Clinicians' utilization of child mental health telephone consultation in primary care: findings from Massachusetts.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
OBJECTIVE: The authors examined utilization of the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project, a mental health telephone consultation service for primary care, hypothesizing that greater use would be related to severe psychiatric diagnoses and polypharmacy. METHODS: The authors examined the association between utilization, defined as the mean number of contacts per patient during the 180 days following the initial contact (July 2008-June 2009), and characteristics of the initial contact, including consultation question, the child's primary mental health problem, psychotropic medication regimen, insurance status, and time of year. RESULTS: Utilization (N=4,436 initial contacts, mean=3.83 contacts) was associated with initial contacts about medication management, polypharmacy, public and private health insurance, and time of year. The child's primary mental health problem did not predict utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Telephone consultation services address treatment with psychotropic medications, particularly polypharmacy. Joint public-private funding should be considered for such public programs that serve privately insured children.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Hobbs Knutson, K; Masek, B; Bostic, JQ; Straus, JH; Stein, BD
Published Date
- March 1, 2014
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 65 / 3
Start / End Page
- 391 - 394
PubMed ID
- 24584527
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1557-9700
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1176/appi.ps.201200295
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States