Using Effective Public Private Collaboration to Advance Integrated Care

A Multisystem Approach to Improving Autism Care

Children with autism face significant barriers to accessing evaluations and intervention services often because of confusing referral processes, lack of centralized coordination across organizations serving children with autism, insurance coverage gaps, multiyear waitlists for diagnostic services, and limited provider knowledge about autism. Racism and systemic inequities exist and persist in autism care across the United States. This article reviews targeted initiatives implemented by a multidisciplinary team to advocate for, and address barriers faced, by autistic children and their families in Washington, DC. We describe initiatives across multiple levels of the health care system including: 1. infrastructure-building initiatives (eg, coalition-building, policy, and advocacy); 2. enabling services (eg, population- and community-level supports that increase provider capacity to serve children's and families' needs); and 3. direct services (eg, innovative, gap-filling programs that directly serve children and families). We review outcomes and describe lessons learned.

DC Mental Health Access in Pediatrics: Evaluating a Child Psychiatry Access Program in Washington, DC

INTRODUCTION

Child psychiatry access programs (CPAPs) provide primary care providers (PCPs) with assistance in mental health diagnosis, management, and resource navigation.

METHOD

Data collected from DC Mental Health Access in Pediatrics (MAP) included PCPs and patient demographics, clinical encounter information, and provider satisfaction.

RESULTS

DC MAP consult volume increased 349.3% over the first 5 years. Services requested included care coordination (85.8%), psychiatric consultation (21.4%), and psychology/social work consultation (9.9%). Of psychiatry-involved consultations, PCPs managed patient medication care with DC MAP support 50.5% of the time. Most (94.1%) PCPs said they would recommend colleagues use DC MAP, and 29.6% reported diverting patients from the emergency departments using DC MAP.

DISCUSSION

DC MAP grew quickly, highlighting program impact and need. Demand for care coordination required flexible staffing and highlighted the need for coordination in pediatrics. Child psychiatry access programs offer an innovative way to enhance PCP management of their patients' mental health needs.

Pediatric Provider Experiences with Implementation of Routine Mental Health Screening

OBJECTIVE

Despite the utility of universal screening, most pediatric providers rarely use mental health (MH) screening tools. As such, provider descriptions of their experiences with universal screening are limited. The goal of this study was to describe barriers to, and facilitators of, universal MH screening implementation, the perceived impact of such screening, impressions of a screening-focused quality improvement (QI) Learning Collaborative, and lessons learned.

METHOD

We invited primary care clinicians participating in a large-scale QI Learning Collaborative on MH screening (n = 107) to complete postproject interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using constant comparative qualitative analysis, an inductive, iterative process.

RESULTS

Eleven interviews were completed and analyzed. Practice sites included academic health centers, a private practice, and a federally qualified health center. Providers described the positive impact of screening (increased identification of MH concerns) and barriers and facilitators of screening at the practice level (clinic and leadership buy-in and electronic medical record integration), the provider level (provider beliefs about the importance of screening), and the patient level (parent literacy). Challenges of linking families with care after screening included lack of adequate referrals, long wait lists, limited bilingual providers, insurance gaps, and inadequate feedback loops. Access to on-site MH clinicians and participation in the Learning Collaborative were described as beneficial.

CONCLUSION

Findings elucidate how universal MH screening can be sustainably integrated into real-world primary care settings and may facilitate the uptake of American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for best practices in screening for MH concerns.

Behavioral Health Integration in Health Care Settings: Lessons Learned from a Pediatric Hospital Primary Care System

Behavioral health integration within primary care has been evolving, but literature traditionally focuses on smaller scale efforts. We detail how behavioral health has been integrated across a large, urban pediatric hospital system's six primary care clinics (serving over 35,000 children annually and insured predominately through Medicaid) and discuss strategies for success in sustaining and expanding efforts to achieve effective integration of behavioral health into primary care. In a time span of 3 years, the clinics have implemented routine, universal behavioral health screening at well child visits, participated in a 15-month behavioral health screening quality improvement learning collaborative, and integrated the work of psychologists and psychiatrists. Additional work remains to be done in improving family engagement, further expanding services, and ensuring sustainability.