Around 600,000 children in Texas struggle with mental health issues – but there aren’t enough mental health providers to treat them all. Children often wait months for an appointment with a psychiatrist or other specialist, prolonging their suffering and potentially making their symptoms worse.
Children's Healthsm and Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI) have launched an initiative to address the shortage of pediatric mental health professionals in North Texas and across the nation. This initiative, called Behavioral Health Integration and Guidance (BHIG), equips primary care providers to offer mental health care within their own practices. In BHIG’s first year, 75 providers in Texas received training. Altogether, these providers serve more than 150,000 families.
“This program is unique additional training to help providers treat the increased demand for mental health services and provide more optimal care overall,” says Adrienne Hunnicutt, Psy.D., Pediatric Psychologist and Clinical Practice Manager of the BHIG program at Children’s Health.
Training primary care providers to offer mental health care
The BHIG initiative offers continuing education for primary care providers anywhere in the country, equipping them to detect and treat mild to moderate conditions like anxiety, stress and depression. These conditions make up the bulk of mental health issues in children. Any pediatric primary care provider in the U.S. with a strong interest in mental health and integrated care can participate in BHIG, including:
- Pediatricians
- Family medicine physicians
- Nurse practitioners
- Physician assistants
Because primary care providers are often overbooked, BHIG is designed to be completed in a timeframe that works with the provider’s schedule. The online training meets CME certification requirements and consists of 20, 30-minute modules. It teaches providers how to use diagnostic tools and how to identify common mental health conditions in kids.
From there, the training provides guidance on how to incorporate mental health treatment into primary practice. Providers learn about the evidence-based medication guidelines and treatment algorithms used by Drs. Browne and Best to help provide the right treatment for each patient.
By giving providers the tools to identify and treat mental health conditions, BHIG enables earlier intervention and leads to better outcomes for children, helping them succeed at home and at school.
BHIG also helps providers refine and improve the mental health care they offer over time. Participants can attend case conferences led by Sabrina Alexis Browne, M.D., Pediatric Psychiatrist at Children’s Health and Assistant Professor at UT Southwestern, and Mia Marshall Best, M.D., BHIG Pediatrician at Children’s Health who has integrated mental health care into her primary care practice.
"We talk to providers about their actual patients, what challenges they have and how to overcome them," says Dr. Best. "Even after participants complete training, we offer continued collaboration through office hours with Dr. Browne and myself and access to a network of other providers who have completed training."
Participants can also visit the BHIG initiative clinic at Children's Health Desoto to shadow Drs. Browne and Best. And Dr. Best offers to join providers virtually while they care for a patient, so she can make suggestions. As a sign of how successful this has been, BHIG-trained providers report consulting with a psychologist or psychiatrist significantly more often after completing the program.
Practical advice for integrating mental health care
In addition to clinical training, the program provides the practical knowledge needed to offer mental health services. BHIG includes:
- One-on-one technical assistance on implementing various integrated care models in a primary care clinic.
- Training in how to bill for components of integrated care, including but not limited to assessments and the collaborative care model.
How BHIG makes a difference
All providers who have completed the program report:
- Using mental health screening tools more often, including screenings for depression, anxiety and ADHD.
- Using billing codes for these screenings, which shows increased integration of care.
- Treating a wider range of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD and substance use disorder.
"I hear a lot of past participants saying they feel more comfortable having these conversations about mental health with patients and families," says Dr. Browne.
When providers participate in BHIG, their patients receive increased access to a child psychiatrist. Dr. Browne will only work with patients referred from primary care providers who are part of the BHIG community. This ensures quicker care for patients, as well as a personalized treatment plan developed by their primary care provider and a child psychiatry expert.
Why Children’s Health
Children's Health is leading the way in increasing children’s access to mental health care with this innovative initiative. Few other training programs like BHIG exist, and no others offer the unique community, access to experts and ongoing support.
Learn more about BHIG and how to enroll by visiting the website or emailing bhig@childrens.com.
