Search

The emotional health and wellbeing of children and adolescents and their families is of utmost importance. Pediatricians are at the front line in identifying mental illness in children and adolescents and either linking them to resources in the community or providing treatment options themselves. Collaboration and integrative health care models is the cornerstone of effective strategies to provide access and quality mental health care to children and families in communities across the country., (Copyright © 2016 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Psychiatric disorders are becoming more frequently diagnosed within the pediatric primary care setting. Despite increased diagnosis within primary care, only a minority of patients receive further psychiatric or specialty care. The integrated/collaborative care treatment model was designed to improve access within primary care. The purpose of this review is to identify randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies that have investigated whether increased access improves treatment engagement, satisfaction, and improved mental health outcomes. Six studies met inclusion criteria. Studies reviewed indicated increased access to behavioral health treatment through use of the integrated/collaborative care model and improved mental health outcomes. Recommendations for screening and treatment are provided. Limitations of the reviewed studies include lack of generalizability to urban populations, minority youth, and youth younger than 4 years of age. Practice recommendations to address these limitations are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "DC Map (Mental Health Access in Pediatrics" by Mary T. Gabriel and Leandra Godoy is presented.

Study measures at these visits assessed mothers' life experiences, mental health, parenting stress, and perceptions of their relationships with their children and child social-emotional and behavioral functioning. Mothers' PTSD symptoms were related to stress of having a difficult child (r = 0.46, p < 0.01), total parenting stress (r = 0.59, p < 0.01), and child social-emotional problems (r = 0.58, p < 0.01). Preliminary results indicate that Mom Power SP © sp may reduce maternal mental health symptoms and improve the parent-child relationship among highly burdened families. [Extracted from the article]