Child Mental Health Community of Practice session 1: Anxiety

The child mental health community of practice (CoP) is part of the Victorian Public Healthcare Award-winning ‘connecting mental health paediatric specialists and community services (COMPASS)' project. It is a multidisciplinary CoP for GPs, practice nurses, psychologists, paediatricians, mental health clinicians, social workers and counsellors.

The CoP improves the capacity of clinicians assessing and managing mental health problems in children and adolescents. Over 7 sessions, facilitated by local GP Dr Sahar Iqbal, participants will examine case studies presented by child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Chidambaram Prakash from the Royal Children’s Hospital. Each monthly session will focus on a topic of interest. Sessions will be held online using Zoom on Tuesday evenings, from 6:30pm to 8pm. 

The topic for session 1 is anxiety. Three to 5 per cent of children suffer from anxiety disorders, not including obsessive compulsive disorder, at any one time. This session will focus on identifying and treating different types of anxiety and anxiety-related disorders.  

This is the fourth time this successful CoP has been run. This series will include all new case studies.

1.5 EA RACGP continuing professional development (CPD) hours are available for attending GPs.  

Don't miss the other sessions in the series:

Session 2: May 28, 2024 6:30 PM – Aggressive and challenging behaviours

Session 3: June 25, 2024 6:30 PM – Depression, suicidality and self-harm

Session 4: July 30, 2024 6:30 PM – Eating disorders

Session 5: Aug 27, 2024 6:30 PM – Assessment and management of mental health disorders in neurodiverse children and young people 

Session 6: Sep 17, 2024 6:30 PM – Gender diversity

Session 7: Oct 29, 2024 6:30 PM – PTSD/Complex PTSD

For any queries, please contact education@nwmphn.org.au

Speakers

Dr Chidambaram Prakash is a senior consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at the RCH. He has over 20 years’ experience. 

Prakash has worked in, and managed, general and specialist clinics within child psychiatry in metropolitan and regional public mental health services.  

Practising as a GP at Goonawarra Medical Centre for the past 10 years, Dr Sahar Iqbal's areas of interest are child and adolescent mental health and chronic disease management.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this activity, participants will be able to:

• Confidently assess and identify anxiety in children and adolescents
• Discuss the best practice management for anxiety in children and adolescents
• Identify appropriate referral pathways in local region to support management of children and adolescents with anxiety.