Connecting for Care
The UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Portal provides real-time, peer-to-peer child psychiatry consultative guidance to primary care providers for youth with mental and behavioral health concerns.
Access to child psychiatry has been a significant problem nationwide for years, as documented in the Surgeon General's report of 2000. Meanwhile, 1 in 5 youth experience a significant mental or behavioral health problem, and pediatric primary care providers are often at the front lines of initial screening, assessment, and the treatment of these disorders. (CDC 2018)
The UCSF Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Portal is a child psychiatry access program designed to meet the ever-increasing needs of pediatric primary care practices (PCP) serving as front-line care providers for mental health. CAPP aims to increase access to necessary mental health care by improving PCP's knowledge, skills and confidence to manage mild-moderate, commonly occurring behavioral health conditions, thereby supporting rational utilization of child psychiatry resources for more complex presentations, and supporting increased integration of pediatric primary and behavioral health care.
CAPP Connecting for Care (Video 02:30)
CAPP has been there for us during the unprecedented COVID-19 mental health pandemic. They have educated us, supported us, and encouraged us as we have led children and families through a difficult time in the journey of life. We are so grateful to CAPP for helping us be better doctors to our patients.
Tracy DeAmicis McMahan, MD
The CAPP program has been an absolute godsend. Advice has been on-point, clearly stated and given in a timely fashion. The return call from the psychiatrist is very quick and is always followed by a written consult note. One of my favorite parts of the service is that I am never made to feel ignorant or off-base in my thinking. Everyone has been so supportive. I have learned so much and my patients’ psychiatric care has dramatically improved.