POPULATION

Pediatric  primary care providers - physician, physician assistant, and nurse – and youth ages 6-18. If a youth screens positive, the provider prescribes the Guided Self-Management Toolkits for Families (GSM). It empowers the parent to immediately partner with the pediatric practitioner to manage behavioral health problems.

FOCUS

No more wait lists.  'A LEVER' provides evidence-based parent and patient education materials to practice emotional coping skills at home, in collaboration with the pediatric practitioner. Rotary members can introduce this new resource for rapid adoption in the local community to overcome the fact that, “New interventions ‘languish’ for 15–20 years before they are incorporated into usual medical care” (Boren and Balas 1999). 

OVERVIEW
  

This Boston Children's Hospital program overcomes the fact that there are not enough child and adolescent psychiatrists nor therapists to see all youth with symptoms. Register (BuildingBridgesofUnderstanding.org) for:
1. digital Guided Self Management Toolkits for Families
2. self-paced 16-session video educational course totaling 5 hours Continuing Medical Education
3. digital Clinician Manual on screening, assessment, and first-line treatments for Anxiety, Depression, ADHD, and Disruptive Behavior Disorder

BENEFITS

• parent and patient education materials in English and Spanish to practice emotional coping skills at home, in collaboration with the pediatric practitioner
• no more wait list - the parent immediately partners with the pediatric practitioner in behavioral health problem management
• self-paced training and manual for the pediatric practitioner to directly manage mild and moderate cases of behavioral health problems

• allows child psychiatrists to focus on severe cases

COST

a) US $250 per provider for training and digital files of GSM toolkits and Clinician Manual (digital files updated annually without additional cost)
b) International regions might need to fund time for a child psychiatrist to provide case consults by phone for the pediatric providers (already in place in USA and territories)

ARTICLES

• Arora BK, Klein MJ, Yousif C, Khacheryan A, Walter HJ. Virtual Collaborative Behavioral Health Model in a Community Pediatric Network: Two-Year Outcomes. Clinical Pediatrics. 2023;0(0). doi:10.1177/00099228231164478
• Walter HJ, Vernacchio L, Correa ET, et al. Five-Phase Replication of Behavioral Health Integration in Pediatric Primary Care, Pediatrics, 2021; 148 (2) e2020001073
• Walter HJ, Vernacchio L, Trudell EK, et al. Five-Year Outcomes of Behavioral Health Integration in Pediatric Primary Care. Pediatrics. 2019;144(1):e20183243
• Walter HJ, Kackloudis G, Trudell EK, et al.  Enhancing Pediatricians’ Behavioral Health Competencies Through Child Psychiatry Consultation and Education, Clinical Pediatrics. 2018, Vol. 57(8) 958–969

 

A LEVER CONTENTS

• Boston Children's Hospital training course registration BuildingBridgesofUnderstanding.org   
• advice on how to engage pediatric providers with case consults by phone (ex. NNCPAP.org/Map)
• assistance introducing the new resources in your community

CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION

Visit the Boston Children's Hospital website or email the Mental Health Initiatives - Rotary Action Group Chair, Bob Anthony (rwa1645@gmail.com)