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Child Health Behavioral Health Program
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INFORMATION CONTACT:
Alexis Sabul, Human Services Agency Department of Public Health, Social Worker, 704.296.6186 and Dorothy Tran, BPT Physician, 704.296.4300
ACTION REQUESTED:
Indication of support of the Child Health Behavioral Health Program
BACKGROUND:
There is a pediatric mental health crisis in North Carolina. Access to outpatient behavioral health care often comes with challenges and barriers that result in decreased likelihood of receiving appropriate care. These challenges especially affect children and adolescents with increased scarcity of child and adolescent psychiatrists and therapists. The Child Health Behavioral Health Program seeks to make care more accessible by integrating behavioral health care into the Child Health Clinic of the Union County Human Services Agency’s Public Health Department.
This integrated behavioral health care occurs in the same clinic where the child or youth receive their primary care, i.e. the Child Health Clinic. The Child Health Behavioral Health Program utilizes the Collaborative Care Model to deliver evidence-based brief interventions through a care team of the Behavioral Health Care Manager, Primary Care Provider, and Psychiatric Consultant. The Child Health Behavioral Health Program does not provide traditional psychotherapy. Rather, the program provides brief, strategic interventions aimed to improve current behaviors and functioning. Participants are seen typically every other week for 30 minutes for 6-9 months.
The model is supported through a collaboration between the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Duke’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and the UNC School of Medicine.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
No financial impact associated with this pilot program.