The Texas child mental health network: A child and adolescent research registry

Abstract

The Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCMHCC) includes all twelve Health-Related Institutions (HRI) in the State of Texas. At each HRI, teams of child health faculty and staff are reviewing needs of children in Texas and providing new primary care interventions for children (eg, CPAN, TCHATT, CPWE). In addition to the clinical care programs, two research registries (for Trauma and Depression) have been developed to inform future care pathways with new data. The registries collect similar kinds of descriptive, medical and psychosocial data reliably. Because advances have suggested that events and experiences in early years could be the origins of adult mental health challenges, these research registries could contribute to the development and application of treatments during youth to mitigate both youth and adult manifestations of associated mental health vulnerabilities. These registries are set up and the members are reliably gathering baseline data throughout the state, which was the initial goal. The registries now include treatments, Trauma-CBT for Trauma and Behavioral Activation for Depression, to test for efficacy and specificity. We look forward to testing and comparing additional treatments in the future studies.