Patricia Lester, M.D.
PANEL:
Military Children’s Mental Health
Dr. Patricia Lester is the Nathanson Family Professor of Psychiatry, Director of the Division of Population Behavioral Health, and Director of the Nathanson Family Resilience Center at UCLA. Her research and clinical work have been dedicated to development, evaluation, & implementation of family centered prevention and treatment for families facing impact of military deployments, traumatic events, and parental illness.
She co-developed the family-centered preventive intervention Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS) which was designed to promote resilience and mitigate stress in children and families facing adversities. Over the last 12 years, she has led the successful large-scale implementation of FOCUS as a public health continuum of preventive services to support military families facing transitions for the Department of Defense.