Thank you for your interest in the Pediatric Psychiatry Collaborative (PPC). Below you will find details, including benefits and requirements, as well as a link to register.
Over the past five years, with support from the NJ Governor's Office and funding from the NJ Department of Children and Families, Hackensack Meridian Health, along with Cooper University Health Care and Atlantic Health System, has successfully established the Pediatric Psychiatry Collaborative (PPC) across 20 counties in New Jersey, comprising 8 regional Hubs throughout the state. The ninth Hub, in Essex County, is managed by Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, ensuring that every county in the state has improved access to pediatric mental/behavioral health care.
As a mental/behavioral health and substance use consultative and referral support program, the PPC has aimed to improve the comfort and competence of pediatric primary care clinicians to screen, identify and care manage their patients with mental/behavioral health concerns. Participating pediatric primary care and specialty care providers now have quick access to mental/behavioral health consultative and referral services for the children and families in their care.
The program is available for children and adolescents up to age 18 (or up to 21, if patient is still being seen by the pediatric practices) and requires participating primary care providers (PCP) to universally provide standardized mental/behavioral health and substance use screenings at each well visit. Participating pediatricians and pediatric clinicians can consult with the PPC Hub Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists (CAPs) and behavioral health staff for consults. They can also refer patients with identified concerns to the Hub behavioral health staff for intake and referral to services in their community. New in 2020, patients who are referred to the Hub can access psychiatry evaluation services via telepsychiatry. Below you will find a list of the counties and their corresponding PPC Hubs, as well as the leadership teams for each.
What is the Network Hub’s Telepsychiatry Expansion?
All 9 of New Jersey’s Network Hubs launched a telepsychiatry enhancement in Spring 2020. The telepsychiatry enhancement allows patients and families referred to the Hub by participating Hub physicians to access telepsychiatry services from their assigned Regional Hub. Telepsychiatry consults can be provided from the Hub to the patient in the referring physician’s office, or from the Hub directly to the patient home. Active participation in a Network Hub is required for further registration in the telepsychiatry enhancement. Providers who are not registered for their Hub must enroll before they can access these telepsychiatry services.
Already a member of your Hub? Email mhc@njaap.org to inquire about and enroll in telepsychiatry.
Not a member of your Hub? Register here and indicate that you would also like to enroll in telepsychiatry.
Telepsychiatry Advantages:
- Virtual psychiatric consultations expand access to quality mental health care
- Guidance from Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists (CAP) for caring for your patients’ mental/behavioral health care needs in real time
- Patient/family-centered approach for improved patient engagement, care coordination & clinical outcomes
- Choices for your patients: accessible in pediatric offices or in the comfort of a patient’s own home
Why Should Pediatricians Should Participate in a Hub?
The PPC Hubs support pediatric clinicians in integrating mental/behavioral health and substance use screening, referral, and care coordination into their practices. The PPC Hubs provide pediatricians, pediatric subspecialists, pediatric clinicians, and family physicians who see a pediatric population with quick access to psychiatric consultation, and facilitate referrals for children/families in need of mental/behavioral health and substance use resources and support. PPC Hub benefits include:
- Timely Access to Psychiatry Consultation - for appropriate cases, the PPC Hub CAP may see a child/adolescent for a one-time psychiatric evaluation at no charge to the patient.
- Consultative Support to assist you with diagnostic clarification, medication management, and care coordination by a team of behavioral health professionals, including a child/adolescent psychiatrist.
- Care Coordination to support patient/family engagement with appropriate community mental/behavioral health treatment services.
- Continuous education opportunities to address common pediatric mental/behavioral health issues via monthly webinars and NJAAP’s Mental Health Virtual Learning Collaboratives, awarding CME credits and MOC part 2 points. (anticipated Summer 2020)
What are the Requirements for PPC Participation?
In order to participate in your designated PPC Hub, pediatric clinicians must agree to the following:
- Conduct universal mental/behavioral health and substance use screening at child and adolescent well visits, with the PSC-35, Y-PSC-37, SWYC, and CRAFFT 2.1* validated, standardized screening tools
- Submit weekly electronic screening logs to track screening (important for continued funding of the PPC)
- Complete initial practice demographic survey and annual survey on screening practices
Mental/Behavioral Health Virtual Learning Collaborative
Spring 2021 – Four monthly sessions from March – June
The Mental/Behavioral Health Virtual Learning Collaborative is aimed at helping clinicians increase confidence and competence in the use of age-appropriate mental/behavioral health and substance use screening tools, and identification and referral of patients with mental/behavioral health concerns. Training will be provided in implementing validated, standardized mental/behavioral health screening tools and working in collaboration with the NJ PPC regional Hubs to support care coordination of your patients for early detection of mental/behavioral health issues, and the overall improvement of integrated health care in the pediatric primary care and specialty care setting.
Goals of the program:
- To Increase pediatric providers’ competence and confidence in implementing mental/ behavioral health in their primary or specialty care practice
- To provide a forum for pediatricians to share successes, lessons learned, and help each other overcome barriers to implementation of mental/behavioral health screening, referral, and care coordination. To provide technical assistance to pediatricians and their practice teams on the progress of implementing mental/behavioral health screening, referral, and care coordination in their practice.
- To assist in establishing strong collaborative relationships between primary care clinicians and PPC Hub teams
- Collaborative, case-based learning with your peers
- Access to subject matter experts and NJPPC Hub behavioral health staff including Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist on each session to ask questions that you may have
- For those signing up for Track 2 – program incentives including pediatric psychopharmacology book and pediatric mental health coding guide, among other incentives
- Schedule virtual office visit consultation with Quality Improvement coach if you choose
- Participate in any/all of the 4 session as schedule permits
- Submit brief post-session survey after participation in sessions attended, for program feedback, and if seeking individual CME credits/MOC part 2 points
- Participate in all 4 virtual learning collaborative sessions
- Complete a Pre and a Post-Learning Collaborative Participant SurveySubmit a brief post-session survey after participation in each session, for program feedback, and if seeking individual CME credits/MOC part 2 points
- Submit one case presentation form for review during learning collaborative sessions, and present the case on a future session if your case is chosen by the LC faculty/advisors
- NJPPC Leadership: Steven Kairys MD, MPH, FAAP, Antony L. Rostain, MD, MA
- QI Coach: Ruth S. Gubernick, PhD, MPH
- NJPPC Hub Clinical Program Managers: Beth Young LCSW, Jose L. Posos, M.Ed., LPC
- NJPPC MD champions: April Bright MD, Melissa Wallach MD, FAAP, Puthenmadam Radhakrisnan, MD
- Identification of Common Pediatric M/B H issues & Covid-19 Challenges and Response - Dr. Rostain and Dr. Wallach
- Screening for Mental/Behavioral Health - A Practice Team Approach or What You Need to Know - Dr. Bright and Dr. Rad
- Referral/Care Coordination/Working in Collaboration with Your PPC Hub/Telehealth - Beth & Jose
- How to Use Your Community Resources & Communicating with Parents about Mental/Behavioral Health concerns - Dr. Kairys and Dr. Rad
Recordings of Learning Collaborative Sessions
Session 1: Identification of Common Pediatric M/B H issues & Covid-19 Challenges and Response - Dr. Rostain (Didactic) and Dr. Wallach (Case) Recording / Corresponding Slides
Session 2: Screening for Mental/Behavioral Health - A Practice Team Approach or What You Need to Know - Dr. Bright (Didactic) and Dr. Romero (Case) Recording / Corresponding Slides