Conversations with KidsPeace KidsPeace

In addition to providing kids in crisis therapeutic help, KidsPeace also offers opportunities for real-world training to medical professionals beginning their careers in mental healthcare.  In 2024 KidsPeace serves as a clinical rotation site for physicians in Lehigh Valley Health Network’s new fellowship program in child and adolescent psychiatry.

On the latest edition of our podcast series Conversations with KidsPeace, Dr. Joseph Venditto - the first fellowship participant to complete a rotation here – talked about his experience, why he chose the specialty of child and adole

April is Autism Awareness Month, and on the latest Conversations podcast Rob Harvey, Director of Intensive Behavioral Health Services, offers his perspectives on the state of autism programming in the post-pandemic period, how the continuum of autism services KidsPeace provides is addressing a rapidly growing demand, and how new research is challenging the view of autism as primarily an issue for male children.

What is a “toxic friendship?”  How can I tell if a friendship is toxic … and if it is, what can I do about it?  These are questions addressed in a new “learning” section of KidsPeace’s therapeutic support service TeenCentral.com.  

TeenCentral’s Madelyn Almonte discusses the concept of toxic friendships and ways to help teens recognize and deal with them, on the latest edition of the Conversations with KidsPeace podcast.  

As program manager for KidsPeace Foster Care in Kingston, NY, Jennifer Udvardi-Morris works to connect kids in need with foster families and other services.  But she’s also taken on a different task – lobbying legislators in her state to address the needs of those working in the child welfare field.

In the latest installment of the “Conversations with KidsPeace” podcast, Jennifer talks with host Bob Martin on the critical issues facing those who work in the field, and her outreach on those subjects with lawmakers in the Empire State.  

In December, Jennifer wrote a guest column for the Times-Union newspaper in New York’s state capital of Albany. You can read her column here.

https://fostercare.com/turnover-in-child-welfare-workforce-is-hurting-vulnerable-children/ 

The sixth season of the “Conversations with KidsPeace” podcast kicks off with KidsPeace President and CEO Mike Slack discussing highlights of 2023 and what challenges he expects the organization and the mental healthcare field will face in the new year.  

According to a recent study, children with autism are more than twice as likely to enter foster care than those without that diagnosis.  In one county in Pennsylvania, KidsPeace is launching an effort to meld its expertise in foster care with its understanding of the needs of kids with autism.

On the latest episode of the “Conversations with KidsPeace” podcast, host Bob Martin talks with Heather Einsig, a family resource specialist in the KidsPeace Foster Care office near Reading, PA, about the “Autism Focused Foster Care” program – why it’s needed, and what challenges it faces in recruiting and training foster families to care for this population.