Building and Sustaining a Framework to Expand Pediatric Acupoint Therapies at School-Based Health Centers and an Academic Tertiary Care Children’s Hospital in New York City

Abstract

Research has shown that acupoint therapy can be a viable, evidence-based treatment for treating sleep, anxiety, and pain symptoms among children, adolescents, and adults. This article provides a framework to translate acupoint therapy into formalized programs in outpatient and inpatient pediatric settings. The lead author and her team worked together with children and adolescents in urban school-based health centers and a pediatric tertiary care hospital within a large academic urban medical center using different forms of acupoint therapy to support patients in managing a variety of symptoms. We describe the process of developing patient-centered, evidence-based programs with a strong foundation in research, administration, clinical care, and education, and demonstrate how this model can be effective through teamwork, training, and innovation.