Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast · Nemours Children's Health

Ep. 168: Accessing Pediatric Mental Health Services (Part 2 of 2)

·32 min·2 clips

PATH gives brief evidence-based care while families stay on a six-month appointment list.

1. Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast focuses this episode on accessing pediatric mental health services through two models: Healthy Steps and PATH. 2. Carol Vassar hosts the conversation, while Dr. Rahil Briggs serves as National Director of Healthy Steps at Zero to Three and Dr. Amanda Lockery serves as Executive Director for Child and Behavioral Health at Nemours and Medical Director of PATH. 3. The episode asks how primary care, telehealth, and early relational health can fill gaps when families cannot wait months for pediatric mental health care. 4. Dr. Briggs says early years build the foundation for wellness and that Healthy Steps is an evidence-based Zero to Three program. 5. She explains that Healthy Steps brings a specialist into the healthcare team alongside pediatricians, nurses, and family medicine doctors for children birth through 3 years. 6. Briggs says the program uses universal screening and tiered supports, and she says it is reaching just over half a million children. 7. She adds that Healthy Steps has a North Star goal of reaching over a million children by 2032. 8. Briggs defines early relational health as the idea that babies and toddlers' mental health is rooted in nurturing, responsive, supportive, safe, stable relationships. 9. She says those relationships are nested within community, culture, and language, and that both children and caregivers benefit when they are strong. 10. Dr. Lockery describes PATH as the Pediatric Acute Telemental Health Program, created in 2023 after COVID revealed severe access problems and long waitlists. 11. She says families had been waiting six months to a year for appointments, so PATH was designed for same-day, next-day, or about nine-day access. 12. Lockery says PATH extends hours to 8 o'clock in the evening and offers Saturday appointments to meet families at convenient times. 13. She says telehealth lets clinicians work outside the same town, zip code, or even time zone as the family. 14. Lockery says PATH does targeted psychological assessment, keeps families in the right referral line, and offers brief cognitive behavioral treatment or parenting intervention while they wait. 15. She names autism evaluation and eating disorder specialists as examples of community referrals PATH can connect families to through social workers and case care coordinators. 16. Briggs says Healthy Steps reduces the referral black hole by using the pediatric primary care setting, where families already show up for 12 to 13 well-child visits in the first three years. 17. She says more than 90% of families attend those visits regularly, and she argues that adding a Healthy Steps specialist helps pediatricians address tantrums, sleep training, housing leave, and diaper-bank referrals. 18. Briggs says physicians reported improved burnout because they no longer have to carry every complex parent question alone, and she cites Tumani Coker's focus groups showing families want more development and behavior support. 19. The conversation stays practical and collaborative, with Carol Vassar pressing both guests on wait times, warm handoffs, and how telehealth changes the delivery model. 20. Listeners interested in pediatric primary care, early childhood development, or behavioral health access will get the most from it, while people wanting a broad overview without program details may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical case for meeting children’s mental health needs where families already show up.

The episode makes a clear case for pediatric mental health care to live inside the well-child visit, alongside telehealth and the parent-child relationship. Carol Vassar gives Dr. Rahil Briggs and Dr.

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Hear how pediatric primary care can be a practical place to talk about children's mental well-being.

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