Integrating Pediatric Universal Behavioral Health Care at Federally Qualified Health Centers

Community Mental Health Workers: Their Workplaces, Roles, and Impact

Mental health care in the U.S. is at a critical crisis, compounded with a severe shortage of providers. The cost burden is immense, with severe disparity seen in traditionally marginalized communities and rural populations. Community health workers have been used to increase access to physical health care in the U.S. for over seventy years-and have been used abroad for centuries. Their use in mental health care is more recent and can increase access, but raises policy, reimbursement, triage, and scopes-of-practice considerations. They are especially beneficial for many at-risk populations including communities of color, those with serious mental illness, rural communities, the elderly, and youth. This literature review searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Google Scholar and provides a broad review of the different types of community mental health workers (community health workers/promotores de salud, peer support, peer navigators, and lay counselors), how they increase access to care, skill sets, practice locations, and uses for specific at-risk populations. Increasing and expanding the use of community mental health workers expands much needed mental health care to those at risk by task-shifting the burden on the traditional professional workforce, offering a solution to both the workforce shortage and the lack of equity in mental health care.

Increasing Access to and Utilization of Behavioral Health Care Through Integrated Primary Care

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate changes in access to and utilization of behavioral health (BH) services after the integration of psychologists into primary care clinics compared with clinics without integrated psychologists.

METHODS

We integrated 4 of 12 primary care clinics within our academic health system. We used the median wait time for BH services as a proxy for changes in access and defined BH utilization as the percentage of primary care visits that resulted in contact with a BH clinician within 180 days. We compared changes in access and utilization from the year before integration (September 2015 to September 2016) with the 2 years after integration (October 2016 to October 2018) within integrated clinics and between integrated and nonintegrated clinics. We used difference-in-difference analysis to test the association of study outcomes with the presence of integrated psychologists.

RESULTS

Access and utilization were similar across all practices before integration. After integration, BH utilization increased by 143% in integrated clinics compared with 12% in nonintegrated clinics. The utilization of BH services outside of the medical home (ie, specialty BH service) decreased for integrated clinics only. In clinics with integrated psychologists, 93% of initial BH visits happened on the same day as a need was identified. The median wait time for the 7% in integrated clinics who were not seen on the same day was 11.4 days (interquartile range = 5.3-17.7) compared with 48.3 days (interquartile range = 20.4-93.6) for nonintegrated clinics.

CONCLUSIONS

A team-based integration model increased BH utilization and access.

Pediatric Provider and Staff Burnout in Federally Qualified Community Health Centers

This study examined changes in provider and staff burnout in 4 Boston-area federally qualified community health centers (FQHCs) participating in a pediatric behavioral health integration project. Utilizing the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel (MBI-HSSMP), the study found that emotional exhaustion among primary care providers ( M = 20.5; confidence interval [CI], 17.8-23.2) was higher ( P = .001) than that among behavioral health clinicians ( M = 13.6; CI, 10.4-16.8) and ( P = .00005) community health workers ( M = 10.8; CI, 7.3-14.2). Emotional exhaustion among staff increased ( P = .04) from baseline ( M = 16.8; CI, 15.0-18.6) to follow-up ( M = 20.8; CI, 17.5-24.2), but burnout at follow-up was lower than national averages. FQHCs are integral in caring for marginalized patients; therefore, supporting a stable workforce by minimizing burnout is essential.

Changes Over Time in Outcomes of School-Age Children and Parents Receiving Integrated Mental Health Care in Federally Qualified Health Centers

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to understand change in parent-reported outcomes of mental health symptoms, health-related quality of life (QoL), and school-related functioning among children receiving mental health care at 3 federally qualified health centers engaging in a comprehensive pediatric mental health integration model.

METHODS

Trained personnel enrolled English- or Spanish-speaking families of 6- to 12-year-old children who had recently started receiving integrated mental health care and surveyed their parent/caregiver at 3 time points: entry into the cohort, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up (unique N = 51). Primary outcomes included validated measures of child symptoms, child health-related QoL, and child school-related functioning. Secondary outcomes focused on parental functioning and included validated measures of parental stress and depressive and internalizing symptoms. A multilevel mixed-effects generalized linear model was used to estimate the change in parent-reported outcomes over time, with inverse probability weights used to address attrition. Additional analyses were conducted to determine the degree to which changes in symptoms over time were associated with improvements in school-related functioning.

RESULTS

Over 12 months, children's mental health symptoms, health-related QoL, and school-related functional outcomes significantly improved. No changes in parental functioning were observed. In addition, improvements in mental health symptoms and health-related QoL were associated with improvements in school-related functional outcomes over time.

