NJAAP’s Mental Health Collaborative Quality Improvement Program: An Initiative to Improve Access by Integrating Mental/Behavioral Health in Pediatric Primary Care

Abstract

BACKGROUND Mental health disorders are the most common diseases of childhood, with 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness beginning by age 14 and 75% beginning by age 24. This epidemic is exacerbated by the shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAPs) nationwide. While there are over 2,000,000 children in New Jersey under age 18, only 324 CAPs currently practice in the state and many do not accept medical insurance. Integration of behavioral health in primary care has emerged as an innovative model to address this challenge. GOAL New Jersey’s Pediatric Psychiatry Collaborative (PPC) aims to increase …