Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project: MCPAP

Improving Mental Health Services in Primary Care: Reducing Administrative and Financial Barriers to Access and Collaboration

An April 2009 special article published in Pediatrics addresses administrative and financial barriers to achieving access to pediatric behavioral health care within the primary care setting.  Also discusses barriers to facilitating collaboration between behavioral health care providers and primary care clinicians.  The article outlines specific recommendations to insurance purchasers, payers, and managed behavioral health organizations to help improve the situation for integrated health care and access between primary care clinicians and behavioral health providers.  This article was co-authored by Barry Sarvet, MD, who is the statewide co-medical director for MCPAP and directs the Baystate MCPAP team.

Click here to link to the article.

SPED Parent Basic Toolkit

The Concord Special Education Parent Advisory Committee ( Concord SPED PAC) has assembled a comprehensive parent toolkit that would be very helpful to parents of patients with behavioral health and other diagnoses.

This toolkit contains many parent education resources for behavioral health diagnoses including ADHD, anxiety disorders, autism, aspergers, reactive attachment disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, and PTSD.

The toolkit is divided into two sections.  One section helps parents learn about their child's disability.  The other section helps parents navigate the special education system.

Even though this website was created by the Concord SPED PAC, it would be helpful to parents of children diagnosed with disabilities from all over the state of Massachusetts.

To visit this parent toolkit, click the link below:

http://www.concordspedpac.org/toolkit.htm

Developmental Screening Tool Kit for Primary Care Providers Available Online

A user friendly online toolkit developed by Alison Schonwald, MD of Children’s Hospital helps primary care physicians implement effective validated developmental screening within the primary care office. (Please note that the developmental screening tool called the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status  also screens for behavioral health issues, and is a MassHealth approved behavioral health screening tool.) This website discusses billing, costs, office procedures, time considerations, and more in a very clear concise way. Also contains online tutorials.

Find this helpful resource at:

http://www.developmentalscreening.org/

 

Unintentional Strangulation Deaths from “Choking Game”: Deadly Game to Achieve Euphoria by Cerebral Hypoxia

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), at least 82 children have died from this deadly game.  87% of the victims were male, and the median age was 13.  Warning signs that the patient may be partaking in the “choking game” are mention of the “ choking game” (aka, “black out game”, “pass-out game”, “scarf game”, “space monkey”, and others); bloodshot eyes; marks on neck; frequent severe headaches; disorientation after time spent along; and ropes, scarves, and belts tied to bedroom furniture or found on the floor.

Click below for a link to the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) article:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5706a1.htm?s_cid=mm5706a1_x

Click below for a link to the CDC press release:

http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/2008/r080214.htm?s_cid=mediarel_r080214_x

Help Your Child or Teen Get Back on Track: What Parents and Professionals Can Do for Childhood Emotional and Behavioral Problems by Kenneth H. Talan, MD

This helpful book is an excellent resource for parents and/or professionals.  If your child or your patient has some kind of behavioral problem yet to be identified or already diagnosed, this book provides direction and information.  The book includes information on a wide variety of children’s mental health issues from infants and toddlers to college age. This book is available at www.amazon.com for $18.96. 

There are also some copies of the book available at the North Shore Family Resource Center Behavioral Health Library in Salem, MA.

Dr. Talan’s website may be found at http://www.kentalan.com/.

Click below for a review of the book written by a parent:

Download help_your_child_parent_review.doc

Connecting Patients to Services: Resources for Referring Patients with Positive Screens

In response to MassHealth's recent mandate to screen children under 21 using standardized developmental and behavioral screening tools, MCPAP has assembled a list of resources for your convenience.  Click below for resource information for referring patients with positive screens.

Download screening_tools_resources.doc

Please feel free to comment about this post by pressing the red “comments” section below.

Just for Youth: Advocating in the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services

The Mental Health Legal Advisors Committe (MHLAC) has recently published a comprehensive guidebook for those advocating for DYS ( Department of Youth Services) involved youth.

You may access this guidebook at http://www.mass.gov/mhlac/Justforyouthfinal.pdf.

Also, MHLAC has developed a project to provide legal information, advice, and representation for DYS involved youth, their families, and their advocates.  For more information about MHLAC's DYS project, visit http://mass.gov/mhlac/dys_flyer.pdf.

Online User Friendly Resource Directory for Western Massachusetts

The Western Massachusetts MCPAP hub at Baystate Medical Center has announced the creation of their new user-friendly directory of mental health resources.  The Baystate hub developed this directory to help primary care clinicians who treat children and adolescents assist their patients with finding appropriate mental health care.  In addition the Baystate hub has provided a list of links to private insurance websites.

Visit www.baystatehealth.com/mcpap to access this useful resource.

Resource Directory for Families of Children with Special Needs

Family Ties (Together in Enhancing Support) has recently updated their comprehensive resource directory for families of children with disabilities, special health needs, or chronic illnesses.

                                                                                                                                             

Download this directory at www.massfamilyties.org

                                                                                                                                                

Along with listings of other special health needs, the directory includes listings and descriptions of national, statewide and local agencies and organizations serving children with mental health issues.

                                                                                                                                                    

This resource also contains a section on early intervention services.  This section describes early intervention services and the referral process. It also explains eligibility guidelines.

                                                                                                                                                

Another section in the directory contains listings and descriptions of state agencies and programs.

                                                                                                                                                 

There are also sections listing support resources for Spanish and Portuguese speaking families of children with special needs.  (These sections are written in Spanish and Portuguese.)

Mental Health Reform in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children(MSPCC), Children's Hospital, and Health Care for All has announced a campaign for reform of the Massachusetts mental health system.  MSPCC and Children's Hospital Boston have released a policy paper calling for reform in the delivery of mental health services to children. The policy paper was co-authored by Marylou Sudders , the President and CEO of MSPCC, and Dr. David DeMaso, Psychiatrist-in-chief of Children's Hospital.

Click here to view the policy paper.

The comprehensive policy paper makes specific recommendations for repairing and restructuring the fragmented mental health system in Massachusetts.  Specific reference to MCPAP may be found on page 8 of the report.  The policy report describes MCPAP and recommends that all insurers financially support MCPAP or similar programs. Also, on page 9, the report recommends that pediatric practices that regularly screen for mental health issues be reimbursed by insurance for this service.