Pediatric Mental Health Care Access - Psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents are increasing while access to timely, high-quality mental health care remains limited, particularly in rural states such as Kansas. Ninety-one percent of Kansas counties are designated as Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas and fewer than five of the state’s 72 child and adolescent psychiatrists practice outside urban areas. As a result, pediatricians, family medicine physicians, psychiatric/mental health nurses, and other frontline health practitioners are increasingly relied upon to identify, assess, treat, and refer youth with behavioral health concerns. Access challenges are especially pronounced among rural communities and children involved with the foster care system, who experience higher rates of trauma exposure, complex behavioral health conditions, and psychotropic medication use. KSKidsMAP is Kansas’ established Pediatric Mental Health Care Access (PMHCA) program in 2019. Through a partnership between the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and its Title V/Maternal and Child Health Program and the University of Kansas Medical Center Research Institute’s University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, KSKidsMAP provides training, teleconsultation, care coordination, and resource and referral support to pediatric physicians and clinicians statewide. Continued HRSA PMHCA funding will strengthen and expand the existing program infrastructure to improve access to evidence-based pediatric behavioral health care for children and youth ages 0–21. Project activities will: increase utilization of teleconsultation services; expand training opportunities for pediatric primary care physicians, clinicians and psychiatric mental health nurses with emphasis on trauma-informed care, appropriate psychotropic prescribing, and the needs of youth involved with the foster care system; improve timely access to quality mental health referral supports, services, resources; and increase the number of youth in Kansas who receive quality, evidenced-based mental health care from a trusted practitioner. KSKidsMAP aims to achieve this through three modalities: (1) Expanding the pediatric mental health team by adding a family medicine physician and an advanced-practice registered nurse, filling the vacant developmental behavioral pediatrician position, adding a pediatrician to provide trainings and specialty case consultations for complex mental health conditions (e.g., eating disorders, child abuse pediatrics), and recruiting and two new child and adolescent psychiatrists to participate in program activities as a team capacity-building and sustainability approach. (2) Formalizing partnerships with Kansas Academy of Family Physicians (KAFP), Kansas Advanced Practice Nurses (KAPN), and American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Kansas Chapter (APNA) for outreach and engagement activities to increase awareness and utilization of program services among their respective member networks. (3) Expanding trainings to professionals supporting youth in foster care highlighting early identification, trauma-informed care, complex trauma, and deprescribing and holistic approaches for all youth, but especially for youth in foster care. By leveraging an established statewide infrastructure, strengthening partnerships, and coordinating workforce development activities with key stakeholders and initiatives, KSKidsMAP will continue to build the capacity of pediatric practitioners to deliver timely, evidence-based behavioral health care and improve outcomes for children, youth, and families across Kansas.
