New Frontiers in Pediatric Psychology: Dismantling Barriers Through Integrated School Health Care

Objectives: Youth spend the majority of their time in school, making school-based health centers (SBHCs) an accessible and innovative health care delivery system. SBHCs initially targeted preventative medical needs of youth, while some now offer more comprehensive care including mental health services. Experts view SBHCs as one of the most effective ways to identify and treat youth with mental health difficulties, since over 6.3 million students in the United States have access to some form of school-based healthcare. There are approximately 3,900 SBHCs in the United States and the majority of these centers treat the underserved and uninsured at no out of pocket expense to students. Pediatric psychologists can leverage their expertise as advocates to inform public health policy and payment models in favor of SBHCs, thereby dismantling systems of racism, bias and oppression in schools and communities. This review summarizes the benefits of integrating a pediatric psychologist into existing models of SBHCs, and proposes future avenues. Methods: Review existing literature and multiple existing SBHC programs that have an embedded pediatric psychologist. Results: The vision of expanding access to culturally responsive behavioral health care, informed by clinical, research and outreach initiatives on a broad scale will be discussed. SBHCs that include a pediatric psychologist decrease health disparities among marginalized youth, particularly for those identifying as Hispanic or Black and with low socioeconomic status. Conclusions: Integrating pediatric psychologists provides another layer of mental health support for at-risk youth and this is particularly salient when providers practice cultural humility.