Pediatricians, Brockton Neighborhood Health team up to expand mental health treatment for kids – Enterprise News

Four pediatricians and five community health workers are working with the health center through an initiative called TEAM UP for Children

BROCKTON A team of pediatricians have joined Brockton Neighborhood Health to expand its mental and behavioral health treatment.

Four pediatricians from Boston University Medical Center and five community health workers are working with Brockton Neighborhood Health through an initiative called TEAM UP for Children, which has the goal to improve access to mental health services for children.

"This allows us to scratch a little more at the surface," said France Belizaire Augustave, a clinical social worker at the center.

Brockton Neighborhood Health was one of four health centers around the state that received support from TEAM UP to expand its pediatric mental health services. All are centers that receive federal funding to provide care in under-served areas.

The grant started in September and will last four years, staff members said.

"We anticipate that TEAM UP will provide us with the additional resources we need to identify and work with families to address issues early in childhood," Sue Joss, chief executive officer of the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, said in a statement. "We expect this will lead to the children we serve performing better in school in life."

The center serves about 35,000 patients a year and between 5,000 and 6,000 of them are children.

Behavioral health services have been part of pediatric care for at least 15 years, said Maria Celli, director of social services at Brockton Neighborhood Health, but there wasn't always enough staff.

"The size of the team didn't reflect theneedof the community," she said.

Brockton Neighborhood Health's lead pediatrician Jeanmarie Dolan said doctors would often spend time during checkups addressing mental or behavioral health problems.

Now at the beginning of visits, members of the behavioral health screen patients and are able to offer help, she said.

"To have an integrative team to work together with is great," Dolan said.

Nationwide, one out of five children experience a behavioral health issue, but most don't receive adequate treatment, according to TEAM UP.

It can take up to 10 years to receive an accurate diagnosis for mental health conditions and start treatment for them, the group said, and delays in treatment can lead to development impacts.

Since its launch in 2016, TEAM UP has provided care for more than 19,000 children and plans to reach 50,000 by 2023.

A $8 million donation from Susan Smith Family Foundation supported the initiative at three health centers and an additional $14 million helped expand it at four more, including the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center.

TEAM UP's goal is to train 400 health center staff, double the number of therapists and add more community health workers.

Staff writer Mina Corpuz can be reached at mcorpuz@enterprisenews.com. Follow her on Twitter@mlcorpuz.

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Pediatricians, Brockton Neighborhood Health team up to expand mental health treatment for kids - Enterprise News