Children with mental health issues may get more attention from their primary care providers thanks to a new program in Maryland.
Beginning this month, a program that supports the efforts of primary care providers who see children and youth to assess and manage mental health concerns in their patients will expand to serve the entire state.
Maryland Behavioral Health Integration in Pediatric Primary Care (B-HIPP) is a collaboration between the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the State Department of Education, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Salisbury University Department of Social Work.
B-HIPP, which is supported by funding from the Departments of Health and Education, launched in January 2013 in Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. The program aims to make managing child and adolescent mental health problems more routine in primary care settings, and to make it an efficient and effective gateway to specialty mental health care.
