Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for Primary Care

Often, primary care physicians see children with psychiatric conditions long before other health care professionals get involved. Children and their parents may have to wait weeks or months to see a certified child psychiatrist. However, many of these conditions can be managed with appropriate consultation in primary care settings.

CAP-PC takes the inpatient consultation-liaison model and brings it to pediatric outpatient care, alleviating the shortage of child psychiatrists by helping primary care doctors manage their patients’ psychiatric needs. Through this program, we operate a hot line pediatricians can call for consultations on patients who may have a psychiatric condition.

For complex cases, we set up face-to-face appointments. We also advise when a case is severe enough to require a visit to the emergency room.

The consortium maintains a referral list of social workers and professionals with special expertise so we can connect physicians, patients and their families to resources in their area. To provide care for those who may not have local certified child psychiatrists nearby, we’re developing capabilities to offer telepsychiatry.

Through the REACH Institute, an organization that partners with local communities to improve medical professionals’ ability to care for children’s mental health, we conduct free three-day training sessions for pediatricians. These intensive, interactive workshops train physicians to recognize, assess and manage mental health problems in children and adolescents, and include follow-up phone conferences twice a month for six months after the workshop.

Our residents collect and analyze data on the cases CAP-PC handles, helping to shape the future of this initiative and gathering material for their own research. They also gain valuable experience in building interprofessional relationships with other medical professionals as well as those in social and legal services.