Clinical Round Table 1 - Enhancing Caregiver Skills and Support in Acute Care Treatment Settings

Friday, November 21, 2025

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM CST

Location: Imperial 11, Level 4

Earn 1.5 Credit

Keywords: Parenting, Adolescents, Families
Recommended Readings: Merayo-Sereno, B., Fernández-Rivas, A., de Oliveira-Silva, K. L., Sánchez-Andérez, F. J., Sesma-Pardo, E., Vivanco-González, E., & González-Torres, M. Á. (2023). The experience of parents faced with the admission of their adolescent to a child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit. A qualitative study with focus groups. Current Psychology, 42(8), 6142-6152., Lebowitz, E. R., Omer, H., Hermes, H., & Scahill, L. (2014). Parent training for childhood anxiety disorders: The SPACE program. Cognitive and behavioral practice, 21(4), 456-469., Sommerhalder, M. S., Schulman, J., Grados, M., Parrish, C., Praglowski, N., Ostrander, R., ... & Reynolds, E. K. (2021). Preliminary findings from the implementation of behavioral parent training in a partial hospitalization program. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 6(4), 473-483., ,

Moderator(s)

SR

Stephanie N. Rohrig, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist
Weill Cornell Medicine
New York, NY, United States

Presenter(s)

Shira Ritholtz, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry
Weill Cornell Medicine
White Plains, NY, United States
Arielle F. Casasnovas, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor in Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry
Weill Cornell Medicine
White Plains, NY, United States
Lauren E. Webb, Ph.D.

Instructor of Psychology in Psychiatry; Assistant Attending Psychologist
Weill Cornell Medicine
New York, NY, United States
Nicholas C. Crimarco, Ph.D.

Assistant professor of medical psychology
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Tarrytown, NY, United States
Adriana Rego, M.D.

Medical Director CUCARD
Columbia University Medical Center
Chappaqua, NY, United States
Paul Sullivan, Ph.D.

Unit Director/Attending Psychologist
Bellevue Hospital/NYU
West Harrison, NY, United States

Youth are presenting to psychiatric acute care settings at an increasing rate. Emotional and behavioral problems, including school avoidance, digital overuse, substance use, oppositionality, self-harm and suicidality impact the entire family system. In an unprecedented advisory in 2024, the Surgeon General issued a statement about the stress many caregivers are currently experiencing due to their child's mental health crises. Although many externalizing and internalizing disorders are effectively treated via caregiver skill building programs, services for caregivers are often overlooked in acute care settings. Thus, it is imperative acute care clinician are equipped to implement and focus on increasing caregiver self-efficacy via a transdiagnosfic skills-based approach.

This clinical round table will feature six expert panelists, all of whom work in acute care settings, including inpatient hospital units, partial hospitalization programs, and intensive outpatient treatment programs. These panelists will review the rationale, procedures, and feasibility of implementing caregiver services for diverse diagnostic presentations and cultural backgrounds. Panelists will speak to transdiagnostic parent skills such as crisis de-escalation, reduction of over-accommodation, emotional validation, and parent coping. They will reference the relevant research and discuss adaptations specific to acute care. This group of clinicians, who have each developed innovative caregiver interventions, will provide actionable guidance on how to develop and disseminate evidence-based caregiver skill programs in acute care settings, and will review special considerations, including how to increase accessibility for all families.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:

Understand benefits of parent coaching in acute care settings.
Adapt evidence-based parent strategies to transdiagnostic and acute populations.
Utilize four strategies that are relevant to parents with children in acute care, such as how to manage high risk behaviors and anxious avoidance.
Provide care to a diverse array of parents while their child is in psychiatric acute care settings.