- Connecticut: Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) has named Michael Collins CEO, solidifying a position he has held on an interim basis since October 2016. Previously, Collins worked as ECHN's integration officer (Vaidya, Becker's Hospital Review, 7/20).
- New York: The Bezos Family Foundation has donated $25 million to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn. The funding is intended to help NYU Langone advance initiatives related to pediatric brain development, establish a partnership between the hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and its Department of Population Health, and create new positions at the hospital to improve outcomes for children (Paavola, Becker's Hospital CFO Report, 7/20).
- Washington, D.C.: The number of children in Washington, D.C. who died dropped by 32 percent between 2008 and 2015, from 182 to 124. Specifically, the death rate for children ages 15 to 19 declined by 53 percent, while the death rate among infants dropped by 28 percent. However, officials said while the decreases mark improvements in the D.C.'s child mortality rate, the rate still far exceeds the nationwide statistics: The capital in 2015 had a child mortality rate of 88.7 for every 100,000 children, compared with 52.4 per 100,000 children nationwide (Chandler, Washington Post, 7/21).
The case for improving coordination between behavioral health and pediatrics
The CDC estimates that nearly $247 billion is spent annually on the treatment and management of childhood mental disorders. Further, pediatric patients and caregivers often struggle to access high-quality behavioral health expertise due to a limited number of specialists and fragmented approaches to behavioral health services.
In this presentation, we review the case for improving coordination between behavioral health and pediatrics, and describe four successful models that increase access to behavioral health care.