YCSC Grand Rounds: ACCESSible – Expanding child and adolescent mental health services through pediatrician partnerships

Session Description

Nearly 20% of children and youth ages 3-17 in the United States have a mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder. Mental health challenges are a leading cause of death and disability in this age group, with suicide as the second leading cause of death. Mental health disorders have been steadily increasing over the past decade and these trends were only exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these children and adolescents will not be able to access specialized mental health care.

Pediatricians, as trusted caregivers, are in an optimal setting to identify children and teens with mental health concerns through annual exams, screening, and parents voicing concerns. The ACCESS-Mental Health Connecticut program provides pediatric primary care physicians with 9:00-5:00 weekday access to a child and adolescent psychiatrist and mental health professionals to assist with connecting families to mental health care, education, consultations and one-time psychiatric evaluations of their patients to determine appropriate treatment. This has been a fruitful collaboration. Many families have accessed appropriate therapies and pediatricians have grown more confident in basic mental health assessments and treatment. However, not all cases go smoothly. Frustration and compassion fatigue are inherent when connections to care are thwarted. Team support, case review and self-compassion maintain motivation for this important work.

The learning objectives for this session are to:

1. Discuss the benefits of collaboration between pediatricians and child and adolescent psychiatric professionals in conceptualizing and meeting the needs of children.
2. Review the model of ACCESS-Mental Health in engaging children, youth and families in mental health treatment.
3. Acknowledge the frustration and compassion fatigue involved when a family does not follow through with treatment recommendations and engagement.

This will be a hybrid session, held live and in person from the Cohen Auditorium and simulcast via Zoom, but this session will not be recorded.

Continuing Education

The 2023-2024 YCSC Grand Rounds series has been approved for eligibility for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits. Yale School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Individual event designation details are provided at applicable live events.

This program has been approved for one Continuing Education Credit Hour by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapist, Professional Counselor, and Licensed Psychologist Licensure renewal. This session also meets the requirement for cultural competence. Additional information will be provided at the live event.