• Read the Event Roundup to learn more about the forum and the speakers.

• View the Recommendations to Realization Health Policy Forum Video to listen to national speakers’ forum comments.

• View photos taken of the event and speakers.

• Read the Recommendations to Realization Health Policy Forum Report for a written account of the forum.

• Read the Adolescent Mental Health Checkups and Health Care Reform White Paper to learn more about policy recommendations in support of mental health checkups in primary care.

• Read the June 4 Forum Press Release for a brief synopsis of the event.

At the event, Rosemary Chalk, Board director at the IOM, and Dr. Thomas DeWitt, methodology chair with the USPSTF, explained their agencies’ recommendations and the research behind their conclusions.

Dr. John Genrich, a pediatrician from Colorado Springs, began the second panel by speaking about his real-life experience in integrating mental health checkups into his adolescent visits. He was joined by leaders in managed care who shared lessons they have learned about the practical implementation of screening programs throughout their networks. Dr. Rick Spurlock from Kaiser Permanente Southern Colorado, Karen Smith-Hagman, R.N., M.S.N., from EmblemHealth, and Dr. Christopher Dennis from behavioral health provider ValueOptions, discussed the importance of having appropriate systems of referral and reimbursement in place to help facilitate screening.

Dr. Lloyd Sederer from the New York State Office of Mental Health, Darcy Gruttadaro, J.D., of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Catherine Finley of Capitol Counsel in Washington, D.C., closed the program with thoughts on how policy change and health care reform can help to positively shape adolescent mental health care.

The gathering was the Inaugural Eric Trendell Health Policy Forum, named for Eric Trendell, a college student who died by suicide in 2002.