Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Innovation in psychiatry; COVID-19 pandemic; Telepsychiatry; Mental disorders; Pediatric mental disorders; Support groups for mental disorders; Virtual psychiatry practice; Virtual congresses

Introduction

Because mental illness is costly as well as prevalent, researchers and clinicians are collaborating efforts to make it history. The best approach to achieve such a goal is to recommend implementation of dramatic changes in life style of mental disorders’ sufferers, updating of the old diagnostic techniques and introducing new diagnostic modalities, and lastly but by no means least, enhancement of the outcome of the well-known traditional therapeutic interventions hand in hand with creating novel ones.

What is ordinary and what is innovation?? !!!

Clinicians especially Child Psychiatrists do believe that both ordinary and innovation are well integrated and complementary from the clinical perspective even if they seem incompatible and contradictory.

Accumulation of the ordinary and routines leads to innovation as whoever can withstand the boredom of the ordinary is expected to be eager to be innovative. The boring life of a physician from being an undergraduate with exhausting learning demands to the hard life of a clinician who is devoted for treating his patients and taking care of their interests and covering the concerns of their families and being up to their expectations breed innovation.

Why is innovation crucial??!!!

The most common ordinary challenges facing sufferers of pediatric mental disorders and their child psychiatrists include ignorance, discrimination, and stigma which make the sparking concept of innovation crucial and priceless from etiology to management of developmental and behavioral disorders.

The golden target of those working in the field of pediatric mental disorders is to offer their patients the most convenient individualized care by prescribing the best evidence based medications and recommending the most effective psychosocial interventions for their different conditions. The ultimate goal of such an ideal practice is to empower sufferers from pediatric mental disorders and their caregivers to enjoy promising productie lives with better quality in all domains.

COVID-19 pandemic; was it an international disaster or a blessing???!!!

In spite of being an international disaster, COVID-19 pandemic necessitated innovation in delivering all types of health services to those in need wherever they are as it represented a remarkable burden on the available resources of health services across the globe. So, moving from COVID-19 pandemic to post COVID-19 era was associated with rapidly developing significant achievements in that domain documenting the solidarity of the fact that the need is the mother of innovation.

Post COVID-19 innovations in the field of Psychiatry

In the field of psychiatry, innovations in delivering mental health services were many and proved to be very useful and successful. They included promoting online Balint groups for health care workers and internet support groups for sufferers from different mental disorders, implementation of infectious disease protocols in dedicated mental health facilities, home management of acutely presenting mental disorders as well as home-based care for cold cases, development of specialized mobile applications for cases with all types of mental disorders, and availability of tele-psychiatry at community health clinics and via phones or videoconferencing of psychiatry consultants with health care providers and their patients.

On the other hand, many specialized international journals offered free access to their online content to facilitate academic research and enrich the knowledge of health care professionals as well as the public about the pandemic and other health issues. Also, many prestigious congresses across the globe shifted from face to face to online platform which paved the way to decrease the expenses dramatically and increased the attendence of the medical health professionals with positive outcomes on the quality of health services and practice worldwide.

Legal and ethical issues of the newly implemented modalities in psychiatry practice

Implemention of the new modalities in psychiatry practice during COVID-19 pandemic raised some legal and ethical concerns that necessitate considering mandatory precautions in delivering such innovative services. Taking consents for video and telephone consultations, e-drug prescriotions, and taking home medical supplies must be well planned and delivered with strict supervision.

Caring for homeless and foster care children has been proven to be challenging at times of national and or international crises and must be provided by local health authorities and NGOs. In general, hospitalization priorities, treatment availability for those in need, and development of flexible practical guidelines to deal with future disasters as COVID-19 pandemic or otherwise must be firmly considered.

In conclusion, the innovation in psychiatry research and practice raised the optimism about the prognosis of sufferers of different mental disirders. The better we understand the brain and its functions and neurochemistry, the more likely we will be able to provide the safest and most effective management modalities to those in need to help them to enjoy an independent, productive, and better quality of life.

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all”