HHC Behavioral Health Network Chosen as Access-MH CT Hub for Child & Adolescent Support Services

July 14, 2014 By Hartford HealthCare

The Hartford HealthCare (HHC) Behavioral Health Network (BHN) has been chosen by ValueOptions and the Connecticut Department of Children and Families as one of three centralized hubs for the ACCESS-MH CT program, providing consultative psychiatry services to primary care physicians treating children and adolescents in Connecticut.

“The HHC BHN hub provides a team of behavioral health professionals at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living (IOL) to respond to inquiries from primary care physicians seeking assistance in serving children and adolescents needing behavioral health care,” said Harold I. Schwartz, MD, IOL’s Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Vice President of the Hartford HealthCare (HHC) Behavioral Health Network (BHN).

Services based at the HHC BHN hub became available to pediatricians in 78 Connecticut towns on June 16, 2014. Additional hubs serving Connecticut’s children are based at Wheeler Clinic and the Yale Child Study Center.

Dr. Kim Brownell, a former pediatrician turned child psychiatrist, has been named the medical director of the HHC BHN hub. Serving approximately 272,000 children, the HHC IOL ACCESS-MH CT hub includes the city of Hartford as well as all municipalities east of the Connecticut River. This provides a naturally strong service partnership between the IOL and other HHC BHN affiliates, including Rushford and Natchaug Hospital.

“This program is about the relationship between a child’s primary care provider and the child psychiatrists within the HHC BHN who will support them either through telephone consultations or seeing their patients in person when a face-to-face consult is necessary,” said Dr. Brownell. “We are excited to build upon relationships we have already established and to create new relationships as well. We are eager to bring this resource to pediatric health care providers, and ultimately, the children who need these services on a daily basis.

Municipalities covered by the HHC BHN ACCESS-MH CT hub are Andover, Ashford, Avon, Bloomfield, Bolton, Bozrah, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Chester, Clinton, Colchester, Columbia, Coventry, Deep River, Durham, East Granby, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Hartford, East Lyme, East Windsor, Eastford, Ellington, Enfield, Essex, Franklin, Glastonbury, Granby, Griswold, Groton, Haddam, Hampton, Hartford, Hebron, Killingly, Killingworth, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Lyme, Manchester, Mansfield, Marlborough, Middletown, Montville, New London, North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Plainfield, Pomfret, Portland, Preston, Putnam, Salem, Scotland, Somers, South Windsor, Sprague, Stafford, Sterling, Stonington, Suffield, Thompson, Tolland, Union, Vernon, Voluntown, Waterford, West Hartford, Westbrook, Willington, Windham, Windsor, Windsor Locks, and Woodstock.

Contact:
Shawn Mawhiney, Marketing Director, Behavioral Health Network
860.634.3383 (cell)