Abstract
IACAM
IACAM has been in existence since 1990, and during the last 3 decades has now over 725 active members, conducts its national conferences every 2 years and national mid-term CME in alternate years, and has its own journal (JIACAM;
Background
India has 574 million population below 18 years of age, and trained child psychiatrists are about 1 per 5 million. There are nearly 250 colleges offering a postgraduate in MD to approximately 1000 students, but not all centers have the capacity to provide dedicated training in child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP). Specialization in CAP is in its nascent stage with very few centers offering a DM (super specialization) and a post-doctoral fellowship (PDF). Currently most CAP cases come to general psychiatrists who must do the needful; with many lacking the interest and/or expertise in CAP. Therefore, it was thought essential to train and empower general psychiatrists in basic clinical care of child and adolescent cases that reach their doorstep. The COVID-19 pandemic paved the pathway for widespread acceptance and expansion of digital technology in education and healthcare and provided a window of opportunity for this initiative.
It is in this context that in February 2021, IACAM approved the idea of establishing IACAM Academy to undertake the task of running a Certificate Course in CAP.
IACAM Academy
IACAM Academy is the brainchild of the Life-President, Savita Malhotra. The primary objective is for increasing the manpower resource and bolstering the mental health services and care of children and adolescents in the country.
The IACAM Academy Core Committee members comprising of 10 members worked tirelessly to lay the groundwork and develop the needed infrastructure in a short span of 3 months. They comprised: Dr Savita Malhotra (Academy Director); Drs Kishor Gujar (then President-IACAM), Devashish Konar (then Vice President-IACAM), Chhitij Shrivastava (then Secretary General-IACAM), Shekhar Seshadri, Henal Shah, Pratap Sharan (Academy Consultants); Nitin Gupta (Academy Coordinator); and Drs Darpan Kaur and Nidhi Chauhan (Academy Assistant Coordinators).
The Certificate Course
A one-year certificate online course involving multiple formats of teaching and evaluation was initiated. Senior, experienced academicians were roped in as the teaching faculty as we were committed to providing quality education. Quality assurance parameters were identified and a program evaluation was planned to help in furthering improvement and maintenance of quality of the course.
The course curriculum has been designed in a way to cover primarily clinical aspects of CAP and minimum basic essential theory to help conceptualize and formulate management plans. The entire course is completed in 25 teaching sessions, of 2 hours each, on alternate weekly basis, over a period of one year.
For delivering this course curriculum, the faculty uses a variety of formats including didactic teaching, seminars, case presentations, case vignettes, videos, case-based discussions, etc. If participants missed a session, the pdf of the power point was made available along with other reading material, and they were expected to go through it within a couple of weeks of its availability as part of the course requirements.
Participants are assessed at regular intervals. The assignments assess application of skills which are learnt during the synchronous classes. There are periodic evaluations at the end of each module including short questions and clinical assignments. It is mandatory to have an attendance above 80% and to complete the four e-Assignments with a score >60% in each assignment. At the end of the course each such successful participant is provided with a “Certificate of Course Completion.”
The Start
The Indian Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health celebrated the establishment of its initiative, IACAM Academy, as well as the commencement of its first course in CAP for general psychiatrists in India on August 7, 2021. Professor Daniel Fung, President of IACAPAP, attended the inauguration as the Chief Guest; Professor Norbert Skokauskas, Chair WPA CAP Section, and Dr Gautam Saha, President of the Indian Psychiatric Society, were the Guests of Honor.
August 7, 2021, thus, is a key milestone in the history of development of CAP in India.
Current Status
We have conducted 2 batches of 100 participants each till date. These first 2 batches have completed the Certificate Course in June 2022 and October 2022, respectively. So far 100 participants have completed their training requirements and have been given Certificate of Completion of Training in the course. All are practicing child psychiatry now with confidence, competence, and skill. Additionally, excellent feedback has been provided from participants of the first 2 batches which is very heartening. A third batch of 100 participants will start from early 2023 onwards.
The Future
An online course is a very convenient and a cost-effective model that circumvents many logistic hurdles. We aim to make this Certificate Course an annual activity, and hope we can make a difference to the lives of children in need of mental health care. Our further plan is to develop the course for other professionals like clinical psychologists and pediatricians based upon their specific needs. We see it as start of a journey that will also include participants from neighboring SAARC and other countries where training facilities in CAP are negligible/absent. We hope that this course will help to disseminate and propagate principles and skills related to CAP at the grassroots level amongst all those who feel responsible and concerned about child mental health.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
IACAM and IACAM Academy.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:
Savita Malhotra is Director-IACAM Academy and Nitin Gupta is Coordinator-IACAM Academy.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.