Psychiatric Behavioral Health Consultation Services

About PBHC

The Psychiatric Behavioral Health Consultation (PBHC) Services Program is available to assist any primary care provider (PCP) that sees children or adolescents. As of April 15th, 2021 we will be available to providers in the Southern Iowa Counties of Fremont, Page, Ringgold, and Decatur. PBHC encourages any PCP not yet enrolled to call the PBHC team at 515-349-1947 or enroll online using the form below. PBHC is a billable psychiatric and behavioral consultation and is free to all PCPs.

The goal of PBHC is to make child psychiatry and behavioral health services increasingly accessible to PCPs throughout Iowa. PBHC provides PCPs with timely access to child psychiatry and behavioral health consultation and, when indicated, transitional services into ongoing behavioral health care through in-person, community-based, and telehealth referrals.

Who Can Enroll?

PBHC is available to all children and families, regardless of insurance status, as long as the point of entry is through their PCP. PBHC operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday thru Friday, and is not meant to replace necessary emergency services.

Through PBHC, a team of child psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists, social workers, and care coordinators provide assistance to PCPs in accessing psychiatric services. PBHC will be rolled out by regions of the state in order to facilitate an ongoing relationship between the PBHC team, the PCP, and existing community services.

PBHC Consultation

The PBHC team will work to build relationships with PCPs across each region to provide psychiatric and behavioral health telephone consultation, prescheduled or with a goal of within 30 minutes. The consultation will result in one of the following outcomes, depending upon the needs of the child and family:

• An answer to the PCP’s question;
• Referral to the team care coordinator to assist the family in accessing routine, local behavioral health services, with the understanding that there may be a 4-6 week wait;
• Referral to the team social worker to provide transitional telephonic support to the child and family ( up to 4 visits) while the family waits for routine, local behavioral health services; or
• Referral to a team child psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner for an acute psychopharmacologic or diagnostic consultation.

Enroll

If you are a primary care provider (PCP) who treats children and you would like to enroll with the Psychiatric and Behavioral Health Consultation Program (PBHC), please fill out the information below. Eligible provider groups at this time include physicians/ physician assistants/ nurse practitioners/ behavioral health specialists.

PCP Office Managers are able to register a group of providers. Once the PBHC team receives your enrollment form, a program coordinator or behavioral health specialist from our team will reach out to you and arrange for an orientation at your earliest convenience.