Tufts Medical Center- Children's Hospital
Boston-Metro Region II
MCPAP Staff

Smita Srivastava, MD is the medical director and is a staff psychiatrist for the Boston Metro II MCPAP. She is a Child Psychiatry Outpatient Attending and Director of the Child Consult Service at Tufts Medical Center. Dr. Srivastava is an Assistant Professor at Tufts Medical School. She completed triple board residency in pediatrics, adult psychiatry, and child psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center. Dr. Srivastava also received her MD from Tufts Medical School

Child psychiatrists

John Sargent, MD, is the director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center and professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to assuming that position, he was professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine and director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, Texas. He also served as the clinical director of the System of Hope, a community system of care for seriously emotionally disturbed children in Houston, Texas. He is currently a member of the Massachusetts Children's Behavioral Health Advisory Council which is responsible for monitoring and improving children's behavioral health throughout the state. He has experience in all aspects of clinical child and adolescent psychiatry and special interest in developing clinical systems of care for poor and underserved children and adolescents with mental health problems. His other special interests include child and family responses to trauma and violence, eating disorders, adolescent suicide, family therapy, and international child mental health program development. He has published more than 70 articles and books on these topics. Dr Sargent is a nationally known family therapist and has training and certification in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Pediatrics. Dr. Sargent is also president of the American Family Therapy Academy. Before joining the Baylor College of Medicine faculty in 2001, Dr. Sargent had been the director of Education and Research at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas and previously was director of General and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also has served as deputy director of the Eastern European Child Abuse and Child Mental Health Project and has extensive experience in training mental health professionals throughout the world.

Christopher Bellonci, MD, is a board-certified child/adolescent and adult psychiatrist who has worked in residential treatment and school consultation since completing his child psychiatry training at McLean Hospital in 1993. He is currently assistant professor in the Psychiatry Department of Tufts Medical School and the medical director and senior clinical consultant at Walker in Needham, Massachusetts. Walker is a multi-service agency working with children experiencing severe emotional and behavioral disorders secondary to major mental illness, trauma, and developmental disorders. Dr. Bellonci is on the Mental Health Advisory Board of the Child Welfare League and is a board member of the American Association of Children's Residential Centers. He has consulted to the Department of Children's Services in Tennessee in support of their efforts to decrease seclusion and restraint and better monitor the use of psychotropic medications for children in care. Dr. Bellonci co-authored the "Practice Parameter on The Prevention and Management of Aggressive Behavior in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Institutions with Special Reference to Seclusion and Restraint" for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). Dr. Bellonci is a member of AACAP's Workgroup on Quality Issues, which is responsible for writing the practice parameters that define the standards of care for the field of child psychiatry. He recently provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor regarding unlicensed and unregulated boot camps and wilderness programs as well as to the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support regarding the increasing use of psychotropic medications for children in the Child Welfare System.

Mimi W. Thein, MD, is a staff psychiatrist at Children's Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. She has been a co-contributor to the Psychopharmacology Course given to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellows and Harvard medical students at Children's Hospital since 2004. She is the recipient of teaching awards at Children's Hospital, Boston, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Thein is a consulting psychiatrist at The Counseling Center of Nashua in Nashua, NH, as well as at Behavioral Solutions in Lexington, MA; she is also on staff at Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, MA. Dr. Thein is also the Associate Medical Director of Berkshire-On-Call Associates. She received her degree in Medicine from Penn State College of Medicine, completed her Adult Psychiatry residency at Harvard Longwood Residency Training Program, and completed a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Children's Hospital, Boston. She is board-certified in Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Thein is the author of "Psychiatry Bullets."

Kathryn Crist, MBA, is the administrator for the Boston-Metro II MCPAP region at Tufts Medical Center/Children’s Hospital.  She is also the director of psychiatric services at Tufts Medical Center, and has extensive experience in operational and strategic leadership roles, working in both academic medical centers and consulting environments. Kathryn graduated with a B.A in psychology from Emory University and received her M.B.A from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Alexis Hinchey, MSW, LICSW, received her MSW from Boston College.  Alexis has experience working in a variety of settings, including acute residential treatment, hospitals, schools, and prisons.  She has worked with many populations, including children and adults and those with mentally ill as well as those with developmental disabilities.

Rachael Roy, care coordinator for our Metro-Boston II region, received a BA from Saint Michael's College in VT, with a concentration in psychology and a minor in gender studies. Rachael has prior experience working with victims of crime and sexual assault. In addition, she has worked with and counseled families trying to have children through surrogacy.