The 51st Meeting of the NH/VT Ethics Committees: Navigating Decision-Making Capacity amid Mental Illness Uncomfortable Ethical Quandaries Inherent When Psychiatrically Ill Children are Boarded on Non-psychiatric Pediatric Floors Part 3 of 4

Dartmouth Health Continuing Education for Professionals Home, The 51st Meeting of the NH/VT Ethics Committees: Navigating Decision-Making Capacity amid Mental Illness “ Uncomfortable Ethical Quandaries Inherent When Psychiatrically Ill Children are Boarded on Non-psychiatric Pediatric Floors “ Part 3 of 4, 10/25/2021 8:00:00 AM - 10/25/2024 8:00:00 AM, Decision-making capacity can be challenging to assess in patients with mental health diagnoses. Clinicians often struggle with the balance between a desire to respect autonomy and a duty to protect. In this conference, we will discuss challenges in decision-making capacity assessment involving adult and pediatric patients with mental health diagnoses.

Presenters
Steven C. Schlozman, MD “ Pediatric Psychiatric Staff Physician, Outpatient Psychiatric Services, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, New Hampshire. Dr. Schlozman has been a child psychiatrist since completing my residency in psychiatry at MGH in 1998 and my child fellowship in 2000. He served as the chief psychiatric consultant at MGH for the pediatric solid organ transplant unit and as a staff child psychiatrist for 18 years. He was also a member of the consult-liaison psychiatry service at MGH during that time. He then came to DHMC this year (July, 2021) where he is the main child psychiatrist on the consult-liaison service for CHaD.

Ellen K. D. Sejkora, PhD “ Pediatric Psychologist, Outpatient Psychiatric Services, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, New Hampshire. She has worked in three different hospitals serving the inpatient medical and psychiatric boarding population through consult services. Dr. Sejkora participated in ethics consults for two years at Nationwide Children™s Hospital and co-authored manuscripts specifically outlining ethical dilemmas common within the field of pediatric psychology. She also assisted with ethics consults, both formal and informal, around end of life scenarios in the Nationwide Children™s Hospital neonatal intensive care unit.

Learning Outcome(s)
At the conclusion of this learning activity, (at least 75% of) participants will be able to discuss current issues related to ethical dilemmas posed by patients with mental illness who are asked to make a health care related decision.

Disclosure
The activity director(s), planning committee member(s), speaker(s), author(s) or anyone in a position to control the content for this activity have reported NO financial relationship(s)* with ineligible companies**. 

* A financial relationship" includes employee, researcher (named as the PI), consultant, advisor, speaker, independent contractor (including contracted research), royalties or patent beneficiary, executive role, and/or an ownership interest (not including stocks owned in a managed portfolio).

** An ineligible company is any entity whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

Bibliographic Resources

Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians. MACEP. (n.d.). Retrieved October 26, 2021, from https://www.macep.org/. 
 
Park, J. M., Jordan, N., Epstein, R., Mandell, D. S., & Lyons, J. S. (2009). Predictors of residential placement following a psychiatric crisis episode among children and youth in state custody. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 79(2), 228“235. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015939
 
Misek, R., DeBarba, A., & Brill, A. (2015). Predictors of psychiatric boarding in the emergency department. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 16(1), 71“75. https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2014.10.23011