Training primary care providers through telehealth to integrate behavioral and mental health services into their practices
PMHCA Teleconsultation
Providers - Access Information and Teleconsulation Services
Would you like to see what PMHCA looks like? Watch one or more of these short videos. Each provides snapshots for how groups across our Nation are implementing this work:
- Virginia Mental Health Access Program: Providers Share Their Experiences Using VMAP
- Missouri Child Psychiatry Access Project
- Children’s of Alabama Hospital: Pediatric Access to Telemental Health Services (PATHS)
- University of Mississippi Medical Center: Child Access to Mental Health and Psychiatry
- Maryland: The Behavioral Health Integration in Pediatric Primary Care (BHIPP)
- University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine: MC3 Pediatrics
- Kansas University & Behavioral Sciences: KSKidsMAP Pediatric Mental Health
Increasing Access to Pediatric Mental Health Care
We want to make sure that pediatric primary care providers are confident and competent to screen and help children with behavioral disorders. Our Pediatric Mental Health Care Access (PMHCA) programs build workforce capacity.
We aim to make early identification, diagnosis, treatment, and referral of behavioral disorders a routine part of children's health care services. We fund state and regional networks of pediatric mental health care teams. These teams provide behavioral health services - through telehealth * - to pediatric primary care providers. These services include:
- Tele-consultation and training
- Resources and referrals to both providers and consumers
Awardee Guidance
Performance reporting resources
Awardee Meetings
ARP-PMHCA New Awardee Orientation
On September 30, 2021, 24 new awardees began a five year period of performance for American Rescue Plan Act-Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program. During this webinar, the ARP-PMHCA/PMHCA and Grants Management teams provided an overview of programmatic and grants management expectations and requirements.
The Second Annual Pediatric Mental Health Care Access (PMHCA) Program All-Awardee Meeting
The Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Division of Maternal and Child Health Workforce Development (DMCHWD), recently conducted its second annual Pediatric Mental Health Care Access (PMHCA) Program All-Awardee Meeting.
The meeting objectives were to (1) provide technical assistance to PMHCA awardees to address project barriers and challenges, and to identify opportunities for growth; (2) to facilitate peer-to-peer information exchange and the dissemination of project results, promising practices, and lessons learned; (3) to facilitate discussions that identify, promote, and enhance critical priority areas for long-term project sustainability, and (4) to foster communication and collaboration between PMHCA awardees and federal and non-federal partners.
This year's agenda also included breakout sessions, comprised of three discussion topics of interest identified by PMHCA awardees. The topics were as follows:
- Connecting to Docs: Engaging for Registration & Participation Learn how small states are connecting to pediatric serving primary care providers for participation with PMHCA programs. Tips and lessons learned from enrollment in the program to engaging interest in obtaining assistance and training to better serve the primary care provider's patients mental health needs. Rhode Island and Delaware have implemented grass-roots outreach and marketing efforts and developed unique communication strategies for reaching this challenging and time-limited audience.
- Developing peer-reviewed journal articles from PMHCA Awardees This session will focus on the development of peer-reviewed publications based on PMHCA project activities. During this session, two PMHCA programs, BHIPP (MD) and KSKidsMAP (KS), will describe the processes they each have engaged in to develop research articles from the initial idea phase to the final products.
- Exploring the Rising Rates of Suicide Among Children This interactive breakout session will briefly explore efforts PMHCA programs in Michigan, MC3-Connect, and Missouri Child Psychiatry Access Project (MO-CPAP) are taking to address the rise in youth suicide. Afterwards, facilitated discussion will take place with breakout session participants to discuss and explore strategies other PMHCA programs are using to address rising rates of suicide in children and youth.
A recording of the webinar is now available. The final presentation slides, strategies for training and sustainability, and the meeting details booklet can be found below). Please contact Kelly Hughes if you have additional questions after viewing the meeting.
DOCUMENTS
Resources
Using Telemental Health Services to Meet the Needs of Children and Youth: A Virtual Workshop
Addressing National Workforce Shortages by Funding Child Psychiatry Access Programs
A Systematic Review of the Methods Used to Evaluate Child Psychiatry Access Programs
PMHCA Quick Facts
- Funding began in 2018
- In 2021, American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided additional funding of $10.7 million dollars (ARP-PMHCA)
- Programs reach 40 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Chickasaw Nation, and the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians
Contact Our Project Officers
- Madhavi M. Reddy, MSPH - 301-443-0754
- Cara de la Cruz, PhD - 301-443-0764
- Kelly Hughes, MPH - 301-945-3331
- Katherine Gainer, MPH - 678-333-8825
- Jordanna Snyder, MPH, CHES - 301-945-9482
* For the PMHCA/ARP-PMHCA programs, we define telehealth as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical consultation, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Permitted telehealth modalities between providers include, but are not limited to: real-time video, telephonic communications, store-and-forward imaging, and mobile health (mHealth) applications.