The Michigan Child Collaborative Care Program: Building a Telepsychiatry Consultation Service

Abstract

This column describes the establishment of the Michigan Child Collaborative Care (MC3), a statewide telepsychiatry consultation program that provides support to primary care providers (PCPs) in meeting the mental health needs of youths and perinatal women. The MC3 program provides cost-effective, timely, remote consultation to primary care providers in an effort to address the lack of access and scarcity of resources in child, adolescent, and perinatal psychiatry. Data from 10,445 service requests are summarized.Common diagnoses included attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and autistic spectrum disorders, with many cases (58%) deemed moderate to severe. Co-occurring psychological trauma was suspected in 9% of service requests. Partnerships, stakeholder roles, PCP engagement, and workflow integration are highlighted as keys to the program's success.

A Systematic Review on TeleMental Health in Youth Mental Health: Focus on Anxiety, Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

“…Nowadays, TMH approaches using VC to hold real-time, remote treatments with a live therapist have shown increasing support for a range of youth mental health problems, including anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse, posttraumatic stress disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, autism spectrum disorders, family conflicts and externalizing behaviours, without any specific contraindications to its use for any disorder or age range [ 17 , 19 , 31 , 70 , 71 , 82 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 ]. Moreover, further studies demonstrated how implementing a web-delivered approach as a supportive and complimentary tool to treatment as usual interventions may potentially improve the individual’ predisposition to be engaged to online tools for the prevention, assessment, monitoring and delivering of psychiatric and psychotherapy treatments.…”

“…In 2017, the American Telepsychiatry Association (ATA) provided a clinical guidance for the delivery of child and adolescent mental health and behavioural services by a licensed health care provider through real-time VC [ 7 , 25 ]. Furthermore, in 2018, ATA and APA released a guide to assist mental health professionals in providing effective and safe mental health care regarding VC-based TMH [ 88 , 90 , 91 ].…”

Telepsychiatry Consultation for Primary Care Treatment of Children and Adolescents Receiving Child Protective Services in Chile: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study

“…Evidence from the United States has provided strong foundations for the feasibility and potential efficacy of community-based child and adolescent telepsychiatry [13][14][15]. Digital health interventions, including videoconferencing MHC, have also been found to be satisfactory and acceptable for health care providers, caregivers, and youths in juvenile community-based justice settings [21][22][23].…”

“…These characteristics have also contributed to the role of telepsychiatry in emergency response to the current COVID-19 pandemic [10,11]. In Chile [12] and other countries [13][14][15], child and adolescent telepsychiatry services have shown promising results for the treatment of mental disorders in PHC. These initiatives have received positive feedback from health care providers serving CPS populations and reported increased use of outpatient resources for children with complex mental health care needs [16,17].…”

Telepsychiatry: What you need to know

“…The Michigan Child Collaborative Care (MC3) program is a telepsychiatry consultation service that has been able to provide cost-effective, timely, remote consultation to primary care clinicians who care for youth and perinatal women. 8 New York has a pediatric collaborative care program, the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for Primary Care (CAP PC), that incorporates telepsychiatry consultations for families who live >1 hour away from one of the program's treatment sites. 9 Patients with cancer.…”