Dr. Bela Sood is truly "a woman in full."

Medical director of the Virginia Training Center for Children, chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at MCVH-VCU, consistently chosen as one of the top Docs in the U.S. and in Richmond, with awards too numerous to list, published in more than 50 journal articles, essays, abstracts and books, a noted speaker at international conferences on the topic of children’s mental health issues, with a resume 28 pages long and a doctor who still sees patients. And she is also a wife and a mother to three grown children.

India is her native country. Her uncle was a director of a mental hospital there and was a great influence on her career path. She loved working with children and became a child psychiatrist after coming to the United States.

Psychiatrists who treat children are rare, and most parents seeking help for their child or teen find they may have to wait three to four months for appointments. Dr. Sood said that part of the reason for this is you need a skill set very few doctors have — the skill to understand children and deal with them on their level and the medical/psychiatric skill to treat them. She added that only about 20% of the children and teens who need psychiatric help actually get it. Usually, parents will initially try to get help from their child’s pediatrician.

Doctors and pediatricians traditionally get very little training in medical school in the diagnosis or treatment of psychological problems, Dr. Sood said. If children or teens become chronically ill, the system can often fail them. An accurate psychological evaluation takes time, input from the family, a history, etc. Most doctors can’t put the time required into them to do it right, especially in an emergency room setting.

In an effort to help bridge this gap, one of Dr. Sood’s current projects is to further pediatricians understanding of how to recognize and handle children’s mental illnesses. Because the pediatrician is generally the first resource most parents turn to if they are concerned about their child, Dr. Sood has teamed with nine pediatric partnerships in Richmond to develop the Children’s Mental Health Resource Center to increase mental health awareness, education and training for pediatricians.

What can the average parent do to optimize their child’s mental health? Her advice for parents is to build as strong a family unit as possible.

"When children are in elementary school you have the most opportunity to influence their values. So, at that age, we should build strong lines of communication with them, lines that will stay viable for the rest of their lives. You have to be a hands-on parent and know what is going on with your kids. Have meals with them. Set aside quality time with them. Routines and traditions help build a stable environment for them. Don’t be too loose, nor too rigid, but definitely stick to your values," she said.

Dr. Sood suggests that if parents cannot be there as much as they need to, try to get auxiliary parents in place, such as a spouse, grandparents, siblings, etc. As they grow, keep the relationship close and help them develop their own identities and make them comfortable with themselves.

However, even in the most loving families, serious mental illness can develop.

"If you have a concern that something is not right with your child or teen, listen to what their teachers and peers are saying about them and listen to your gut. If you feel something is wrong, get a psychiatric evaluation done by a psychiatrist experienced in working with children," she said.

Dr. Sood emphasized that one issue holding back progress in mental health research and treatment is the stigma attached to it. As an example, she points out that in the 1950s cancer was a hush-hush word. "Now everyone is talking about it and raising funds for research. The same change needs to occur with mental illnesses. These are simply illnesses, based in neurobiology, that affect the brain. They should be considered as just another disease and nothing for families to feel ashamed of," she said.

Services for the chronically mentally ill are badly needed. Dr. Sood suggested that those services need to come from the state and community mental health centers. "There is no clear vision locally. But it is possible to create and maintain good mental health systems. Hampton Roads and Lynchburg are two areas in Virginia that have excellent mental health systems. We just need to pull our resources together and make it happen," she said. FP