Implementing Integrated Care in Pediatric Mental Health: Principles, Current Models, and Future Directions

Strengthening Support for Community Mental Health Programs Through Partnership and Collective Impact

Effective partnerships can profoundly impact outcomes for youth with behavioral health concerns. Partnerships occur at multiple levels - at the individual, organizational, state, and national levels. The Systems of Care (SOC) framework helps to conceptualize and articulate the skills necessary for forming partnerships in youth's mental health. This article explores values in the SOC framework and makes the case that the framework can help develop a "road map" to develop the skills needed to achieve successful partnerships. Impediments to effective partnerships are also discussed. Several case examples are given to illustrate the principles and impediments to partnership formation.

Disparities in Youth and Family Experiences of System-of-Care Principles by Level of Youth Need

The extent to which mental health services for youths embody system-of-care (SOC) principles is an important quality indicator. This study tested whether youth and family experiences of SOC principles varied depending on youths' level of need after adjusting for sociodemographic and treatment factors. The relationship to caregiver-reported clinical outcomes was also examined. Using administrative data and cross-sectional surveys from a stratified random sample of 1124 caregivers of youths ages 5-20 within a statewide system, adjusted analyses indicated caregivers of youths with the most intensive needs were significantly less likely to report receiving care that embodied SOC principles, with deficits on six of nine items. Youths whose services embodied SOC principles experienced significantly greater improvement in caregiver-reported functioning even after adjusting for level of need. Results highlight disparities in SOC principles for youths with intensive needs and the need for policy and intervention development to improve care for this population.

Stemming the tide of mental health problems in young people: Challenges and potential solutions

One in five people experience clinically relevant mental health problems before the age of 25 years. Furthermore, in Australia, one in seven children are reported to experience a mental health disorder. Consequently, there has been a steady increase in demand for mental health services for children and young people, and this has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, currently many children and young people with mental health difficulties are not accessing appropriate and/or timely care, with individuals and families finding it increasingly difficult to access and navigate suitable services. In part, this is related to the fragmented and isolated manner in which child mental health services are operating. To address the current issues in access to appropriate child and adolescent mental health care in Australia, a novel Integrated Continuum of Connect and Care model is proposed to integrate relevant services along a tiered care pathway. The aim of this model is to facilitate timely access to mental health services that meet the specific needs of each child/young person and their family. This model will function within co-located service hubs that integrate health care through a comprehensive assessment followed by a link up to relevant services. The Integrated Continuum of Connect and Care has the potential to pave the way for unifying the fragmented child and youth mental health system in Australia.

Community paediatricians' experience of joint working with child and adolescent mental health services: findings from a British national survey

OBJECTIVES

Children and young people (CYP) presenting to paediatric or child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) often have needs spanning medical and psychiatric diagnoses. However, joint working between paediatrics and CAMHS remains limited. We surveyed community paediatricians in the UK to inform better strategies to improve joint working with CAMHS.

METHODS

We conducted an online survey of community paediatricians through the British Association for Community Child Health (BACCH) on how much joint working they experienced with CAMHS, any hindrances to more collaborative working, and the impact on service users and service provision. This paper is based on thematic analysis of 327 free-text comments by paediatricians.

RESULTS

A total of 245 community paediatricians responded to the survey (22% of BACCH members). However, some responses were made on behalf of teams rather than for individual paediatricians. The following were the key themes identified: a strong support for joint working between community paediatrics and CAMHS; an acknowledgement that current levels of joint working were limited; the main barriers to joint working were splintered commissioning and service structures (eg, where integrated care systems fund different providers to meet overlapping children's health needs); and the most commonly reported negative impact of non-joint working was severely limited access to CAMHS for CYP judged by paediatricians to require mental health support, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder.

CONCLUSION

There is very limited joint working between community paediatrics and CAMHS in the UK, which is associated with many adverse impacts on service users and providers. A prointegration strategy that includes joint commissioning of adequately funded paediatric and CAMHS services that are colocated and within the same health management organisations is crucial to improving joint working between paediatrics and CAMHS.

Integrated care to address child and adolescent health in the 21st century: A clinical review

Background

Increasing specialisation and technical sophistication of medical tools across the 21st century have contributed to dramatic improvements in the life-expectancy of children and adolescents with complex physical health problems. Concurrently, there is growing appreciation within the community of the extent that children and adolescents experience mental disorders, which are more prevalent in those with complex chronic, serious or life-limiting health conditions. In this context, there are compelling reasons for paediatric services to move to a model of care that promotes greater integration of child psychiatry within the medical, somatic teams that care for children and adolescents in children's hospitals.

Aims

In this article, we discuss the range of medical disorders managed by contemporary paediatrics.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a broad review of the literature and existing services, and use individual accounts to illustrate adolescents' healthcare preferences in the context of the challenges they experience around their mental health.

Results

Relevant disorders include life-limiting disorders, such as cancer; disorders involving the brain, such as epilepsy; common chronic disorders, such as asthma and diabetes; psychiatric emergencies, such as deliberate self-harm; and conditions that most commonly present to paediatric services, but where psychiatric input is required, such as severe eating disorders, somatic symptom disorders and gender dysphoria. The persisting legacy of the historical separation of physical and mental health services is described. Yet there are many models of service integration that can promote more collaborative care between psychiatrists and medical specialists, including some which have been taken to scale.

Discussion

In essence, clinical teams in children's hospitals require more collaborative approaches that facilitate early recognition and treatment of the psychological aspects of illness as an integral part of patient-centred, family-focussed paediatric care, rather than as something that is bolted on when things go wrong.

Conclusion

Whilst trust and goodwill between services and providers will be required for novel models of care to be implemented, evaluation of these new models and incorporation of young people's healthcare preferences is needed.

Integrating behavioral health in the pediatric medical home

TOPIC

Behavioral health disorders (psychiatric illness and substance abuse disorders) represent a significant burden across the nation's health care system. The number of children and adolescents requiring behavioral health care has increased while at the same time the behavioral health workforce continues to experience a shortage of providers. The current model of care is failing to meet the behavioral health needs of children and adolescents. Initiatives are underway that call for improved integration of behavioral health services into primary care. Patients and families often seek behavioral health care in the primary care setting.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this article is to describe how one large urban pediatric practice began to integrate behavioral health services. Opportunities and challenges are discussed along with a review of three integrated care delivery models.

SOURCES USED

Literature search was performed using PubMed and CINAHL; we also used Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines, which describe the need for integration of behavioral/mental health into pediatric primary care.