future. The learning objectives for this session are to:

1. Discuss the concepts of implicit and structural stigma and their relevance to healthcare
2. Describe a model for stigma recognition and management that has been empirically derived through research
3. Explore ways to co-create systemic change to address stigma and improve wellbeing

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Senn Conference Room and simulcast via Zoom.

Speaker's social media handles:

@javeedsukhera

@drsukhera

This opportunity to gather together and celebrate academic progression among YCSC faculty and staff will be in-person only, in the Senn Conference Room at 230 South Frontage Road. The courtyard may also be available, weather permitting. Refreshments will be served, and opening remarks will be provided by Linda Mayes and Tara Davila. Those being recognized for recent promotion or progression (as finalized and approved in fiscal year '23 and to date in FY24, i.e., 7/1/22-9/30/23) are as follows. Congratulations to all!

• Amanda Altieri, Compliance & Training Coordinator
• Tanya Barnes, Account Assistant 5/Department Liaison
• Heather Bonitz-Moore, Assistant Professor of Child Counseling
• Laurie Cardona-Wolenski, Associate Professor of Child Psychology
• Una Casey, Senior Administrative Assistant
• Laura Ciarleglio, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Renee Cifarelli, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Daryn David, Assistant Professor
• Megan De Carvalho, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Amanda Dettmer, Research Scientist
• Karen Franchi, Training Program Administrator
• Megan Goslin, Associate Professor of Clinical Child Psychology
• Ellen Hoffman, Associate Professor
• Karim Ibrahim, Assistant Professor
• Suzanne Macari, Senior Research Scientist
• Kieran Maiorana, Assistant Professor of Child Counseling
• Katherine Malensek, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Crista Marchesseault, Director of Communications
• Carla Marin, Assistant Professor
• Heather Maurizio, Assistant Professor of Social Work
• Emily Olfson, Assistant Professor
• Kartik Pattabiraman, Assistant Professor
• Michael Powers, Associate Clinical Professor
• Vladislav Ruchkin, Associate Professor Adjunct
• Gitta Selva, Program Administrator
• Jordan Shamas, Program Administrator
• Carla Stover, Professor
• Denis Sukhodolsky, Professor
• Linda Torv, Program Manager 1
• Nadeeka Treadwell, Assistant Professor of Social Work

Description & Learning Objectives

Health disparities by socioeconomic status (SES) have been extensively documented, but less is known about the health implications of achieving upward mobility. This talk will address the mental health and physical health effects of upward mobility, particularly among youth of color. The conditions under which mobility can come at a cost will be discussed. In addition, psychosocial, behavioral, and physiological pathways from upward mobility to health will be described. The learning objectives for this session are to understand:

1. disparities in health outcomes by race and socioeconomic status
2. psychosocial pathways related to upward mobility
3. health behavior and biological mechanisms explaining health disparities

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Continuing Education Credit

This program has been approved for one Continuing Education Credit Hour by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapist, Professional Counselor, and Licensed Psychologist Licensure renewal. Additional information will be provided at the live event.

Description & Learning Objectives

Understanding heterogeneity within and across diagnostic labels is crucial in neurodevelopmental conditions to guide precision health efforts; help the health care sectors meet the needs of individual children, youth, and families; and understand the stories of lived experience. Canadian multimodal data (structural and functional imaging, phenotypic, and genomic data, and treatment response from clinical trials) from the POND network (https://pond-network.ca/) and others will be addressed, to provide updates on current insights in this area and discuss future directions. Partner perspectives and experience will be integrated in the discussion to help focus the work on what matters to neurodivergent individuals and their families.

The learning objectives for this session are to:

• discuss data that challenges current diagnostic labels
• review intervention data to examine the relationship between biology and core symptom definition for ASD
• link biological understandings from the above objectives to patient priorities

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Join YCSC Chair Linda Mayes, MD for this traditional welcome back session to kick off the 2023-2024 Grand Rounds series. This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom.

Join the YCSC Grand Rounds committee in the courtyard at 230 South Frontage Road (with the Cohen Auditorium as the rain location) to mark the end of our Grand Rounds season with an Annual Juneteenth Celebration. Established last year by Dr. Krystal Finch, Belinda Oliver, Dr. Camille Cooper, Stacey Cannon and Tara Davila, this event has won the hearts of YCSC community members. Social Work intern and Grand Rounds presenter Durrell Snow, who is also a small business owner, as well as the Yale African American Affinity Group will be on hand to talk about their work. Feel free to bring a folding chair to sit and connect with colleagues while listening to music and enjoying some culturally influenced treats.

