Illinois DocAssist Program: Integrating Child and Adolescent Mental Health Care into Primary Care

Background and Need

Illinois DocAssist improves mental health services in the primary care setting through consultation, technical assistance, and training of primary care physicians and other health care practitioners. Due to a shortage of child psychiatrists, children who have special mental healthcare needs or substance abuse problems receive treatment not from psychiatrists but from pediatricians and family doctors. Despite this, most primary care physicians report being inadequately trained to detect, diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders.

Methods

This statewide consultation service provides problem-based consultations to primary care providers to guide the mental health and substance use assessment of children and adolescents. The service also provides web based and office based workshops on behavioral health topics designed to assist them in identifying and treating specific conditions.

Results

The evaluation consists of the collection and analysis of process, satisfaction and outcome data. Between September 2008 and February 2009, more than 116 telephone consultations have been completed and 96 referrals have been provided. For the month of December 2008 (88% of calls) and January 2009 (66% of calls), attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder have been the primary presenting problem for consultations. A follow up survey is presented to callers to collect data on the consultant's response time, caller satisfaction and suggested training opportunities. The pre- and post-tests for the trainings show increased knowledge gain on the educational components of the trainings.

Conclusions

Illinois DocAssist can help primary care Providers bridge the gap between primary care and mental health care for these young patients.