Melissa Santos is the division chief of pediatric psychology at Connecticut Children’s, the director of the Scientific Center for Child Health Excellence in Research and Innovative Outcomes for the Connecticut Children’s Research Institute and an associate professor of pediatrics at the UConn School of Medicine.
In her roles, she leads a team of psychologists while providing mental health services to children with chronic health conditions and advancing a funded line of community engaged research.
What have been your significant contributions to your organization in the past year?
Health care is constantly evolving with exciting new innovations, breakthroughs and technologies. However, what always remains is that not every child or family reaps the benefits of these successes. Over the past year, I have worked on initiatives in hopes of reducing that gap.
I implemented training to allow individuals to understand ways they approach the world, patients, families and each other. I also worked to create a structure to allow children and families to be involved in the scientific process to ensure that research is meaningful, relevant and reaches those it means to benefit.
Tell us about a challenge in your job that you were able to overcome.
Working in health care, we spend a lot of time talking about the mental health of the patients and families we serve. However, healthcare worker mental health is often met by challenges of stigma or needing to be the invincible hero.
I am proud of the work we have done to normalize conversations about healthcare worker mental health and the programs we have put in place to make access to mental health services and support readily accessible.
What’s your next major goal?
Social media and artificial intelligence hold such opportunity, and potential pitfalls, for children’s mental health — both in terms of new treatment innovations as well as reaching families who may not be able to easily access care.
Over the next year, my goal is to work with youth and families to better understand how these technologies can help support their emotional health, while partnering with them on how to communicate with other youth as well as things to avoid.
