Pilot Study of Shared Care of ADHD in a Pediatric Clinic:Colocation of a Psychologist as an ADHD Care Manager

Due to the shortage of child psychiatrists and the high prevalence of child mental health disorder, pediatricians and other pediatric primary care providers often assume responsibility for the management of various psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. However, pediatricians have not been well-trained during residency to deal with the complexities of ADHD management. In addition, the system of care under which pediatricians practice do not afford the time availability that is required to properly manage a child with ADHD. On the other hand, if a pediatrician wishes to refer a patient to a child mental health specialist, many obstacles, including but not limited to stigma, insurance issues, and long waiting lists, often interfere with the patient actually receiving services for his/her ADHD. This research project seeks to examine an innovative model of care in which a child psychologist is located on the premises of a pediatric office and is available to share the care of patients with the pediatrician in order to address ADHD. We hypothesize that parents as well as pediatricians will be more satisfied with this model of care and that patients will ultimately have better outcomes. The beginning of our pilot has shown under-identification to be a barrier to care as well, and thus we propose to implement a quality improvement initiative to screen children for psychosocial issues as well. As we have had trouble with recruitment and unfortunately have had more children randomized to TAU than shared care, we propose in December 2007 a phase 2 of our study where all subjects, instead of randomization, are entered into shared care.