Medical Resident Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford REDWOOD CITY, California, United States
Background: In 2020, the WHO estimated 1 in 2 children experience violence yearly and 120 million girls have experienced forced sexual contact. Since the pandemic began, there has been an increase in calls to helplines about child abuse and intimate partner violence. The lifetime cost of child maltreatment occurring in one year is estimated at $228 billion. This increase in child maltreatment has stressed the behavioral health system, which previously struggled to meet needs. The Child Advocacy Center has served 1000 families, estimated to be only 30% of those experiencing abuse and neglect. It takes 3-4 months for patients to be seen by a specialist. In discussions, the CAC has identified lack of behavioral health access as the greatest issue that needs to be addressed to improve their care. Objective: This project is in conjunction with the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) program in Santa Clara County, which serves children who have experienced abuse and neglect and offers comprehensive services to their patients including community-based behavioral health therapy. This is a program evaluation of the services, referral processes, availability, and barriers to healthcare access and delivery seen by behavioral health providers Design/Methods: This is an observational study. An IRB determination form was submitted to the Stanford IRB and this project is not considered human subject research. We will use a mix of snowball and voluntary response sampling to reach behavioral health providers in the community. We will perform one-on-one semi-structured interviews with providers. These interviews will be transcribed utilizing Zoom transcription and analyzed using an inductive coding approach, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods. We will perform thematic analysis coding to develop a survey that may be disseminated to a larger group of providers who may be unable to participate in the interview process. Outcome measures include demographic data, barriers to care, and solutions to identified barriers.
