Impact: A New Synergism

The Child Health Center for Learning and Development is based in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, in partnership with the CUIMC Department of Pediatrics and the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. This working alliance is anchored by cross-cutting research projects, collaborative teaching, and school-based health/mental health services. Shared learning environments include joint training and funding opportunities, cross-departmental fellowships, laboratory exchanges, field-based research, service learning, and multidisciplinary practice in schools and community settings. Such synergism will support a new generation of multidisciplinary leaders in the field of child and adolescent health—a diverse healthcare workforce with the interprofessional skills to translate scientific advances into practice, communicate with policy-makers, and better meet the biomedical, behavioral, clinical and social needs of school-aged children and youth. We include in our work, populations for whom the determinants, mechanisms, and pathways of development may be under-studied, and new solutions for the promotion of optimal development are needed. We recognize and address the role of adversity in the health and well-being of all children, families and communities.