PHN Welcomes Newest Medical Director: Lee Beers, M.D.

Starting March 2022, I am pleased to have stepped into my new role as the Pediatric Health Network‘s Medical Director of Behavioral and Mental Health Initiatives. I look forward to joining my PHN colleagues as we support your practices in providing the best care for children across our region. My particular focus will be supporting efforts to enhance mental health care for children and adolescents. In the last two years especially, the need for better mental health care access and resources has come into sharp focus in the national discourse. As pediatricians caring for children and families, we have been working on these issues and have seen this crisis emerging for years. I first came to Children’s National Hospital in 2003, and began work with the Healthy Generations Program – a program for adolescent parents – where I helped to lead the integration of mental health care into program services. Since 2013, I have worked in the Child Health Advocacy Institute focusing on integrated mental health, community mental health systems of care, and community engaged approaches to early childhood mental health. As President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 2021, I spent much of my time focused on our nation’s COVID response, mental health, and equity, diversity and inclusion. I currently sit on the Board of Directors of the AAP as the Immediate Past President and remain focused on all of these issues, with a particular emphasis on mental health.

My new role at PHN will allow me to focus on supporting practices locally. I will help lead efforts to provide mental health education, training, and support for integrated care models and care coordination. Beginning in May, PHN and Children’s National are launching a four-month initiative on innovative approaches to mental and behavioral health (see more details in this newsletter and the PHN website). We have already had wonderful engagement from PHN members on this topic (thank you!), and you should continue to feel free to share any ideas or feedback for how we can best work together to help transform mental health care for our region’s children and adolescents.

On a final note, I also want to thank you for the tremendous care and dedication you have shown to children and families over the past two years, and throughout your careers.  One of the greatest joys and honors of the past year was the opportunity to see the collective impact pediatricians across the country were able to have on child and family health and wellbeing.  You were innovative, passionate, and committed to the families you care for, during exhausting and often thankless times. I am looking forward to working with this community and getting to know each of you better.

Best,

Lee Beers, M.D.

Medical Director, PHN