A Pilot Study in Adapting the Chronic Care Model to Address Shortage of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

There is a nationwide shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists. This, combined with the mental health crisis caused by the coronavirus 2019 pandemic has lead to low access to care for many individuals. Child Psychiatry Access Programs have been developed to address this need, but we believe they are not sufficient to care for complex cases. We propose that the Chronic Care Model can address these issues by providing, more longitudinal and and faster access to mental health care for patients. Our pilot study had 50 children and adolescent participants in our clinic model, which included the use of trainees supervised by an attending. We found that the mean wait time to appointment with a child and adolescent psychiatrist was 13.54 ± 14.8 days, which is significantly shorter by that reported by other studies. We believe our model clinic may be helpful in a variety of settings and want to share it with other psychiatrists.