Amie
Bettencourt
,
PhD
1741 Ashland Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21205
United States
About
Dr. Amie F. Bettencourt is a licensed clinical psychologist and researcher with more than 15 years of experience treating and conducting research on disruptive behavior problems in children and adolescents, with a particular focus on the use of parenting skills interventions to address these difficulties. In addition, she has focused her work on increasing access to pediatric mental health services through implementation and evaluation of interventions delivered in primary care and school settings. She is an associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and holds joint faculty appointments in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Mental Health and in the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She is also the director of research and evaluation for Maryland Behavioral Health Integration in Pediatric Primary Care (BHIPP), a statewide Child Psychiatry Access Program with a mission to increase access to pediatric mental health services for Maryland’s children through workforce development of pediatric primary care, emergency medicine and behavioral health providers.
Education
Dr. Bettencourt received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She went on to receive her Masters of Science and her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. In turn, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Prevention Science at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Research Summary
As a researcher, Dr. Bettencourt has focused her work in three areas: 1) advancing knowledge of the heterogeneity of disruptive behavior problems that manifest in youth and identifying risk factors (e.g., limited school readiness, bullying) that lead to negative psychosocial and psychiatric outcomes, 2) investigating the efficacy of parent-focused interventions designed to promote parenting skills and confidence and prevent and treat disruptive behavior problems in children, and 3) investigating how novel and innovative integrated mental health training and intervention approaches can address the pediatric mental health care workforce shortages.