Enhancing Pediatric Primary Care with Behavioral Health Integration Can Reduce Psychosocial Symptoms

Recent research conducted by Boston Medical Center's Transforming and Expanding Access to Mental Health Care Universally in Pediatrics (TEAM UP) Scaling and Sustainability Center highlights the benefits of incorporating behavioral health services within pediatric primary care practices. Children receiving care through the TEAM UP Model, which features a team-based approach including behavioral health clinicians, community health workers, and primary care providers, demonstrated significant reductions in behavioral and psychosocial symptoms.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, involved 942 children aged 4 to 18 years across four Massachusetts federally qualified health centers. These children showed improvements in mental health symptoms after receiving integrated behavioral health treatment, which comprised direct clinical encounters and medication management. The evaluation utilized the PSC-17 screening tool, a standard for assessing psychosocial symptoms in children, and found that scores decreased post-treatment, indicating symptom improvement.

This integrated approach addresses longstanding challenges in accessing mental health services for children and offers a scalable model to improve outcomes. The model's success suggests that embedding behavioral health within pediatric primary care settings can facilitate early intervention, promote healthy development, and ultimately enhance mental health care delivery.

Led by Dr. Jihye Kim, the study underscores the importance of team-based care in expanding behavioral health services, especially as efforts are underway to broaden the model’s implementation both within Massachusetts and nationally, including efforts in New York City and Atlanta. The findings support the ongoing expansion of such models to reach additional children and enhance the rigor of scientific evaluation of integrated behavioral health interventions.

According to Megan Bair-Merritt, Chief Scientific Officer at BMC, the integration of mental health into pediatric healthcare settings can significantly improve service accessibility and symptom outcomes for children, presenting a promising strategy to combat the ongoing children's mental health crisis.

For more details, the full study is available in JAMA Network Open (2025). Source: medicalxpress.com