Beth Kennard, PsyD, ABPP
Dr. Betsy Kennard is currently a Professor in Psychiatry, the Director of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) at the Pediatric Psychiatry Research Program at UT Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center, and the Program Director of the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at UT Southwestern. She has expertise in pediatric depression and has served as a site co-investigator in three NIMH funded multi-site treatment studies of adolescent depression and suicide, and co-authored CBT treatment manuals for these three studies. She has developed a CBT sequential treatment strategy to prevent relapse in youth with depression, which was tested in two clinical trials with positive results including lower rates of relapse at 30, 52, and 78 week follow-up in those that received CBT. She has adapted this treatment to youth with HIV and Depression, which also was tested in a clinical trial with positive results. She has just completed an NIMH funded pilot study, “Brief Intervention for Suicide Risk Reduction in High Risk Adolescents;” in collaboration with U. of Pittsburgh, NIMH R34 MH100375-01 (results published in the American Journal of Psychiatry). This project will be expanded to a larger treatment study, funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, testing a brief treatment to reduce suicide risk in youth hospitalized for suicidal behavior and a safety plan smart phone application. Dr. Kennard directs the intensive outpatient program for high risk youth: the Suicide Prevention and Resilience Program at Children’s (SPARC). The program, provides evidence-based care to youth with suicidality within an outpatient setting, with promising outcomes. She has received funding to adapt and implement this suicide treatment program in a community mental health setting (UT Southwestern Community-Based Pilot Research Grants). Pilot data from this project was instrumental in securing additional funding from the state to expand the project at Metrocare in 2018-2019 (Texas Health and Human Services Grant, RFA for Community Mental Health Program, RFA: HHS0000460, Title of Proposal: “Adapting an Adolescent Suicide Prevention Program for a Community Mental Health Setting: Children’s Health partnering with Metrocare Dallas). As the director of the graduate program in clinical psychology at UT Southwestern, she is responsible for the training of approximately 40 graduate students in two APA accredited programs: the doctoral program and an affiliated pre-doctoral internship program.