Little Rock-based University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences was awarded more than $2 million from the HHS Health Resources and Services Administration to equip and support primary care providers in screening, diagnosing, treating, and referring children with behavioral health conditions.
Funding will support UAMS in collaboration with Little Rock-based Arkansas Children's Hospital to develop a program called Children of Arkansas Mental Health in Primary Care with the goal of promoting the integration of behavioral health in pediatric primary care, according to a Nov. 3 news release.
"Pediatric mental and behavioral health is a pandemic in this country. With this large, four-year grant, UAMS and Arkansas Children's can start to develop the best approaches to enable primary care providers to detect issues earlier and treat and refer more efficiently in order to make a real and lasting impact for society," said William Steinbach, MD, chair of the pediatrics department and associate dean for child health in the UAMS college of medicine and pediatrician-in-chief at Arkansas Children's.