Creating Pediatric Mental Health Access in a School-Based Health Center

Abstract

PURPOSE: This quality improvement project aimed to decrease the appointment wait time for a new mental health concern from two months or more to less than two weeks in 80% of children enrolled in an elementary school-based health center (SBHC). METHODS: This project analyzed wait times for a requested behavioral health (BH) appointment in the SBHCs from August 2023- December 2023 using a referral tracker. As children were referred, they were added to the tracker, and BH providers would initiate the appointments. When the BH providers schedules filled, a wait list would result, at which time the advanced practice nurses (APN) would then provide BH assessments for the children and create a BH plan. RESULTS: Of 112 children requesting a BH appointment at the SBHC during the project’s timeframe, 66.7% seen by an APN and 79.7% seen by a BH provider were assessed within 2 weeks. APRNs could fill an appointment request within an average of 19 days, while BH providers took an average of 18.6 days. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Results indicate that children can be seen faster in a SBHC than regional estimated averages for community BH providers. Future studies can focus on determining exact averages for community wait times and analyzing an entire school year. Additional considerations should explore a system for utilizing SBHCs to create BH access for pediatric primary care offices or the main hospital network.