YouthCHAT Program

YouthCHAT is an innovative, youth-engaged approach for training current and future health care professionals to strive to provide developmentally appropriate, culturally-relevant, youth-friendly, trauma-informed and strengths-based adolescent health services. YouthCHAT Educators are trained as simulated patients for purposes of interactive clinical education of pediatrics and internal medicine-pediatrics residents, nurse practitioner students, medical students and other interdisciplinary adolescent health professionals. Their role is to help healthcare professionals hone their interviewing and communication skills with adolescents and young adults.  YouthCHAT Educators work with medical faculty to develop a character that is an adolescent or young adult patient with a health concern. During educational sessions, “patients” role play with the medical resident or nursing student as though they are in a clinical setting - this clinical “interview” session is followed by a feedback session.