Background Paper on: The Role of Psychological Factors

Marilyn B. Benoit, M.D., a child adolescent psychiatrist, is the Medical Director of The Devereux Foundation's Chesapeake Network where she serves children and adolescents in residential and community settings in the Washington DC/Baltimore metropolitan area. She chairs Devreux's National Medical Advisory Committee, is the Secretary of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and chairs the AACAP's Television and Media Committee. Dr. Benoit is a busy national advocate for children and adolescents, having testified before numerous local and federal government committees. She has served as an invited participant in policy advisory work groups at the White House, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Enterprise Institute, the Milbank Foundation, the American Bar Association, and others. She has hosted AACAP/National Mental Health Association/Devereux Children's Center panel discussion on the topics "Is It Child Abuse?" and "Preventing Adolescent Suicide," which aired nationally via satellite in May and October 1997, respectively. She was a participant in two other such programs, "Why Bobby Can't Pay Attention," and "Depression Across the Life Cycle." In addition to lecturing at Grand Rounds at various teaching medical centers, she has made presentations at Annual AACAP meetings, the NAACP, the International Congress on Child Abuse, and the World Congress of Psychiatry, among others. Dr. Benoit speaks, and has published on the topics of teenage pregnancy, parenting, child abuse, domestic and community violence, suicide in the young, child welfare and social policy as it relates to children and adolescents, and she has appeared and is often quoted in the local and national media on issues concerning the health and safety of children.

Dr. Benoit is a graduate of the Georgetown University Medical School and completed her Child Psychiatry Fellowship at the Georgetown University Medical Center, where she is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. She earned a graduate degree in Health Services, Management and Policy at the George Washington University.