Pediatric Mental Health Care Access - The Montana Access to Pediatric Psychiatry Network (MAPP-Net) project will improve the mental and behavioral health of children and adolescents in Montana by facilitating quick access to teleconsultation, training and referral support for pediatric primary care providers in one of the most rural and under resourced states for children’s mental health. This project will allow the Family and Community Health Bureau within the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) to continue the Montana’s statewide Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program which includes a statewide toll-free pediatric psychiatry teleconsultation warm line, comprehensive real time and asynchronous provider training in pediatric psychiatry and a school-based screening linked to care initiative. This project will expand and build upon prior HRSA Pediatric Mental Health Care Access funding (U4CMC32328) that has allowed Montana to build a successful program since 2018. Montana faces one of the nation’s most severe shortages of children’s mental health specialists. Fifty-one of the state’s 56 counties are federally designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, and 39 counties have no psychiatrist of any kind, so families often travel long distances for care. Montana also has one of the country’s highest teen suicide rates — adolescents die by suicide at about 2.7 times the national rate. Because specialists are so scarce in our frontier state, pediatric and primary care providers are frequently the first, and often only, clinicians available to recognize and treat a child’s mental health concern, yet many report they lack the training and support to do so confidently. This funding will allow us to maintain and expand Montana’s only pediatric psychiatry teleconsultation service. It supports access to pediatric mental health care, a top priority identified in in the state’s most recent Maternal and Child Health Needs Assessment. During this project, MAPP-Net will build upon and expand upon its previous work to offer the following statewide services, at no cost to providers: (1) a statewide toll-free telehealth “warm line” that connects primary care providers to board certified child and adolescent psychiatry experts for real-time advice, care coordination, and referrals (2) ongoing provider training and education, including live monthly sessions, an annual symposium, and on-demand videos on screening, diagnosis, treatment, and trauma-informed care (3) a school-based screening program that links students to care, with same-day follow-up for those at risk of suicide; and (4) a free and expanded searchable online directory of mental health and social-service resources for both providers and families. MAPP-Net serves children and adolescents from birth through age 21 across all of Montana, with a focus on the rural, frontier, and Tribal communities. Our staff regularly conducts outreach and marketing through our existing partnerships with statewide provider organizations and the MAPP-Net Advisory Group which convenes quarterly. Over the five-year project (2026–2031), the program will increase provider use of the consultation line, train more providers in evidence based practices for children’s behavioral health, improve access to services and resources, and increase the number of children and youth — especially in underserved areas — who receive needed and appropriate behavioral health care. By extending scarce specialist expertise through the local providers that families already know and trust, MAPP-Net works to ensure that every Montana county and Tribal community can meet the mental and behavioral health needs of its children and youth. Ultimately, we seek to save lives and reduce our youth suicide rate. Our aim remains to meet pediatric behavioral health needs in every Montana county and Tribal community by extending specialist capacity through the primary care providers that Montana families already know and trust.
