There is a high level of unmet mental and behavioral (MBH) health need among child and adolescent patients and primary care providers – including Family Medicine practitioners – are often the first to identify these needs. The shortage of child and adolescent psychiatric providers, combined with an overburdened mental healthcare system, creates many barriers for patients to access psychiatric care. Co-locating MBH psychiatry services in a primary care setting builds the capacity of clinics to address patient needs while offering training opportunities to upskill current and future Family Medicine providers in supporting the MBH needs of their child and adolescent patients. This presentation will describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a co-located child and adolescent psychiatric consultation clinic within an academic family medicine center and how this clinic is serving as an educational mechanism for family medicine physicians.
Michael Baca-Atlas, Clinical Associate Professor, University of North Carolina Department. of Family Medicine Michael Baca-Atlas MD, FASAM
Sam Hamburger, Executive Officer, Integrated Services, UNC Department of Family Medicine Sam Hamburger PhD
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