VCU news

By Sathya Achia Abraham

For families anxious to get help for a child experiencing mental, emotional or behavioral disorders, time is of the essence. Unfortunately, navigating the child mental health system is no easy task. The system is complex and there are long waiting lists for children to be seen by a mental health professional.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Virginia Treatment Center for Children has partnered with several organizations in the Richmond area to create The Children’s Mental Health Resource Center, a community resource that assists children and families obtain better access to the mental health service system.

“The goal of The Children’s Mental Health Resource Center is to serve as a GPS system for these families who need access to care quickly, appropriately and effectively for issues that pertain specifically to their family,” said Robert Cohen, M.D., director of VCU’s Virginia Treatment Center for Children.

“Families often become confused and frustrated when trying to navigate the fragmented and complex system of mental health services for children,” he said.

According to Cohen, who is a professor and the vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the VCU School of Medicine, a family may endure the three-to-four-month waiting list for an assessment and then another extended period of time before their child starts therapy only to find out that they are in the wrong place.

In Virginia there are fewer than 300 psychiatrists specialized in adolescent and child psychiatry, and there are 200,000 children in need of psychiatric help in the state.

“We did not want the center to become another place where Richmond families go for answers and then have to wait three months for help. Here we hope a child can be seen by a professional within a week or two,” Cohen said.

Cohen said that the Richmond center officially opened in early March 2011 and has started with referrals from nine pediatric offices in Richmond. The referrals have picked up and the administrative team has been developing an effective referral program. At present time, due to its limited resources, The Children’s Mental Health Resource Center is only able to accept patients from participating pediatric practices. In the future, Cohen said, the center hopes to be able to serve the broader community.

The center will set up a referral network of mental health care providers and help connect families with the appropriate resources including advocacy or financial services. It will also provide consultation to participating pediatricians about their patients who are experiencing behavioral health problems. Additionally, there will be a family navigation program where families who are veterans in dealing with the child mental health system will serve as mentors to families with a newly diagnosed child. The center also will have a physical library and website that will house information about conditions, treatment and diagnosis.

According to Cohen, although there are few other resource centers in the state, The Children’s Mental Health Resource Center is the most comprehensive in the state and builds upon some successful models of care found at similar centers in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Louisiana. Most of those centers have been incorporated as safety net resources by state and local government.

The VCU VTCC is part of the steering committee and serves as the administrative home for The Children’s Mental Health Resource Center. Collaborators include VCU-VTCC, Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, Family Focus, Inc., Commonwealth Institute for Child and Family Studies, Voices for Virginia’s Children, Medical Home Plus, NAMI Virginia, Beacon Tree Foundation, Virginia Federation of Families, ChildSavers, United Methodist Family Services and the Commonwealth Parenting Center.The center is supported through the Jenkins Foundation, the Jackson Foundation, the VTCC Advisory Council and private donors.