Francesca Penner, PhD: Improving Our Understanding of Emotion Regulation During Pregnancy

Alan H. Gerber, PhD: Social Disruption and Loneliness in Autistic and Non-Autistic Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Peter J. Castagna, PhD: Modeling Brain Dynamics and Gaze Behavior: Starting Point Bias and Drift Rate Relate to Frontal Midline Theta Oscillations

Moderated by Mike Crowley, PhD and Michael Bloch, MD, MS

Yale Child Study Center

This presentation will illuminate ways the field of psychology can serve communities who live with the psychological effects of racism. Insights from liberation psychology, decolonial psychology, Black psychology, and womanist psychology will be presented. This training is for beginner and advanced clinicians, as most training programs have not offered training in addressing racial trauma. The training will encompass both theory and practical application of liberatory frameworks.

The training also touches on sustainability, self-care, and community-care as clinicians may be direct targets themselves and may be affected by vicarious trauma when working with clients in the aftermath or continued exposure to racial trauma.

Topics discussed will include:

• The need for anti-racism therapeutic practice as an ethical mandate given the prevalence of racism-related stress and trauma
• The overlapping theoretical frameworks of liberation psychology, decolonial psychology, and anti-racism psychology
• Liberation and Decolonial Psychology in assessment and treatment.

By the end of this workshop, clinicians will be able to:

1. List at least three potential mental health consequences of racism
2. Apply decolonial, trauma-informed principles to assessing racial trauma
3. Describe an appropriate liberation, trauma-informed framework to a racial trauma intervention

Objectives:

• Develop additional perspective on the current plight of children in the United States
• Gain a greater appreciation of the value of putting children first in our budgets, policies, and procedures, in how we develop products and enact laws, and in our families and communities.
• Foster innovative thinking on enhancing child welfare

Objectives:

• Participants will recognize the public health challenges associated with access to early intervention services for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and implications, for family and society, from late diagnosis.

• Participants will learn about new advances capitalizing on eye-tracking research of early social development to generate cost-effective and community-viable solutions to increase access to early detection, diagnosis and assessment for young children with ASD and related social-communication and language delays.

• Participants will learn about the available evidence on efficacy and effectiveness of these emerging technologies.

Needs Assessment:

ASD is the most common complex neurodevelopmental disorder, corresponding to a large portion of the pediatric practice of clinicians in general, and child psychiatrists. Early intervention can optimize outcomes, and yet, societal barriers persist. It is importance for practitioners and investigators alike to be aware of the public health challenges and opportunities associated with ASD, and emerging solutions that could potentially benefit 1 in every 44 children in the country.

In this session we will look at why breathing is so effective in reducing anxiety and stress and how it can serve as a powerful tool for influencing individual health and well-being. We will also learn simple breathing techniques to incorporate into day to day life and clinical practice.

Max Ritvo ‘13 and Alan B. Slifka ‘51 Program for the Medical Humanities Special Lecture

The Bold Beauty Project motto is Disability becomes Beauty becomes Art becomes Change.

We hope to inspire the audience to see how healing can come in a variety of forms not just the traditional ways we learn in medical school by helping the audience see the beauty in connecting to those who have a disability or “different ability” as people not merely patients.

Viola Bernard Special Lecture

This session has been approved for one Continuing Education Credit Hour by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapist, Professional Counselor, and Licensed Psychologist Licensure renewal.

Objectives:

1) Characterize the multiple oppressions of state failure, gender-based violence, racism, and economic oppression that constrain opportunities for Latina migrant mothers;

2) Describe imperative resilience as resistance to oppression and the limitations of conventional trauma inventories and clinical risk assessments

3) Advance policy reforms to promote a more nurturing environment for Latina migrant mothers and their children.

