Behavioral Health Access Expands on Shoreline and in New Haven

Teenagers living with emotional and behavioral challenges have increased access to services through Fair Haven Community Health Care (FHCHC) in the Shoreline region and New Haven.

Together with the behavioral and mental health provider BHCare, FHCHC has opened an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) for high school students at Shoreline Family Health Care in Branford. In 2022, the Shoreline clinic plans to expand IOP services for adolescents in Middle School.

FHCHC has also integrated behavioral health screening and therapy at all its clinics. When patients need behavioral health services, their primary care providers walk them over to behavioral health specialists. These "warm hand-offs" lead to initial consultations and an increased likelihood of scheduled follow up visits.

The service expansion comes at a time when growing numbers of adolescents and children are experiencing mental and behavioral health issues that are disrupting their lives at home and school. From 2019 to 2020, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts among adolescents jumped 31%, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared that the pandemic-related decline in child and adolescent mental health has become a national emergency.