Innovative continuing medical education program for paediatricians: A model for the delivery of mental health services.

Paediatricians have described themselves as feeling insufficiently trained to manage young people (and their families) with significant psychosocial distress and mental illness - who can comprise a large proportion of their practices. A continuing medical education program for a group of four paediatricians who treat the paediatric mental health needs of a large Ontario catchment area with few mental health resources is described. At a monthly educational and consultation clinic, the paediatricians discuss and personally interview their own patients and referrals while a child psychiatrist and a psychiatric social worker, using a two-way mirror, assist them to develop psychosocial interviewing skills and techniques, and diagnostic formulations.