Needs Assessment:

This talk centers the stories of mothers who migrated from Latin America, settled in New Haven, Connecticut, and overcame trauma and ongoing adversity to build futures for their children. First, I briefly characterize migration-related trauma, discussing the state failure that contributes to many women's decisions to leave their home countries and the gender-based violence, racism, and economic oppression that constrain their opportunities. I then describe how women engage engaging cognitive and social strategies to resist these interlocking oppressions to press onward, or "seguir adelante," upending conventional notions of positive coping and trauma recovery. I discuss the limitations of clinical trauma inventories and risk assessments in this population emphasizing the need for broader understandings of traumatic events and pathways toward healing. Finally, I address policy reforms that would promote a more nurturing environment for Latina migrant mothers such that they would not need to rely on their intrinsic mental and emotional strengths, but could rather harness that energy as surplus and invest it to further their goals for themselves and their families.

Objectives:

• Recognize the impact of parental serious mental illness on children and families, including the burdens of family caregivers.
• Identify the limitations of psychiatric care in the mid-20th century including prolonged confinement and the disastrous use of lobotomy
• Explain approaches for humanizing madness through artistic witness

Needs assessment:

As a case study of one of the most famous artists in the mid–twentieth century to focus on madness, this talk explores the complex relationships between mental illness, psychiatry, trauma, poetry, and prophecy. It also provides historical insights into the paternalism, treatment failures, ethical lapses, and limitations of American psychiatry of the 1940s and 1950s.

This special session in honor of Social Work Month will spotlight a sampling of the work of some of the center’s master’s level faculty and staff.

Objectives:

• Identify health disparities LGBTQ youth face
• Recognize the ethical considerations involved in caring for LGBTQ youth
• Describe ways to provide inclusive, high-quality healthcare for all

This topic will benefit the audience by discussing how to address common ethical considerations they may face in caring for LGBTQ youth.

This program has been approved for 1 Continuing Education Credit Hour by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapist, Professional Counselor, and Licensed Psychologist Licensure renewal.

• This presentation aims to shed light on the diversity of the autism spectrum as well as showcase the different ways in which autistic people view their own disability. Through the story and music of “My World,” I hope to bring the audience into the worlds of Benjy and Caddy—the main characters of the show—in hopes of conveying a more nuanced portrayal of autism and how it impacts the individual, the family, and the world around us.

Substance misuse is common among adolescents and is associated with multiple negative outcomes. Yet less than 10% of adolescents in need of treatment are able to access care. Current strategies to identify adolescents in need of preventive and treatment interventions are fraught with multiple barriers that preclude early identification and linkage with care. Digital tools offer innovative methods for the early identification of adolescents at risk for substance misuse and connecting them with needed care.

An overview will be provided how, via variation in stress-sensitive maternal-placental-fetal stress biology, the fetus receives cues about maternal current and preconceptional stress and how this may affect fetal brain development. Despite the high degree of postnatal neuroplasticity that allows the infant brain to adapt its development to the extrauterine environment, evidence will be provided in support of variation in neonatal brain phenotypes being important predictors of later neurocognitive function and risk for mental health problems. Thus, identifying and supporting vulnerable women in the preconceptional period and during pregnancy may not only serve the mothers-to-be but also support offspring optimal brain development and mental health.

In this compassionate care rounds , the parents of a gender non-binary adolescent will share their experiences as individuals and as a family navigating uncharted developmental territory. The presentation will highlight the role that professionals and advocates can have in supporting gender-diverse youth and their families.

Maternal immunization has been shown to be a safe and effective way to protect both mothers and their babies from serious infectious diseases. This presentation will review the current evidence for the use of various vaccines during pregnancy, including influenza, pertussis, RSV, and COVID; and discuss the potential benefits and safety of maternal immunization. The impact of maternal immunization on neonatal outcomes, such as birth defects and prematurity, will also be discussed. The ultimate goal of this presentation is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of maternal immunization and to encourage greater participation in this important public health strategy.

Indigenous people are one of the fastest growing and diverse racial/ethnic groups in the United State. Additionally, they experience some of the worst physical and mental health inequities. Social determinants contributing to the poor health status of Indigenous people include differential rates of poverty, lack of equal access to education, and inadequate housing. Historical trauma has been used to describe and explain health disparities within Indigenous communities. Despite the troubling history and ongoing disparities, Indigenous values, communities, and importance of connectedness continue to exist and are key to combating colonization. Supported in the literature is the importance of community and connection to culture, which are correlated to wellness and provide targets for inclusion in promoting healing.