Families as Allies has been a partner with UMMC’s CHAMP Project since 2019. We believe that our children should be able to get help in the places they already are – for example, in school and at the doctor – and so we have been delighted to work with and partner with CHAMP, which offers a free real-time consult line to pediatricians and primary care providers in Mississippi, enabling them to serve children and get them help in the places they already are.
If you don’t know about CHAMP, it stands for Child Access to Mental Health and Psychiatry, and it is made up of a team of UMMC psychiatrists and psychologists who help children up to age 21 years and their families by providing real-time behavioral health, medication management, family support, and resource information in consultation to their pediatrician or primary care provider by way of telehealth technology.
Last month we partnered with the CHAMP team to co-host a virtual summit on child tele-psychiatry, highlighting the practice of tele-psychiatry, its practice parameters for the treatment of children and adolescents, and how to continue efforts needed to maintain its accessibility throughout the state. While we did not know just how relevant tele-psychiatry would be when the HRSA grant was awarded, there is definitely a need now to bring the discussion of telepsychiatry and how it can address the rise in pediatric mental health concerns to the forefront.
During the summit our executive director, Joy Hogge, gave a presentation about Supporting Family-Driven Practice in Telepsychiatry, and Nikki Flippins, family partner representative with Families as Allies, participated in a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Dustin Sarver from the CHAMP team to close the summit.
Families as Allies greatly appreciates our partnership with CHAMP and the CHAMP team, especially the opportunities we’ve had to train child psychiatry interns and fellows in family-driven practice.
The summit was supported by a grant awarded by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and the following organizations supported and participated in the event as well: Center for Advancement of Youth, Mississippi Psychiatric Association, and Canopy Children’s Solutions.
We encourage all of you to check out this video about CHAMP and share it with your child’s doctor or nurse practitioner. You can share the link to this video with them, and also let them know that they can call the CHAMP line at 601-984-2080 if they would like to enroll, or if they have a child in their office and want to get support in real-time to know the best way to help that child with behavioral or emotional challenges.
You can view the summit presentations and panel discussion here. (Use password: summit)
