Advocacy Education in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Results of a National Survey of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Programs.

Abstract

Objective: Advocacy education is an important competency in physician education. The medical education literature includes several examples of advocacy curricula in graduate medical education programs, but few in child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship programs. The authors describe a survey they conducted on the state of advocacy education in child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship programs.

Methods: In October 2024, the authors sent a survey to child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program directors. The web-based survey asked questions regarding the purpose of the curriculum/advocacy experience, learning objectives, types of content, teaching formats, faculty, assessment of learning, and facilitators and barriers to the curriculum/learning experiences.

Results: Of the 33 child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship directors who responded to the survey, 27 (82% of respondents) indicated having advocacy experiences or curricula. The most common purposes of the advocacy experiences were to "gain awareness of child mental health systems-level issues," "learn about health policy/health laws and regulations," "gain confidence and learn advocacy skills," and "learn how to influence policy." The most common types of educational content in the advocacy experience/curriculum were "legislative advocacy skills" and "social determinants of health/health equity."

Conclusions: The majority of respondents indicated having advocacy education in their child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship programs. The survey sheds light on common purposes of this training, types of educational content, teaching formats, and common barriers and facilitators to advocacy education in child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship programs.