Pediatric Integrated Care Model Handles “Unprecedented” Behavioral Health Needs
Despite the 2021 release of the “National State of Emergency in Child and Adolescent Health,” a report from three leading pediatric health organizations, experts say children and adolescents still often do not receive mental health care when they need it.
Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego called the surge of children coming into its emergency department with behavioral health needs “unprecedented,” and responded by placing mental health professionals in primary care practices.
The initiative seems to be making a difference. Rady Children’s has seen a 40% reduction in mental health visits to the ED, a similar decline in reported anxiety symptoms and a startling 62% drop in depression symptoms.
Eliminating longer wait times for access to a mental health professional appears to be a key driver of the improvement. In many cases, kids in primary care practices can see a mental health professional that day.
“With the integrated care model, the pediatrician can literally walk down the hall and introduce the family to the therapist right there in the office,” says Benjamin Maxwell, M.D., division chief of child and adolescent psychiatry and chair in behavioral health at Rady Children's.
Pediatric health systems across the nation are seeing greater demands of their services for mental health needs.
The number of young people visiting emergency departments for mental health reasons rose from 4.8 million in 2011 to 7.5 million in 2020, according to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.