Sec. 207. Telehealth child psychiatry access grants
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The Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, shall award grants to States and Indian tribes or tribal organizations (as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act) to promote behavioral health integration in pediatric primary care by— supporting the creation of statewide child psychiatry access programs; and supporting the expansion of existing statewide or regional child psychiatry access programs.
To be eligible for funding under subsection (a), a child psychiatry access program shall— be a statewide network of pediatric mental health teams that provide support to pediatric primary care sites as an integrated team; support and further develop organized State networks of child and adolescent psychiatrists to provide consultative support to pediatric primary care sites; conduct an assessment of critical behavioral consultation needs among pediatric providers and such providers' preferred mechanisms for receiving consultation and training and technical assistance; develop an online database and communication mechanisms, including telehealth, to facilitate consultation support to pediatric practices; provide rapid (within 30 minutes) statewide clinical telephone consultations when requested between the pediatric mental health teams and pediatric primary care providers; conduct training and provide technical assistance to pediatric primary care providers to support the early identification, diagnosis, treatment, and referral of children with behavioral health conditions; inform and assist pediatric providers in accessing child psychiatry consultations and in scheduling and conducting technical assistance; assist with referrals to specialty care and community and behavioral health resources; and establish mechanisms for measuring and monitoring increased access to child and adolescent psychiatric services by pediatric primary care providers and expanded capacity of pediatric primary care providers to identify, treat, and refer children with mental health problems.
For purposes of this subsection, the term pediatric mental health team means a team of case coordinators, child and adolescent psychiatrists, and a licensed clinical mental health professional, such as a psychologist, social worker, or mental health counselor. Such a team may be regionally based, provided there is access to a pediatric mental health team across the State. A State, political subdivision of a State, Indian tribe, or tribal organization that desires a grant under this section shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may require, including a plan for the rigorous evaluation of activities that are carried out with funds received under such grant.
A State, political subdivision of a State, Indian tribe, or tribal organization that receives a grant under this section shall prepare and submit an evaluation to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may reasonably require, including an evaluation of activities carried out with funds received under such grant and a process and outcome evaluation. The Secretary may not award a grant under the grant program unless the State involved agrees, with respect to the costs to be incurred by the State in carrying out the purpose described in this section, to make available non-Federal contributions (in cash or in kind) toward such costs in an amount that is not less than 20 percent of Federal funds provided in the grant.
To carry out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2017 and such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2021.