Duke IMPACT (Improving Med Psyche Adolescent Care Together) (2025-2026)
Adolescents with severe mental illness often receive only short-term inpatient care before returning home, where families may have limited resources to support recovery. This project explored how hospitals can strengthen care during hospitalization and after discharge by developing therapeutic resources for patients and families and evaluating whether trained undergraduate peer coaches could provide effective emotional support following discharge.
The team investigated psychological treatment practices in medical psychiatric inpatient units across the country. They found that no comprehensive review of existing skills-based programming was available. To address this gap, team members designed a national survey for medical directors of inpatient and partial hospitalization programs and compiled a database of existing programs. The project gained national momentum through a collaboration with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Special Interest Group on medical psychiatric inpatient units, which plans to use the survey to better understand current practices and inform future care models.
In addition, the team developed therapeutic materials for Duke's new Medical Psychiatric Inpatient Unit Partial Program. Team members created content for a skills-based workbook that will help children build emotional awareness and coping strategies during treatment. The team's work is also contributing to the planning for the new Duke-UNC children's hospital by providing evidence to guide the design of inpatient psychological services, parent resources and future peer-support programs. These resources could improve the transition from hospital to home.
Timing
Fall 2025 – Summer 2026
Team Outputs
Duke I.M.P.A.C.T.: Improving Med/Psyche Care for Adolescents Together (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 15, 2026)
Thought Monitoring: Let’s play detective! (Treatment material for children in Duke Psychiatry’s Partial Hospital Program)
Designed survey to administer to medical directors and staff of Medical Psychiatric units – Administration of survey in progress
Mental health skills-based curricula (in progress)
See related team, Duke IMPACT: Improving Med-Psyche Adolescent Care Together (2026-2027).