Join us for an “In The Know” special edition where our experts discuss the growing need to provide critical mental health support for children and teens.
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Combating the Pediatric Mental Health Crisis

Sabrina Browne, MD
Sabrina Browne, M.D., is a Pediatric Psychiatrist at Children’s Health and Assistant Professor at UT Southwestern. Dr. Browne earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She completed her residency and fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Combating the Pediatric Mental Health Crisis
Bill Klaproth (Host): Welcome to Pediatric Insights, Advances and Innovations with Children's Health, where we explore the latest in pediatric care and research. Today's episode is a special edition featuring our In The Know Series, a new edition to our podcast lineup that brings you insightful conversations with our Chief Medical Executive, Dr. Day Chung, and expert physicians from across Children's Health. we'll be sharing these special episodes regularly to keep you informed on emerging trends and advancements in pediatric care straight from the leaders who are shaping it. In this episode, Dr. Chung is joined by Dr. Sabrina Brown, Pediatric Psychiatrist at Children's Health and Assistant Professor at UT Southwestern.
Together they discuss how Children's Health is providing critical support and expertise to combat the pediatric mental health crisis. Let's dive in.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): I'm Dai Chung. Welcome to the In the Know Video Series.Today I'm with Dr. Sabrina Brown, who's Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern and Pediatric Psychiatrist at Children's Health. Welcome.
Sabrina Browne, MD: Thank you for having me.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): There are lots of interesting and great things happening with regards to patients with behavioral health conditions. Take it away.
Sabrina Browne, MD: Yeah. So at Children's Health, we know that we are in the middle of a, a mental health crisis for our kids, and so we have pediatric psychology providers embedded in 19 clinical programs. And so they see kids at the Children's Medical Center in Dallas, the Children's Medical Center in Plano, and then we have other locations scattered across North Texas.
So we, in 2023 alone, saw 19,000 visits, representing 6,000 individual unique patients, and so we've been really making an effort to increase that, that access to care so that kids can get the care they need in a timely fashion.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): Tell us a, a bit more about Pediatric Psychiatry program here.
Sabrina Browne, MD: The Pediatric Psychiatry Division has been growing over the past few years, and that's been a concerted effort at the state level to increase the amount of doctors that we have.
And so at Children's Health, we have one of the only bilingual neuropsychology departments, so we offer testing and then also do training for future clinicians, in doing neuropsychological evaluations in English and Spanish, which is such a great need and can be pretty hard to find.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): Well, as important as what you do day in, day out, taking care of patients, training next generation is very important.
Sabrina Browne, MD: Yes, it, it is. It's why, you know, it really takes all of us. Children's Health partnered with the Mental Health Policy Institute and in 2022 we launched the Behavioral Health Integration and Guidance Initiative. And so what we do in this program is we work with primary care providers, so that can be pediatricians, family care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants.
And what we do is we train them on how to recognize and how to treat common mental health concerns that we see in kids and in teenagers. Things like anxiety, depression, stress, trauma. Really the goal is to have that early identification, early intervention, because we know it makes such a difference in the, the outcomes for the kids improving their quality of life.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): Well, tell us about how your program would impact not only regionally but nationally.
Sabrina Browne, MD: We have recently opened up our training, not just to primary care providers in Texas, but across the country. It's free of cost and we really just want to be part of the change for all of the kids in this country to really improve.
By working with this, uh, behavioral health integration guidance initiative and training pediatricians and other primary care providers, we're really able to amplify the effect and touch so many more lives. In the first year of our program, we trained 75 providers and they have, among them, over 150,000 families that they serve.
So that is just amplifying what, you know, I can do to, to touch the, the lives of, of kids in the area.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): Great. Um, there's lots of exciting stuff happening. What does it really mean for pediatric patients with behavioral health conditions?
Sabrina Browne, MD: Yeah, so it, it means easier access to get care. One of the things that has been a challenge, not just in North Texas, but in the, the country in general has been trying to keep up with the demand. Kids are in crisis, they're having these difficulties, and there's just not enough beds and they're not enough providers to really address it. And so the exciting part for me seeing Children's expand, is that we're able to serve more people.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): That's great. What ever saw more increased awareness, uh, in the community or nationally for that matter, about pediatric behavioral health conditions. What's the parents', uh, responsibility and roles?
Sabrina Browne, MD: One of the things that I love about this program is that when we work with the pediatricians and, and primary care providers, is that idea of like preventative care and getting out before a crisis happens. Mental health is part of regular healthcare, and so it's really important to have those touch points, to have those, those check-ins, creating space just to spend time together, even if it's, you know, going for a walk or doing a puzzle to keep that connection so that kids feel more comfortable coming and, and talking to parents.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): What are some exciting, uh, conductor current as well as in the around the corner of research advances at the, in your space?
Sabrina Browne, MD: The state of Texas actually has a, um, pediatric mental health consortium that is working on not only increasing access to mental health services for kids, but also doing research into, you know, what are the best ways to intervene and, and work with these kids.
And so at UT Southwestern, we have a, a group that's been working with a consortium as well. Looking at things like trauma and how to best work with those kids. There's, you know, research looking into how to best treat depression in youth beyond just, you know, the medication side of things, right? Like looking at different therapies and other supports that we can do to really make a difference.
One of the things that I get most excited about with the partnership between Children's Health and, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is the training of, of future doctors. And so a part of our program that we're actually expanding as we speak, is um, working more with our, uh, trainees.
So our resident physicians who are going into pediatrics who are specializing in adolescent medicine. So we are working more with them at the beginning of their careers in their training so that they are comfortable asking these questions. They're comfortable recognizing mental health concerns so that our, our next generation of, of doctors is really on top of, of managing these things.
Everyone has a, a role when it comes to mental health. One of my biggest passions is just helping break down that stigma. Each of us can make a difference in that and creating that space amongst ourselves, being more open to having those conversations, letting people in our lives know that it's a safe space to talk about those things.
And I think it can shift and, and really make a difference just on those day-to-day people that we encounter.
Dai Chung, MD (Host): No. Well said. I think that mental health, uh, conditions or challenges come in all shapes and forms in ages and having more awareness and having professional, like you doing great work. Thank you for all that you do.
Sabrina Browne, MD: Thank you so much.
Bill Klaproth (Host): Thanks for listening to Pediatric Insights, Advances and Innovations with Children's Health, where we explore the latest in pediatric care and research. We'll be back soon with another special edition featuring our In The Know Series with Chief Medical Executive Dr. Dai Chung, where he interviews expert physicians from across Children's Health.
You can find out more at children's.com. And if you found this podcast helpful, please rate and review or share this episode and please follow Children's Health on your social channels.