Dr. David Keller, a Massachusetts pediatrician, wanted to help his patients with mental and behavior disorders, but often he wasn’t sure how.  Like his colleagues, he had not been trained in mental health care and had no professional connection to child and adolescent mental health specialists for consultation.

He related his experience before a Capitol Hill audience of policymakers and mental health influencers at TeenScreen National Center’s 2011 Trendell Health Policy Forum.

 As he continued to see more patients with mental health and behavioral issues, he knew the problem wasn’t going away.  He also knew that he wasn’t alone.  Adolescents experience high rates of depression, anxiety disorders and other mental health problems, and there are not – and never will be – enough child and adolescent psychiatrists to meet their needs. 

 In 2005, a group of primary care physicians and behavioral health specialists in Massachusetts broke through the conundrum by creating the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project.  Now available or being developed in 26 states, the approach is providing primary care providers with the support they need to treat mental health concerns with confidence. 

Connecting Primary Care to Specialists

MCPAP focuses on building a partnership between primary care providers and child psychiatric specialists.  As the two disciplines have historically had little collaboration, primary care providers first learn how to work with a behavioral health team. The MCPAP teams, based at one of six academic medical call centers throughout the state, are available to primary care providers around the clock.  Typically, a phone consultation is sufficient.  A child psychiatrist may occasionally request to see a patient in person for more complex cases.

 After five years, MCPAP, which now sees more than 6,000 youth annually, has bridged the primary care confidence gap.  More than 63% of all primary care providers in Massachusetts say they are confident in managing common adolescent mental health problems, compared with 8% in 2005. 

 “Primary care doctors have been helped with this collaboration,” says Dr. Keller.  “It’s a practice transformation.”

 For more information on MCPAP and other psychiatry access programs click here.