An updated policy statement and a technical report issued by the AAP highlighted the need for increased involvement among pediatricians in their patients’ mental health care and increased mental health care training in medical education programs.

“Pediatricians — whether in primary care or subspecialty practice — typically have longitudinal, trusting relationships with their patients and families and, as a result, unique opportunities to promote social-emotional health and identify and address emerging mental health problems,” Jane Meschan Foy, MD, FAAP, a professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, told Infectious Diseases in Children.