CONCLUSION

Findings demonstrate that outcomes of children who received integrated mental health care improved over time, both in regard to mental health and school functioning.

Pediatric clinicians' perspectives on assessing concerns about young children's social-emotional wellbeing in primary care

We surveyed pediatric primary care clinicians working in Federally Qualified Health Centers about their perceptions of children's social-emotional wellbeing. We identified clinician's current methods for assessing social-emotional wellbeing in practices, perceived implementation barriers to providing behavioral health care, and interest in adopting a validated, low-burden developmentally sensitive parent-report instrument for screening for social-emotional wellbeing in young children. We surveyed 72 PCCs working in FQHCs from 9 US states. Analyses included examining central tendencies, correlations, analysis of variance, and group differences via t-tests. Average PCC perceptions of social-emotional wellbeing importance for overall health were statistically significantly higher than their confidence in providing care for common social-emotional wellbeing concerns (mean difference = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.13-1.49). PCCs expressed low satisfaction with currently available screening measures for identifying concerns in social-emotional wellbeing. Fewer than half of clinicians reported using any standardized parent-reported measure for identifying concerns in social-emotional wellbeing. Assessment methods and decision tools that improve clinician confidence concerning risk indications are needed, particularly at the critical early childhood period. Policymakers and payers ought to facilitate funding mechanisms that support pediatric PCCs in identifying early concerns in social-emotional wellbeing and providing referral guidance to evidence-based interventions to support parents and caregivers.

First-line Behavioral Health Treatment Prior to Stimulant or Alpha-2 Agonist Use for Preschoolers on Kentucky Medicaid in 2017

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to assess the degree to which the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) clinical guidelines were followed when treating attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in preschoolers.

METHOD

Using Medicaid claims for children 4 to 5 years of age receiving their first dose of stimulants/alpha-2 agonists in 2017 (n = 836), we determined if BH was received prior to initiation of medication. We examined predictors after controlling for confounders.

RESULTS

More than half the sample did not receive first-line BH, which did not differ by demographics. Those receiving BH prior to medication had a higher rate of receiving an ADHD diagnosis. Only three diagnoses were significant in multivariate (OR 13.8, 95% CI [1.7-115.1]) analyses.

CONCLUSION

More than half the sample did not, conservatively, meet the AAP clinical recommendations. Further research is needed to identify targets for intervention. Limitations are noted.

Disparities in Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health Conditions

Mental and behavioral health conditions are common among children and adolescents in the United States. The purpose of this state-of the-art review article is to describe inequities in mental and behavioral health care access and outcomes for children and adolescents, characterize mechanisms behind the inequities, and discuss strategies to decrease them. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these inequities is essential to inform strategies to mitigate these health disparities. Half of United States children with a treatable mental health disorder do not receive treatment from a mental health professional. Children and adolescents in racial, ethnic, sexual, sex, and other minority groups experience inequities in access to care and disparities in outcomes for mental and behavioral health conditions. Suicide rates are nearly twice as high in Black compared to White boys 5 to 11 years old and have been increasing disproportionately among adolescent Black girls 12 to 17 years old. Children identifying as a sexual minority have >3 times increased odds of attempting suicide compared to heterosexual peers. Adverse experiences of children living as part of a minority group, including racism and discrimination, have immediate and lasting effects on mental health. Poverty and an uneven geographic distribution of resources also contribute to inequities in access and disparities in outcomes for mental and behavioral health conditions. Strategies to address inequities in mental and behavioral health among United States children include investing in a diverse workforce of mental health professionals, improving access to school-based services, ensuring equitable access to telehealth, and conducting quality improvement with rigorous attention to equity.

Implementation of a Novel Pediatric Behavioral Health Integration Initiative

This study explores healthcare professionals' perspectives about the impact of behavioral health integration (BHI) on pediatric primary care delivery in community health centers (CHCs). A concurrent, qualitative-dominant mixed methods empirical study design was utilized, applying semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals at the end of the implementation phase of a 3-year co-development, implementation, and evaluation process. Surveys were also administered at three time points. Via thematic analysis, emergent qualitative themes were mapped onto the Relational Coordination (RC) conceptual framework to triangulate and complement final qualitative results with quantitative results. Interview findings reveal five emergent themes aligning with RC domains. Survey results show that healthcare professionals reported increased behavioral healthcare integration into clinic practice (p = 0.0002) and increased clinic readiness to address behavioral health needs (p = 0.0010). Effective pediatric BHI and care delivery at CHCs may rely on strong professional relationships and communication. Additional research from the patient/caregiver perspective is needed.