New emergency service helps Massachusetts youth and families facing behavioral health crises
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at UMass Medical School has helped launch a new program that helps families experiencing psychiatric emergencies as confinement at home and loss of outside supports during the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated behavioral health crises among youth. The Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disabilities or MCPAP for ASD-ID was launched in partnership with the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership with funding from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
“Continued access to mental health services and supports remains a vital care component for people throughout Massachusetts, both during this pandemic and beyond,” said Jean A. Frazier, MD, the Robert M. and Shirley S. Siff Chair in Autism, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, and executive director of the Shriver Center. “Accessing those services and supports is particularly important for youth and young adults with an autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disabilities and those who care about them.”
Dr. Frazier, who co-directs the new program, also directs the Medical School’s Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders clinic.
MCPAP for ASD-ID provides social workers and mental health counselors who staff the Massachusetts Mobile Crisis and Emergency Services Program initial on-demand consultations with licensed applied behavior analysts and follow-up consultation with physicians with ASD expertise when needed. Services are provided at no charge and are available regardless of insurance status.
“We’re here to help the families evaluate in real time what is contributing to the challenging behaviors that have resulted in a crisis, then immediately put into place behavioral interventions that will help stabilize the youth. Next we’ll develop a plan that may include behavioral interventions and psychopharmacology and may involve parent training,” said Frazier. “The goal is to support the child’s established providers, but the team is poised to make referrals if there’s a gap for longer term support and treatment.”
MCPAP ASD-ID is an expansion of the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program. The original program was established in 2004 based on a pilot conducted by the Department of Psychiatry. With seven sites, MCPAP now serves more than 98 percent of the pediatric primary care providers in Massachusetts.