More than 14 million children and adolescents in the United States, or 1 in 5, have a diagnosable mental health disorder that requires intervention or monitoring and interferes with daily functioning.¹ While many children with mental health disorders are not being diagnosed, primary care clinicians have been identifying children with emotional and behavioral disorders at an increasing rate. The need for primary care clinicians to manage children with mental health concerns only will continue to increase in the future. Primary care clinicians are, and will continue to be, an important first resource for parents who are worried about their child's behavioral problems.

Children's Mental Health and the Medical Home New
David Tayloe, MD, FAAP, immediate past president of the AAP provides an in-depth discussion of children's mental health and the medical home during the Medical Home Web Summit.  

The Future of Pediatrics: Mental Health Competencies in Pediatric Primary Care New
Mental health continues to be a leading health issue for children. This new policy statement published in July 2009 outlines the requisite competencies that will be required by practicing pediatricians to address mental health in primary care. This statement should be helpful in developing and guiding continuing medical education opportunities for practicing clinicians and assisting training programs in formulating curricula.

Improving Mental Health Services in Primary Care: Reducing Administrative and Financial Barriers to Access and Collaboration
There are numerous barriers to providing collaborative mental health care in the primary care setting. As such, the AAP and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have jointly written a special article in the April issue of Pediatrics, which outlines the barriers to providing collaborative mental health care. Suggestions for improving these barriers are also identified. For those who wish to learn more, the authors have also written a Background paper, which delves further into the issues and the need for collaboration.This paper was supported by the Improving Mental Heath in Primary Care Through Access, Collaboration, and Training (IMPACT) grant (G95MC05434) that was awarded to the AAP in 2005 from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau. For more information, please call 847/434-7119 or email mentalhealth@aap.org.