Search for mental health care for children is often fruitless

The Boston Globe (5/9, Kowalczyk) reports that investigators “posing as the parent of a depressed 12-year-old called hundreds of child psychiatrists and pediatricians looking for appointments, and discovered what many actual parents know through bitter experience: Most of the time the calls were fruitless.” After phoning some 913 physicians listed as in network “by Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations in Boston, Chapel Hill, Houston, Minneapolis, and Seattle,” researchers discovered that “after two attempts, they were able to get an appointment with a pediatrician 40 percent of the time and with a psychiatrist a meager 17 percent.” The findings were published online May 5 in the International Journal of Health Services.

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— “Search for mental health care for children is often fruitless,” Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, May 2, 2017.

Posted in In The News.