title: Behavioral health care for children: the massachusetts child psychiatry access project.
abstract: Access to behavioral health care for children is essential to achieving good health care outcomes. Pediatric primary care providers have an essential role to play in identifying and treating behavioral health problems in children. However, they lack adequate training and resources and thus have generally been unable to meet children's need for behavioral health care. The Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project has addressed this problem by delivering telephone child psychiatry consultations and specialized care coordination support to over 95 percent of the pediatric primary care providers in Massachusetts. Established in 2004, the project consists of six regional hubs, each of which has one full-time-equivalent child psychiatrist, licensed therapist, and care coordinator. Collectively, the hubs are available to over 95 percent of the 1.5 million children in Massachusetts. In fiscal year 2013 the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project served 10,553 children. Pediatric primary care providers enrolled in the project reported a dramatic improvement in their ability to meet the psychiatric needs of their patients. Telephone child psychiatry consultation programs for pediatric primary care providers, many modeled after the Massachusetts project, have spread across the United States.
authors.affiliation: John H. Straus (John.Straus@valueoptions.com) is a pediatrician and medical director for special projects, Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership, a ValueOptions company, in Boston.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Straus
authors.affiliation: Barry Sarvet is chief of child psychiatry and vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Baystate Health, in Springfield, Massachusetts, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Tufts School of Medicine, in Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sarvet
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D002665:Child Psychiatry / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008404:Massachusetts; D017146:Models, Organizational; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000458:organization & administration
keywords: Access To Care; Children’s Health; Organization and Delivery of Care; Workforce Issues