Children’s National is getting a $4 million boost for the hardest door in pediatrics to walk through: mental healthcare. The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation’s gift, announced Monday in Washington, D.C., will expand access to mental healthcare for children and adolescents.
Children’s National experts are redesigning how psychiatric expertise and behavioral health programs fit into primary care, working through the hospital’s primary care locations and Pediatric Health Network practices. The model embeds child and adolescent psychiatry fellows within primary care clinics, so a family’s first call can reach specialist input faster.
The gift also funds education, consultation and training aimed at increasing the capacity of pediatric primary care providers — the clinicians who most often see a struggling child first. Beth Wells, MD, MHS, the hospital’s chief clinical officer and physician-in-chief, described the investment as a capacity-builder for the whole network.
Youth mental health demand has outrun specialist supply across North America for years. Programs that move psychiatric expertise into primary care are among the few models that scale — which is precisely what this $4 million is buying.
